Analysing key process areas in developing the circular economy maturity model for construction organisations

Abstract

Adopting the circular economy (CE) at the individual project level offers only a short term perspective and neglects strategic, long term CE transformation in construction. Accordingly, organisation level CE adoption was identified as the more suitable approach, as it provides strategic, long term, and consistent results across the construction projects. Consequently, developing a maturity model for construction organisations was identified as a promising approach as it guides organisational processes from the initial to the desired state. Therefore, this study provides a foundation for a CE Maturity Model for Construction Organisations by systematically analysing Key Process Areas (KPAs), addressing a gap in previous studies that focused mainly on conceptual discussions of CE maturity. Initially, CE indicators for construction organisations were identified, providing the basis for identifying KPAs, as explained in the literature review section of this paper. Subsequently, Delphi-based expert interviews were conducted with 20 experts to verify the suitability of the identified KPAs, assess their importance, and justify KPA descriptions. The results identified 19 KPAs relevant to construction organisations, which were categorised into four tiers by importance. Accordingly, the most important KPAs for construction organisations, grouped within the Tier 1 category, were “Circularity in building design”, “Material circularity improvement”, “Waste circularity improvement”, and “Greenhouse gas emissions reduction”. The other 15 KPAs are clustered under Tier 2, 3 and 4. Theoretically, this study helps fill the existing research gap on CE adoption in construction organisations, while, practically, it provides a roadmap for construction professionals to adopt CE by focusing on the KPAs.