Policy Opportunities to Increase Material Circularity in the Buildings Industry

This policy brief by RMI provides recommendations for municipalities to increase material circularity in the buildings sector to reduce embodied greenhouse gas emissions. It focuses on two primary objectives: incentivizing the direct reuse of building structures and materials, and increasing the diversion of construction and demolition (C&D) waste from landfills to be used as recycled content in new manufacturing.

• Standard whole building life-cycle assessment (WBLCA) methodologies may underestimate the value of material recovery. While end-of-life carbon emissions typically account for less than 2% of total impacts across life-cycle stages A to C, the carbon benefits from material recovery (stage D) can be equivalent to 25% of those total impacts.
• In 2015, the US buildings industry generated 94 million tons of construction and demolition (C&D) debris. Of this, 44% was landfilled and 39% was crushed concrete waste used as recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). Only 8% (14 million tons) of the total debris was recycled into manufactured products.
• To incentivize the direct reuse of building structures, municipalities can implement planning permit incentives for adaptive reuse projects. These incentives, such as fee reductions, density bonuses, or parking requirement adjustments, could be tiered based on demonstrated avoided carbon emissions using either LEED building reuse credit language (maintaining 75% of structure and envelope) or WBLCA (demonstrating emissions reductions over 50% compared to a new baseline).
• Municipalities can establish prescriptive design standards in green building codes to ensure new constructions—specifically large commercial buildings over 100,000 square feet and parking structures—are adaptable for future use. Recommended strategies include using clear spans, flat floors, non-load-bearing interior partitions, and design for disassembly (e.g., using screws instead of glues).
• To improve waste diversion, jurisdictions can enhance C&D waste management ordinances by providing incentives for the source separation of high-impact materials like metals, concrete, wood, and gypsum board. San Francisco is cited as an example where companies hauling source-separated materials are exempt from registration and permitting requirements applied to mixed C&D debris haulers.
• Deconstruction ordinances can be used to protect high-quality materials in historic buildings by requiring deconstruction over demolition. Portland, Oregon, implemented the first such ordinance in the US, applying it to primary dwelling structures built in 1940 or earlier or designated historic resources, requiring the use of certified deconstruction contractors.
• Material passports are proposed as a tool to document the composition, assembly, and embodied carbon of materials in new public buildings to facilitate future recovery. RMI suggests requiring WBLCA for new construction and interior work exceeding 10,000 square feet to support these passports, targeting materials such as carpet, gypsum board, and extruded aluminum.

APA

RMI (2022). Policy Opportunities to Increase Material Circularity in the Buildings Industry. https://rmi.org/resources/opportunities-to-increase-material-circularity-in-the-buildings-industry/

Chicago

RMI. Policy Opportunities to Increase Material Circularity in the Buildings Industry. 2022. https://rmi.org/resources/opportunities-to-increase-material-circularity-in-the-buildings-industry/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Policy Opportunities to Increase Material Circularity in the Buildings Industry |date=4 August 2022 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/opportunities-to-increase-material-circularity-in-the-buildings-industry/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2022policy, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Policy Opportunities to Increase Material Circularity in the Buildings Industry}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2022}, month = aug, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/opportunities-to-increase-material-circularity-in-the-buildings-industry/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }