CIRCOFIN

The CIRCOFIN project brings together 4 cities and regions to transition to a circular economy in the construction and buildings sector. Munich, Copenhagen, Scotland and Lisbon will prepare investment-ready circular construction hubs (CCH) and showcase how they transform local and regional markets for secondary building components and materials. CCH cover physical material banks and digital infrastructure to provide the resource basis for the EU Taxonomy requirements for construction. To date, CCH have not successfully scaled-up across Europe. The project will demonstrate that CCHs can become bankable projects at scale and provide lucrative investment opportunities for financiers. The showcases develop sound technical, business, and financial plans of more than 80 M€ total investment volume. CIRCOFIN streamlines a common project development assistance (PDA) methodology for CCH, used and validated by the showcases. The methodology results in a CCH Toolbox, which consists of customizable components for all project development stages, from pre-feasibility to due diligence and bankability appraisal. It covers all elements of CCH – physical design, digital infrastructure, logistics, business models, operation models and financial models. The results will be published as a CCH Cookbook with concrete facts and figures, ready for widespread replication by other cities and regions. Replication and roll-out aim to trigger uptake in 30 other cities and regions from the CCRI, Circular Cities Declaration and the Mission Cities of the 100 Climate-neutral and Smart Cities Mission. Investors and EU financial initiatives will gain expertise in advising CCH projects via robust technical and operational insights and learn how to review associated risks, to make better investment decisions on circular economy projects. Standardization will on CEN and ISO as well as policy recommendations improve regulation to enable business and investment cases for CCH market uptake in Europe.