Scalable Circular Supply Chain For the Built Environment
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: Cardiff Business School
Abstract
This project will demonstrate how one of the largest industries in the UK can utilise a digital platform to harness the benefits of a sustainable circular supply chain, so as to reduce waste, increase safety, and promote greater fiscal responsibility. The Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) sector plays a crucial role in the UK economy by employing over 2 million people to deliver civil engineering projects that underpin our economic growth. One of the biggest contributors to GDP, the ACE sector represents commercial activity spanning individual contractors through to multi-national corporations collaborating through complex asset distribution networks that account for over £10 billion of trade.
This network of activity consumes millions of tonnes of materials and produces more waste than all other industries combined, partly due to an inability to maintain an industry wide knowledge of material usage. Reclamation accounts for a fraction of industry activity due to intensive manual costs and is only economically viable for high cost, often historically valuable, materials. A key challenge therefore is a need to not only reclaim, but to track all material/asset usage throughout their lifecycles. Our approach is to build a digital platform and assess the associated business models within which the built environment can provide the tracing of materials without evasive building inspections for recall and resume activity.
The main outcomes of the research will be:
1. A digital (software) platform that harnesses the potential of multi-layered blockchains, to balance local autonomy of transaction recording/management, whilst maintaining a consistent provenance trail of recorded activity within each stage of the AEC lifecycle.
2. The concept and implementation of a 'material & service passport' to show the circularity potential of materials/ components/ assets/ services and enable stakeholders (e.g. designers, main contractors, manufacturers and clients) to assess the likelihood for circularity.
3. A road map based on the co-developed (with industry) digital platform and circular supply chain models, to incentivise collective supply chain behaviours towards circular economy and environmental sustainability.
This network of activity consumes millions of tonnes of materials and produces more waste than all other industries combined, partly due to an inability to maintain an industry wide knowledge of material usage. Reclamation accounts for a fraction of industry activity due to intensive manual costs and is only economically viable for high cost, often historically valuable, materials. A key challenge therefore is a need to not only reclaim, but to track all material/asset usage throughout their lifecycles. Our approach is to build a digital platform and assess the associated business models within which the built environment can provide the tracing of materials without evasive building inspections for recall and resume activity.
The main outcomes of the research will be:
1. A digital (software) platform that harnesses the potential of multi-layered blockchains, to balance local autonomy of transaction recording/management, whilst maintaining a consistent provenance trail of recorded activity within each stage of the AEC lifecycle.
2. The concept and implementation of a 'material & service passport' to show the circularity potential of materials/ components/ assets/ services and enable stakeholders (e.g. designers, main contractors, manufacturers and clients) to assess the likelihood for circularity.
3. A road map based on the co-developed (with industry) digital platform and circular supply chain models, to incentivise collective supply chain behaviours towards circular economy and environmental sustainability.
Organisations
- CARDIFF UNIVERSITY (Lead Research Organisation)
- High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd (Collaboration)
- Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (Collaboration)
- Sero Technologies Limited (Collaboration)
- UK GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL (Collaboration)
- DXC TECHNOLOGY (Collaboration)
- WSP Group plc (Collaboration)
- Celsa (Collaboration)
- Arup Group (Collaboration)
- Sero Group (Project Partner)
- Celsa Steel UK (Project Partner)
- DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT (Project Partner)
- DXC Technology (United States) (Project Partner)
- Galia Digital Limited (Project Partner)
- Resilience Partners Ltd (Project Partner)
- Arup Group (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Al Mughairi M
(2023)
Post-occupancy evaluation for enhancing building performance and automation deployment
in Journal of Building Engineering
Alshammari K
(2023)
Built Environment Cybersecurity: Development and Validation of a Semantically Defined Access Management Framework on a University Case Study
in Applied Sciences
Amjad S
(2023)
Orchestration and Management of Adaptive IoT-Centric Distributed Applications
in IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Asante R
(2022)
Roles and actions of managers in circular supply chain implementation: A resource orchestration perspective
in Sustainable Production and Consumption
Beach T
(2024)
Digital approaches to construction compliance checking: Validating the suitability of an ecosystem approach to compliance checking
in Advanced Engineering Informatics
Celik Y
(2023)
Blockchain for energy efficiency training in the construction industry
in Education and Information Technologies
Golec M
(2023)
BlockFaaS: Blockchain-enabled Serverless Computing Framework for AI-driven IoT Healthcare Applications
in Journal of Grid Computing
| Description | We are developing an information architecture with a blockchain-enabled backbone to capture data about a material throughout its entire lifecycle. This system centers around the concept of digital material passports (DMPs), also known as digital product passports (DPPs). Our blockchain architecture has been successfully tested in a recycled wood use case scenario for construction, demonstrating its effectiveness. We are now developing an online secondary materials marketplace to integrate with the DMP system. Our supply chain and engineering teams are investigating how DMPs can be used as a catalyst for circular practices within the supply chain. We have conducted six case studies of previous DMP initiatives, gaining valuable insights. A business canvas model was developed to illustrate the value proposition for all stakeholders involved. Additionally, we are creating a generic framework outlining the core components for DMP adoption in construction supply chains. |
