The future of circular environmental impact indicators for cultural heritage buildings in Europe

Description

Background
The European building and construction sector is extremely resource-intensive. This makes the renovation of existing buildings, including the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage buildings (ARCH), important for reducing the materials and energy intensity of the sector. Currently, Europe is embarking on a Circular Economy (CE) strategy that directly affects the environmental indicators for buildings and landscapes, including ARCH. However, there is a misalignment between macro-level European CE policy goals and micro-level renovation and management of existing buildings and ARCH. The analysis shows that macro (EU) level indicators are too narrowly defined to effectively guide the implementation of CE at the micro project level for ARCH.
Results
This policy study develops a comprehensive ARCH Circular Environmental Impact Indicator Framework to close this gap by: (1) Defining the research question; (2) Identifying the causal network; and (3) Selecting the best indicators. The study compares Circular Environmental Indicators for ARCH projects to current and developing European management schemes. Best practices in environmental impact assessment at the project level are highlighted for the building and construction sector in Europe.
Conclusions
The proposed new framework is a comprehensive and suitable list of explicitly circular environmental indicators for ARCH. The framework has immediate practical applications for practitioners and policymakers interested in the CE regime for buildings in Europe.

Period	10 Jun 2020 → 12 Jun 2020
Event title	Sustainable Consumption and Social Justice in an Urbanizing World
Event type	Unkonwn
Degree of Recognition	International