Circular Construction Cluster: Advancing Circularity in Central Europe with INCIEN

In 2025, the Circular Construction Cluster (CCC) by RECONMATIC continued to expand its network of committed partners across Europe and beyond, enabling collaboration and knowledge exchange on sustainable building practices.

This month, we are pleased to welcome INCIEN (Institute of Circular Economy) as a new member of the Circular Construction Cluster, officially joining in May 2025. Representing the organisation in this interview is Benjamin Hague, Head of Research Team at INCIEN. He shares valuable insights into the current landscape of circular construction in Czechia, the organisation’s strategic goals, and how European collaboration can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable built environment.

What is INCIEN's role in Circular Construction (CC)?

INCIEN plays a key role in promoting awareness of and supporting the implementation of circular construction principles in the Czech Republic. As the only think-tank in Czechia focused on the circular economy across multiple sectors, INCIEN supports the transition to circular construction by connecting stakeholders, redefining and co-developing strategies, and providing expert analysis and consultancy services.

In the field of circular construction, INCIEN’s work includes policy advocacy, awareness-raising, and research activities. INCIEN collaborates with municipalities, businesses, and developers to promote circular design, material reuse, and construction waste reduction. It also plays an active role in shaping national and regional strategies and has contributed to some pilot projects focused on circularity in buildings.

As part of the Circular Construction Cluster (CCC), INCIEN can bring the Czech perspective to the table, share best practices, and facilitate knowledge transfer between countries. Through its interdisciplinary expertise and local networks, INCIEN helps translate European-level ambitions into practical and scalable solutions on the local level.

What is the current status of circular construction (CC) in the Czech Republic?

In late 2021, the Czech government approved the Strategic Framework Circular Czechia 2040, outlining a vision and priorities for a circular economy by 2040. To implement this, an Action Plan 2022–2027 was adopted in 2023, which includes specific measures for the building sector. Notably, it calls for pre-demolition audits, greater use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in both public and private projects. It suggests the adoption of the EU Level(s) sustainable building criteria in public procurement.

Other recent policies complement these efforts – for example, a new National Public Procurement Strategy (Dec 2023) aims to support the application of circular principles and other sustainability criteria in public contracts  (through an Action Plan for Sustainable Purchasing), and the updated Waste Management Plan for the period 2025–2035 will support investments in capacities for recycling of construction and demolition waste. A national standard for pre-demolition audits is also being prepared.

In parallel, the Czech Green Building Council is preparing an implementation guideline for circular economy criteria for new buildings, renovations, demolitions, and the use of concrete in the environmental delegated act of the EU Taxonomy, to support their wider use as a framework for financing sustainable construction projects.  Together, these strategies and regulatory measures signal public support for circular construction, aligning Czechia’s goals with EU targets.

On-the-ground adoption of circular construction practices in Czechia is still in its early stages, but momentum is growing. To date, only a handful of projects have implemented (or are planning to implement) circular principles on a larger scale.

For instance, Skanska’s Mercury project in Prague has already completed the selective deconstruction of an office building, successfully clearing the site while prioritising material recovery and reuse, setting a notable example of circularity in practice. The KKCG Real Estate Group is also undertaking a circular retrofit (2025) of the Sazka headquarters building in Prague that maximises the reuse of the existing structure and materials. Over 30  tonnes of fixtures and equipment from the old building were salvaged – donated to hospitals, reuse centres and schools – and hundreds of tonnes of materials (glass, wood, metals) are being reclaimed for recycling or resale to manufacturers.

Innovative materials and technologies are also emerging: a product called “Rebetong” (concrete made with up to 100% recycled demolition aggregate) is being piloted in a Prague residential development, demonstrating how reclaimed concrete rubble can substitute natural sand and gravel.

In addition, construction companies are adopting practices like selective demolition (to cleanly separate materials) and using digital platforms (e.g. the Czech Cyrkl marketplace) to give construction components a second life. These examples are setting important precedents, showing that even large-scale projects can embrace circular economy strategies without compromising quality or economic viability.