| Exploitation Route | Expanding the use case scenarios to encompass a wider range of materials could improve the technical architecture's generalizability within the construction sector. Additionally, exploring applications in other industries such as EV batteries, fashion texitle etc. would hold promise too. We delve into DMPs' potential to catalyze circular practices within supply chains through lifecycle assessment. Future investigations could center on how DMPs incentivize such practices, potentially through cost-benefit analyses. The development of a generic framework for DMP adoption in construction offers a valuable foundation. Piloting this framework in real-world projects can refine its effectiveness, while user studies can illuminate stakeholder needs and concerns. This combined knowledge can inform the development of a robust roadmap for DMP's further diffusion in supply chains. Our work attempts to integrate DMP with online marketplace and future work could expand to explore what logistics infrastructures should be established to support the online provisions, e.g. logistics hubs and new intermediaries. |
| Sectors | Construction Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Description | Several industry partners, including Waterman, Allies and Morrison, and Maconda Solutions, have expressed interest in collaborating and testing our digital architecture. The findings will inform the UK Green Building Council's (UKGBC) Circular Economy and Net Zero roadmap working group, where the project lead (PI) is a core member. This collaboration could very likely lead to a co-developed policy paper with UKGBC. Additionally, the Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise (FIBREE), a non-profit global organization in the built environment, has comitted to incorporate the findings and disseminate them among its members.Furthermore, our team has been invited to join a consortium of London local councils working to establish an online secondary materials marketplace that integrates DMPs. We believe this collaboration has significant potential to impact industry practices too. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | Executive Education for BECT |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Professional development and training for a construction company, moving mindsets towards more circular approach and upskilling on digital competency. |
| Description | Public Value Engagement Fellowship |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Cardiff University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2023 |
| End | 07/2024 |
| Description | Industrial partner - Arup |
| Organisation | Arup Group |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Since 2016 Arup has been working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation looking to unlocking the enablers for Circular Economy (CE) - Working Smarter provides a competitive edge and a platform for the way the company works.Our research will contribute to the understanding and provide insights to the company regarding future business development opportunities in growth areas such as circular economy and resource recovery from wastes. The company recognises that circular economy technologies and policies for construction and wastes are under-developed and therefore strongly welcome research in this area. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Arup has provided us an opportunity to engage with Network Rail to pilot the material passport however due to reasons unforseen, Network Rail project has not gone ahead as planned. Arup will provide to the project a use case and will work closely with the project team to co-create, test, and validate the scalable circular supply chain model. |
| Impact | Still work in progress but we are working to engage with the company to validate and verify some of the research findings, particularly on the information architecture and ontology developed for the concept of material passport. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Industrial partner - Celsa Group |
| Organisation | Celsa |
| Country | Poland |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We collaborate with Celsa UK to tackle some of the most pertinent challenges in circular economy in the steel industry. The outcomes of the project will support Celsa's development of its concept of zero carbon circular steel services. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration is still ongoing. Celsa engages with this project and contributes resources through in-kind contributions in the form of: ? Provision of a use case with facilitated collaboration of supply chain partners ? Membership of the Advisory Board ? Provision of Celsa expertise in co-creation, test and validation of a circular supply model. |
| Impact | Still working in progress but we are validating the material passport enabled business model with Telsa via engaged discussions and focus groups |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Industrial partner - DXC Technology |
| Organisation | DXC Technology |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | To provide insights to the company about the use of digital twin technology for conducting what if analysis in the ciruclar supply chain as well as the use of parallel blockchain solutions in managing end-to-end lifecycle activity of materials in the ciruclar supply chain. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Serves as an advisory board member, advise technical developments, review and evaluating emerging reseearch outputs as well provide access to the testbed where Parallel blockchain fabric can be benchmarked. |
| Impact | Working in progress |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Industrial partner - HS2 |
| Organisation | High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Our research will provide insights on interested on how to use technology enabled circular supply chain practices to minimise the environmental impact of our construction, as well as understand how the system can add value during operational phases for ongoing environmental management, and operational activities. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Within HS2, there have several initiatives in carbon reduction and climate change. HS2 will provide specific user cases to the consortium and will work closely with the project team to co-create, test, and validate the scalable circular supply chain model. |
| Impact | still early stage, due to the personnel change within Innovation team at HS2 |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Industrial partner - Sero Homes |
