Despite a rapidly increasing body of research dealing with barriers and opportunities of the circular economy transition in various industries, there is still limited detailed insights to many of the critical transition aspects in current literature.
Previous scientific work dealing with reuse of building materials in a Norwegian context is scarce. Furthermore, current knowledge on Norwegian conditions is primarily industry reports written for practitioners based upon anecdotal experiences.
Even if there exists distinctive regulations, practices and documentation methods for (new) building products, similar assessment systems for reused construction products do not exist, neither in the regulations nor as voluntary systems. Most of existing policies and regulations are either complex, lack integration or fragmented over the different policy levels.
In addition, due to specific national conditions, results of international studies have a need for contextualising to be relevant for the Norwegian building industry. There is thus a need to develop an improved and research-based understanding of aspects particularly relevant for Norway.
The main objective of REBUS is to develop knowledge that will enable wider and more efficient implementation of reusable building materials for a transition to a circular built environment.
About the project:
REBUS is a research project financed by the research Council of Norway through MILJØFORSK programme. The project started in January 2020 and will continue until December 2023.
The project is interdisciplinary collaboration between architects, engineers and environmental psychologists from SINTEF AS and Inland Norway University of Applied Science together with Boligbygg Oslo KF, FutureBuilt, and Resirqel AS.
International research collaboration and comparisons of the reuse market in other Scandinavian countries is secured through cooperation with the Danish Building Research Institute at Aalborg University in Copenhagen (SBi) and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.