CINDERELA's initial conference and stakeholder workshop

The objective of the event was to cooperatively create a ‘Blueprint for a resource-efficient secondary raw material based urban and peri-urban construction sector’ from the perspective of academia/research, governments, companies and citizens.

Five guiding principles that represent the basis of this Blueprint were formulated:
1. Enabling legislation;
2. Penetrating circular economy business models;
3. Environmental and social acceptance of circular business models;
4. Rapid transition from laboratory to applicable recycling technologies;
5. Powerful supporting tools (digital business ecosystems, material flow analysis, BIM, etc.)
Through eight Deep-Dive Sessions of the conference, the guiding principles were expanded with information, knowledge and description of specific cases that participants provided. This leads to the following conclusions of the workshop which will be considered during preparation of the Blueprint:

1. Close the gap between governments and companies by clustering management and/or building ecosystems along value chains and build longer commitment among all stakeholders;
2. Identify real legislation stress and create space for pilots and experiments;
3. Provide knowledge and technology transfer within and between sectors and between European countries;
4. Public sector provides financial measures for companies so they can incorporate true pricing of SRM-based construction products and services;
5. Public sector sets high ambition and facilitates the circular front runner companies;
6. Use Green Deals to initiate, find, evaluate and disseminate best green public procurement practices. Make more use of green award criteria and develop protocols and methods;
7. Balance complexity of material flow tools (e.g. adding a time and maintenance dimension) with delivering key messages, concentrate where it matters most;
8. Further develop standardization of LCA within the construction sector, so that comparing alternatives becomes easier;
9. Keep the quality position of construction producing sector high;
10. Aim for unification high quality and accessibility of waste management data across Europe so that a waste information platform can provide universal data and value to worldwide companies and governments;
11. As a government, stimulate the use of digital marketplace and material flow platforms by for instance integrating them into legalisation, policy, contracts or development programs;
12. Reduce the position of recycling monopolies by focusing on niche markets on a local and regional level.

The CINDERELA workshop proved enhanced communication between different stakeholders from different sectors (waste management sector, construction sector, industrial sector, etc.) and policy/decision makers. In the following months the Blueprint will be finalised with new inputs gained at the conference and the stakeholder workshop, and presented to the European Commission.