Big Buyers Working Together to Launch Community of Practice on Circular Construction

Pursuing the successful closing of the Needs Assessment (NA) Phase of the Project, which culminated with identification of collaboration topics through active bilateral and group exchanges with interested Public Authorities (PAs), the Big Buyers Working Together project is preparing to onboard its members to the Community of Practice (CoP) on Circular Construction! 

Coordinated by Eurocities, the CoP Circular Construction (CC) will be a continuation of the work of the Working Group on Circular Construction  which existed within the previous iteration of the Big Buyers. The previous Working Grous undertook  activities such as joint market dialogue with the construction machinery producers, exchange of experiences on pilot projects, and development of a Joint Statement of Demand to show the market actors that there was a demand and commitment to push for circularity in construction throughout Europe.  

The newly established CoP on Circular Construction will build upon the work from the previous working group, and will bring together PAs from across Europe, including City of Haarlem, City of Lisbon, City of Tromso, City of Tampere, City of Helsinki, University of Cyprus, The Danish Building and Property Agency, and Helsinki Region Environmental Service Authority (HSY), as well as others who may join during the lifetime of the CoP.

The NA has showed that there is an interest among participants to work together on the following topics:

• sustainable construction and renovation of buildings, especially historically protected ones,
• plastics in construction sector,
• reuse of building materials, criteria for circularity in housing,
• certification schemes,
• issue of distances in reusing different material,
• business models for reusing construction materials, etc.

Once onboarded, the CoP will develop its own Community Road Map to define objectives and communicate its objectives and more detailed collaboration activities. Other PAs having interest to join this CoP are encouraged to contact the BBWT Secretariat at all time, as the onboarding of new members is still possible.