Production of materials for new buildings contributes to 10 % of the global CO2 emission. Therefore, using virgin materials for construction is no longer sustainable. In order to reduce CO2 emissions, we must make use of redundant building materials in new constructions. The project idea focuses on finding ways for increasing the demand for recycled materials in public procurement. The main goal is to shift our take-make-waste patterns and replace them with reuse and recycling, thus changing the business model in the construction industry.
The project is led by the Danish municipality of Holbæk together with the municipalities of Kalmar and Rumia, in Sweden and Poland respectively. The project showed that no municipality alone can solve the challenges. All four parties are engaged in the reduction of the CO2-emission within the building sector. Cross-border cooperation at the different stages of development, implementation and dissemination takes the form of a comparative study of Danish and Swedish experiences in this field. All partners work together, utilizing both existing, identified practices as well as new ideas rising from the cross-border cooperation in order to prepare a coherent, common set of good practices for the reduction of CO2 emissions from construction by reusing the materials.
