Application of Circular Economy Principles in Housing/Construction Development

Express your interest in SMAR3TS secondment - Your opportunity at Taltech (Tallinn, Estonia)

This I3X challenge is initiated by Taltech within the SMAR3TS project and requires a secondment with a minimum duration of 30 days (to take place starting from Dec 2025). Fully funded by the European Commission, the four-year SMAR3TS project started in October 2025 and unites 35 partners worldwide to accelerate resilient, restorative and regenerative transitions through research and innovation mobility.

For more info: please see details in the attachments.

Please note: the secondments are open only to SMAR3TS Consortium Partners.

Necessary skills and capabilities across disciplines

- For a problem related to the buildings which contain durable and valuable components with high reuse potential, there is currently no standardized way to identify, recover and reallocate these materials - as a solution – there is a need for a standardized pre-demolition audit methodology to identify materials with reuse potential.

- One of the solutions would a registry/Marketplace in the format of a digital platform, skills are needed to create this tool/environment, accessible for developers.

- Learning about the best practices in other European countries (including the barriers and enablers in this process) will be most valuable to solve the problems related tothe reuse of building materials.

Examples of challenges that need to be addressed

- Market & Adoption-related challenges: Scalability of reuse of construction materials extracted from old buildings is applicable only in the case where newer buildings need similar unified materials and their location is nearby demolition site, otherwise the costs will be higher than using materials based on virgin components.

- Sustainability & Assessment of innovative business models for new technologies in construction-related sectors.

- Regulation & Policy: Construction developers meet challenges when considering materials from demolished or unused buildings, as there is a lack of standardized certificates concerning these materials that could be included in new buildings. The reliability, durability and other aspects are in question. Finding innovative solutions for evaluating each old building separately for each type of reusable material is time and resource consuming (expensive).

- Societal & Cultural: There are communities that are ready to consume (=live) in the buildings where reusable materials are in use, but they still form a minority. The issues of social acceptance need constant attention and context-specific solutions.

I3X at Taltech – About the initiator

1. Background info

TalTech is internationally recognized research-based university; leading provider of engineering and economic education in Estonia.

Website: www.taltech.ee

2. Research Group/Company Department

The Unit deals with the tasks and processes aiming at preparing and supporting the implementation of growth opportunities and innovations in companies, focusing on preparing, planning, implementing and evaluating a continuous stream of potential innovations; investigation of potential growth and innovation opportunities within and between organizations by using interdisciplinary approaches from business, sustainability management (e.g. circular economy) and environmental economics, operations and innovation management, engineering, IT, design and social sciences; in the context of the European agenda for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Link to the website: https://taltech.ee/en/department-business-administration

Contact: Tarmo Tuisk, Project Specialist, tarmo.tuisk@taltech.ee

See attachment: Expertise and available technologies at Taltech within SMAR3TS project and examples of strategically relevant I3X Initiatives.

Alignment to Work-Packages (Nutrition, Mobility, Energy, Housing)

SMAR3TS domains that are relevant to the work of TalTech organization/research and innovation team:

Sustainable Value Chain Management Unit at TalTech Department of Business Administration deals with thetasks and processes aiming at preparing and supporting the implementation of growth opportunities and innovations in companies, focusing on preparing, planning, implementing and evaluating a continuous stream of potential innovations; investigation of potential growth and innovation opportunities within and between organizations by using interdisciplinary approaches from business, sustainability management (e.g. circular economy) and environmental economics, operations and innovation management, engineering, IT, design and social sciences. Within this umbrella, there is ongoing research on circular economy business models that is directly related to construction and adjacent sectors such as wood or metal industry, or reuse of old buildings as building material.

Alignment to Resilience, Restoration, Regeneration (R3)

Through the circular economy framework, Units’ research is aligned with all three R3 elements: resilience, restoration and regeneration.

Circular business models enhance the adaptive capacity of local economies by reducing dependence on global supply chains and by stabilising resource flows. Approaches such as material recirculation or modular construction support more efficient primary use and systematic reuse of locally sourced building materials. This, in turn, strengthens the resilience of local firms and communities by fostering resource security, promoting local value creation, and reducing exposure to external shocks as well as contributing to restoration by lowering the ecological footprint of construction activities, mitigating waste generation, and enabling the reintegration of secondary materials into production processes.

Note:

The expression of interest for the secondment at TalTech must be submitted via the platform. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and you will be contacted as soon as possible. For any questions, please contact: info@smar3ts.eu