| Organisation | Sero Technologies Limited |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Our research will help the organisation to utilise the opportunities to make use of the Blockchain based tools being developed in this to integrate with their "Pathways to Zero" digital tools. The outcome of this work will enable the company to work closely with its retrofit network to create a digital marketplace for supporting material reuse, an idea that they are also currently discussing with Welsh Government. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The company will serve as a member of the Advisory Board and contribute a use case for integration with our Pathways to Zero digital tool (5% FTE and engagement with our customer/partners network). |
| Impact | still work in progress |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | New collaboration - EU project (Digital Deconstruction) |
| Organisation | Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology |
| Country | Luxembourg |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Digital Deconstruction (DDC) is an innovated Interreg North West Europe project in which smart services are developed to make circular construction possible and the environment green. The project aims to develop an innovative digital decision support system, integrating various digital tools (3D scanning, Building Information Modelling, a digital materials & buildings database, blockchain technology) that helps to define the most sustainable and economical deconstruction and reuse strategy for building. Therefore it has a lot of synergies with our project. We exchange our insights with our European counter parts, and have presented our findings from a supply chain perspective at one of their workshops in December 2022. |
| Collaborator Contribution | DDC project is much larger in scale and in scope than our project, and started in 2019 and will finish 2023. Therefore some of their research findings already published and provide great insights to us, especially on the blockchain platform they have built and the pilot deconstruction projects. Therefore provides great spring board for us to develop our research further, ensuring our efforts on the right path. |
| Impact | work in progress |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | New collaboration - WSP |
| Organisation | WSP Group plc |
| Department | WSP UK Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We collaborate multiple ways with WSP, via our research case study and multiple live MSc projects with dedicated topics proposed by WSP. |
| Collaborator Contribution | WSP has become a great partner who supports our research with a NHS modular buildings use case. This serves as a key usecase for our project and provides great insights for both the tech and business research team to have a deep dive into the challenges, barriers and opportunities around circular supply chains, and allow us to build a detailed current state material flow and information flow map via a longtitudinal study. |
| Impact | EUROMA conference paper 2023 : Constructing digitally enabled circular supply chains for materials in the built environment |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | UK Green Building Council |
| Organisation | UK Green Building Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Via the forum, our project brings in multiple disciplinary knowledge about insights we generated via our research on how to establish circular supply chain in the built environment and how to drive circular behaviours, as well as how the use of blockchain technology in combination with other digital tools could accelerate the UK's pathway to circularity and NetZero. |
| Collaborator Contribution | UK GBC has invited PI Prof. Yingli Wang to become a member of its cirucular economy forum working group. Via the forum, UK GBC provides the project the access to a number of issues that working group are tackling at industry level, from policy and planning, reuse and deconstruction, waste recovery as well as material passports. It is via this forum, a potential pilot usecase on material passport is now being investigated in collaboration with Allies and Morrison (which is also an active member). |
| Impact | Still early stage but the potential outcome could be a case study or a pilot usecase co-developed with one or more working group members. This forum could also be utilised as a good channel to disseminate our research findings at the later stage. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Blockchain Immersive Workshop - in collaboration with UPF Barcelona |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 30 people from public, 3rd and private sectors attended this workshop to have a 'deep dive' into blockchain technology on Thursday July 7th 2022. We collaborated with Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, to provide one-day immersive course on blockchain to equip participants with the essential knowledge needed to evaluate whether blockchain can be of benefit to their business. This course allows participants to see blockchain in action through presentations and a live demonstration. They also had opportunities to work as a team and have a deep dive in designing one of the two use cases prepared: green token and digital material passport. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Design Engineering in the Age of Industry 5.0 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The International Systems Realization Partnership (ISRP) organised a three-day international symposium on Design Engineering in the Age of Industry 5.0, with a focus on exploring opportunities in research, sustainability, and resilient cyber-physical social systems. Our paper titled "Combining Material Circularity Indicators and Blockchain-Enabled Life Cycle Assessment" was presented at this event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/events/events-2023/design-engineering-in-the-age-of-industry#Overview |
