Abstract:

Nowadays, society demands new and more sustainable production models, seeking the long-term sustainability of the Earth and taking into account both, the scarcity of resources, and the reduction of waste generation. The construction sector is one of the largest waste generators (Esa, Halog and Rigamonti, 2017). The Circular economy (CE) could help this sector to diminish their environmental impact. One of the issues in order to develop the CE is the need for measuring the degree to which circular economy is implemented in construction projects. However, for the moment, there is no scale of measurement that can resolve this issue.

For this reason, this article has developed a scale of measurement of the degree of circularity for the construction sector. First, it was designed a scale-based literature review on the topic, and after that, the Monte Carlo simulation method was proposed to predict values. The scale is based on an analysis in five phases of construction projects: design, production of building materials, construction processes, maintenance and liquidation. Then, three levels of consideration are proposed in the model: organization, process, and workgroup. Results show that the scale can be useful for measuring the circularity thinking in the construction sector what, in turn enables to create more effective strategies by construction companies.