Policy and practice: understanding the built environment's transition to a circular economy in the UK and Canada

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EPSRC : Charles Gillott : EP/R513313/1In an attempt to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C, the UK is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. The built environment is currently responsible for over 40% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, and is its largest contributor of waste. An increasing proportion of built emissions come from embodied carbon, referring to emissions from the extraction and manufacture of materials; construction, maintenance and demolition of buildings; and the processing and disposal of waste. A circular economy (CE) attempts to reduce resource consumption and waste generation - and thus embodied carbon - by retaining materials at their highest level of usefulness for as long as possible. Increasingly, policy promoting a CE is being seen across the globe, with strategies to achieving this including the retention of existing buildings, reuse of components, and recycling of materials.This project will identify policies that are promotive of CE in the Canadian and UK built environments, including those that apply at the national (e.g. building regulations in the UK and national construction codes in Canada) and sub-national level (e.g. local authority or provincial planning requirements). How policies promote different CE strategies will be assessed, allowing the homogeneity and characteristics of the policy landscape to be compared within and across the two countries. Building upon this, the success of different policy instruments in influencing construction practice will be considered. This will result in cross contextual learnings, and the formation of recommendations to increase adoption of a CE in the Canadian and UK built environments.