TY - JOUR
T1 - Circular economy
T2 - Challenges and opportunities in the construction sector of Kazakhstan
AU - Torgautov, Beibut
AU - Zhanabayev, Asset
AU - Tleuken, Aidana
AU - Turkyilmaz, Ali
AU - Mustafa, Mohammad
AU - Karaca, Ferhat
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: The authors acknowledge the financial support from Nazarbayev University Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant Program (Funder Project Reference: 280720FD1904). This work is also supported by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (Diku) under Project ref. CPEA-ST-2019/10029: Academic Cooperation in Post-graduate Engineering Education (ACE) between UiT the Arctic University of Norway and Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - The circular economy in the construction sector in emerging economies is one of the most promising concepts that aims to keep the value of the construction materials and structures as long as possible. The construction industry is rapidly developing in Kazakhstan with a yearly increase in projects. This research paper investigates the construction sector in Kazakhstan in terms of the potential application of circular economy principles by local stakeholders—clients, contractors, designers, and manufacturers. As limited research has been conducted on the circularity within the construction environment, including construction parties, this paper aims to fill this research gap. It seeks to identify the construction trends and perform a barrier and opportunity analysis to develop circular economy principles in the construction sector. As a research method, PEST is used for the study of local construction trends. At the same time, stakeholders are interviewed using semi-structured surveys organized according to the ReSOLVE framework (regenerate, share, optimize, loop, virtualize, and exchange) to identify the barriers and opportunities for circular economy in the construction sector. As an outcome of this study, the most common barriers and opportunities were associated with the economic benefit factor, as this was the main motivation for the stakeholders to save construction materials for reuse or to refuse more eco-friendly technologies. Additionally, policy recommendations for companies involved in the construction ecosystem were provided according to the assessment of found barriers and opportunities in the context of the ReSOLVE framework. This analysis has shown that for most stakeholders of the Kazakhstani construction sector, virtualization is of the highest priority; therefore, opportunities for its development are recommended. Future research could focus on the development of economically feasible solutions for the circular economy in construction with the inclusion of virtualization technologies.
AB - The circular economy in the construction sector in emerging economies is one of the most promising concepts that aims to keep the value of the construction materials and structures as long as possible. The construction industry is rapidly developing in Kazakhstan with a yearly increase in projects. This research paper investigates the construction sector in Kazakhstan in terms of the potential application of circular economy principles by local stakeholders—clients, contractors, designers, and manufacturers. As limited research has been conducted on the circularity within the construction environment, including construction parties, this paper aims to fill this research gap. It seeks to identify the construction trends and perform a barrier and opportunity analysis to develop circular economy principles in the construction sector. As a research method, PEST is used for the study of local construction trends. At the same time, stakeholders are interviewed using semi-structured surveys organized according to the ReSOLVE framework (regenerate, share, optimize, loop, virtualize, and exchange) to identify the barriers and opportunities for circular economy in the construction sector. As an outcome of this study, the most common barriers and opportunities were associated with the economic benefit factor, as this was the main motivation for the stakeholders to save construction materials for reuse or to refuse more eco-friendly technologies. Additionally, policy recommendations for companies involved in the construction ecosystem were provided according to the assessment of found barriers and opportunities in the context of the ReSOLVE framework. This analysis has shown that for most stakeholders of the Kazakhstani construction sector, virtualization is of the highest priority; therefore, opportunities for its development are recommended. Future research could focus on the development of economically feasible solutions for the circular economy in construction with the inclusion of virtualization technologies.
KW - BIM
KW - Construction and demolition waste
KW - Design for disassembly
KW - Green building
KW - PEST
KW - Project delivery
KW - ReSOLVE
KW - Stakeholders’ interview
KW - Sustainable construction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119004112&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85119004112&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/buildings11110501
DO - 10.3390/buildings11110501
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85119004112
SN - 2075-5309
VL - 11
JO - Buildings
JF - Buildings
IS - 11
M1 - 501
ER -