In mid 2014, the European Commission published a Communication which focused on resource efficiency opportunities in the building sector (
COM 2014/0445). Initially, this communications was due to focus on “sustainable buildings”. Unfortunately, this was not the case as not only was the title of the final modified, but also the focus of the content which stood squarely in the environmental segment of sustainability. Society and economy appeared, regrettably, to have fallen by the wayside.
The European Commission has recently published an indicative roadmap of its upcoming circular economy strategy, which follows on from the withdrawal of the 2014 waste review proposal earlier this year. As indicated in the roadmap, the Commission plans to present a new, more ambitious legislative proposal on waste by the end of 2015, which explores synergies with other policies (such as product policies and well-functioning markets for raw materials). In addition, the new proposal is likely to be much more country specific and will aim at decreasing residual waste and increasing the use of secondary raw materials.
On 5 March 2015, The Concrete Initiative had the opportunity of participating in a panel debate on the hot topic of the Circular Economy. As readers are aware, a Circular Economy package was launched in the summer of 2014. However, with a new Commission comes a new perspective, resulting in the scrapping of the existing package infavour of a new, much broader initiative due by the end of this year.