Driving a circular economy | Green Building Council of Australia

The built environment has a substantive opportunity to contribute to the development of Australia's circular economy

Circular economy is undoubtably one of the solutions available to address the issues facing our industry in our journey to decarbonisation and waste reduction. However, there are many challenges, from understanding what it means to truly be circular, to setting targets in industry, to advocating for structural barriers to change.

We believe the time is right to deal with these challenges, which is why we are embarking on a program of works over the coming years to define the way forward and to then set a pathway for industry to create a healthy, resilient, positive, and circular built environment.

What is a circular economy?

“An industrial system that is restorative or regenerative by intention and design. It replaces the end-of-life concept with restoration, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals, which impair reuse and return to the biosphere, and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems, and business models.” – World Economic Forum

It replaces the end-of-life concept with restoration, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals, which impair, reuse and return to the biosphere, and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems and business models.

Our vision:

A healthy, resilient, positive and circular built environment.

Create a long-term roadmap to assist industry to navigate the circular economy dimension.
Drive supply chain transformation to an approach that is more circular and less carbon intensive through Green Star.
Develop online systems to help product manufacturers promote their solutions to industry.
Expand industry’s knowledge on circular economy and embodied carbon.
Advocate for a transformative circular economy.

Circular economy in South Australia's built environment

The action plan, the first of its kind for an Australian state or territory, outlines the many opportunities to drive circular economy principles:

design out waste and pollution
keep products and materials in use (there is no waste– all materials are resources that can be re-used)
regenerate natural systems.

Read the paper here

'A circular economy discussion paper' aims to set the direction for industry on this critical megatrend.

How do we aim to deliver a circular economy roadmap for the built environment?

The age of the circular economy is coming, and the built environment has a substantive opportunity to contribute to its development in Australia.

Download our discussion paper Download our summary paper

Listen to our podcast episode!

Circular economy partners

We thank our partners for their leadership and support of our activities and are always looking for organizations seeking to demonstrate their leadership in this space.

For more information on becoming a Circular economy partner please contact us.