The circular economy aims to maintain the value of products, materials and resources in the economy for as long as possible while minimising the generation of waste and material inputs through eco-design, recycling and reusing of products. The circular economy offers significant potential for climate change mitigation, as it helps reducing greenhouse emissions that occur over the life cycle of a product from production to disposal (or cradle to grave).

In this study, Ramboll, Fraunhofer ISI and Ecologic Institute focus on developing a generic methodology to assess the greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction potential of circular economy actions across different life cycle stages for various sectors. This methodology will be tested and implemented for the construction industry and the building sector.  Testing the methodology will allow to report on its applicability and to assess how it could be applied to other sectors.

Ecologic Institute is responsible for quality assurance and for reporting GHG emission reduction potential of Circular Economy actions in the common reporting format (CRF) under UNFCCC.