| Description | Digital Deconstruction workshop Dec 2022 (Luxembourg) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | About 100 people attended this hybrid workshop organised by European Digital Deconstruction project where we were invited (Prof. Yingli Wang and Prof. Yacine Rezgui) to do a presentation about the WIP findings from our project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | EPSRC - Circular Economy & ICT Community Engagement Workshop (28 February 2023) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | EPSRC holded this workshop to bring together the information and communication technologies (ICT) and circular economy research communities, fostering relationships to: encourage greater consideration of circularity and resource efficiency in ICT research and research outcomes increase awareness and further develop understanding of the role of ICT research in achieving a circular economy identify community highlights and future priorities to feed into related EPSRC and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) strategy development and understand the barriers to delivering high impact, interdisciplinary research in this area |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | EPSRC Engineering Net Zero event - June 20 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This interactive workshop showcased the latest developments from the Scalable Circular Supply Chain project and co-create a transformative pathway with participants towards circularity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | European Environment Agency online workshop 'Imagining sustainable futures for Europe's mobility system |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This online event was organised and facilitated by the European Environment Agency (EAA) in collaboration with the European Topic Centre for Sustainability Transitions Prof. Yingli Wang was invited to bring in her expertise and help EAA in co-developing plausible, realistic and vivid pictures of a future sustainable mobility system. The aim of the exercise is to do some creative, out-of-the box thinking. This workshop is part of the EAA's 'Scenarios for a sustainable Europe in 2050' project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | FutureBuild2024 - Circular Economy : The role of material passports in delivering circularity in the built environment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof. Yingli Wang serves as a pannelist, along with three other industrial experts, to the UK Green Building Council organised panel session, discussing the role of material passport. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://app.gleanin.com/share/c/17651/s/272784 |
| Description | HM Government Emerging Technologies Conference (7 Nov 2022) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Prof. Yingli Wang was invited as an academic experts to this conference. The main aim was to help over 50 senior officials, mostly permanent secretaries and director generals, understand more about the latest emerging tech and its applications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Industrial workshop - Construction Key Stakeholders |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 15 senior managers (most are our industrial collaborators) from the construction sector attended this workshop. The major outcomes inlcude 1.Develop foundations for a clearer vision for what a Circular Supply Chain (CSC) entails, and the supporting transformations for individual companies and processes. 2. Collectively, and with input across disciplinary perspectives, explore the feasibility of a blockchain enabled material passport approach. 3. Network, and identify opportunities for future work |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Manufacturing and the Circular Economy Community workshop (Jan 31 2023) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over 50 people attended this EPSRC organsied 1-day community and stakeholder workshop. It helps to inform EPSRC understanding of the priorities and opportunities for research and innovation, in driving a sustainable, resilient, thriving, and productive UK manufacturing sector and a truly circular economy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Net Zero Neighbourhoods in South Wales |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Supported by the funding from my Public Value Engagement Fellowship, I organised a workshop that convened a diverse group of stakeholders. The goal was to explore and debate the research findings regarding the feasibility and implementation strategies for establishing net-zero neighbourhoods in South Wales. This workshop emphasised the adoption of sustainable building and retrofitting practices, alongside the use of sustainable materials, all in line with the principles of the circular economy and the current and future potential of the local region. To advance this project, we have established a small, high-level stakeholder group for further collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | UKGBC Learning and Development Focus Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | My role as a Board Member of the UK Green Building Council (GBC) Learning and Development Focus Group for the 2023-2025 tenure allows me to directly influence the integration of academic knowledge with industry needs. This position is crucial for identifying emerging skills and knowledge gaps within the built environment sector, guiding UKGBC to stay ahead of innovation and best practices. The UKGBC Learning and Development Focus Group will: - Provide insight into the learning needs of members, highlighting skills and knowledge gaps. - Assist UKGBC in staying ahead on innovation and evolving best practice in their business area or profession, both in the built environment sector, and in learning design and delivery methods. - Offer feedback on learning formats and opportunities for membership engagement . - Recommend case studies, stories and exciting solutions to support the UKGBC learning resources. - Highlight speakers/presenters/facilitators for programmes across the learning spectrum. - Share external learning resources and programmes linked to UKGBCs mission. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| URL | https://ukgbc.org/get-involved/ukgbc-learning-and-development-focus-group/ |
| Description | UKGBC Resilience Roadmap for the Built Environment Task group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Task Group will work towards the following key objectives: 1. Review existing industry and government outputs and identify gaps in existing information, along with current and planned relevant research. 2. Identify key indicators and metrics for measuring climate resilience in the built environment. 3. Identify key questions to pose to the industry for testing and refining metrics, targets, and definitions (through an industry consultation exercise). 4. Identify the outstanding obstacles for progressing climate adaptation in the built environment. 5. Identify key actions needed for a range of built environment stakeholders to improve climate resilience. 6. Identify key policies needed for both national and local governments to improve climate resilience. 7. Review all final content outputs |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |