Worldwide the construction industry produced 11% of the total CO2 emissions in 2017. This percentage only represents the emissions associated with building materials and construction. In the Netherlands, the contribution of the building sector to the total emission of CO2 is 35%. These numbers highlight the building industry’s large impact on the environment. To reduce this impact, the building industry should become circular; this will result in less CO2 emissions, less waste, and less primary material use. As a first step, a financial incentive can encourage this transition. To this end, TNO developed a residual value calculator. Residual value is the real value of a product at the end of its lifetime and it can be the financial incentive stakeholders need to take responsibility for their products. The residual value calculator works efficiently on a small scale, but on a large scale, it does not. The stakeholders and TNO feel the need for a method that can estimate the residual value of products on a large scale, and give insight into the relationship between characteristics of products and residual value. This project aims to develop a method that can quickly estimate residual value in a way that can be applied on a large scale, and that also gives insight into the product characteristics that influence residual value. The method that will be developed will first be based on case studies performed by TNO with the residual value calculator, before being extended to other products in the construction industry. The main goal is that this method can be used to change strategies and policies to stimulate the transition to a circular economy. The hope is that this tool will be used by designers and architects to build the cities of the future. A future that has nature at its heart, instead of humanity dominating the natural.