Czech academia, often in collaboration with industry and cities, has been active in driving circular construction innovation. The Czech Technical University (ČVUT) (the coordinator of the RECONMATIC project) – particularly its University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings (UCEEB) – leads or partners in numerous R&D projects advancing circularity in building.

For example, academic experts have been developing a national methodology for whole-life carbon (WLC) assessment of buildings, compiling case studies (through the INDICATE project and a subsequent commission from the Ministry of Environment to develop a calculation tool and a database of generic environmental information on construction products).

Czech researchers are also involved in international initiatives to share best practices: the CirCon4Climate project (2022–2025), for instance, connected stakeholders in Czechia, Poland and Slovenia to develop a methodological framework for circular construction as a climate mitigation strategy and integrate circular principles (like using recycled materials) into criteria for public construction projects, drawing on German know-how. Moreover, Czech organisations participate in EU-funded collaborations such as ReBuilt (an Interreg Central Europe project, 2023–2026) to pilot circular renovation and digital tools across Central European countries. Last but not least, the Circular DigiBuild project (Interreg Danube, 2024–2026) brings together actors from the Danube Region to co-develop digital solutions for circular building renovation, focusing on creating a common framework and decision-making tools for stakeholders across 13 countries.

These research and innovation efforts are yielding tangible outputs – from technical guidelines (e.g. draft standards for pre-demolition audits) to new digital platforms – and are building the knowledge base and skills required for mainstreaming circular construction in the near future.

Despite growing interest, significant challenges hinder the wider adoption of circular construction in the Czech Republic. One key barrier is economic: historically, primary raw materials (cement, virgin aggregates, etc.) have been cheaper than recycled or salvaged materials, and landfilling waste has been inexpensive, undercutting the business case for circular practices. This is gradually changing with rising landfill fees and upcoming bans on landfilling recyclable waste by 2030, but financial incentives for recycling and reuse are still limited. Another challenge lies in the lack of technical standards and coordination across the sector.

Only recently have authorities begun drafting unified methods for calculating buildings’ lifecycle carbon and establishing norms for pre-demolition audits, and existing circular economy measures are not always well-linked between ministries. There are also capacity barriers – a shortage of expertise, training and infrastructure to support circular building methods. Public and private stakeholders often lack know-how in circular design, or deconstruction techniques, and the infrastructure for processing and redistributing used building materials is not yet widely spread. Overcoming these obstacles will require concerted efforts: developing skills and education in circular building, creating marketplaces or logistics for secondary materials, and aligning legislation to favor circular outcomes.

What are your goals and aspirations?

INCIEN articulates an ambitious vision to transform the Czech economy by doubling its level of circularity by 2035. This overarching goal is the cornerstone of INCIEN’s internal strategy for 2025, which sets out strategic priorities including a strong focus on decarbonising industry and advancing circularity in the construction sector. INCIEN emphasises the potential of digital innovation while actively engaging stakeholders across business, government, and academia to foster collaboration and systemic change. With an inclusive approach, INCIEN stresses partnership and tangible impact as keys to scaling up circular practices, positioning itself as a catalyst for collaborative, high-impact systems change in pursuit of its 2035 vision.

What are you seeking in collaboration with EU-funded projects like RECONMATIC?

We are primarily seeking strategic alignment, meaningful knowledge exchange, and opportunities to scale impact through research and innovation, both within our current projects and in future collaborations. Specifically, we are interested in:

• Sharing and integrating insights from national-level work on circular construction, especially regarding low-emission materials, digitalization, and policy frameworks.

• Contributing stakeholder perspectives and case studies from our current projects, such as the Circular DigiBuild project as well as the Built by Nature-funded project on timber and bio-based construction.

  
  

We see this kind of collaboration as mutually reinforcing.

What needs are you looking to address by participating in the CC Cluster?

By participating in the Circular Construction Cluster (CCC), we aim to deepen our engagement with European peers to advance systemic change in the built environment. Our key needs include access to cutting-edge knowledge and peer learning. We are also looking to form strategic partnerships for current and future projects, share and refine practical knowledge and policy approaches, and amplify local insights at the European level. We are specifically interested in discussing topics such as digitalisation and circularity in the construction sector. Ultimately, CCC offers a valuable platform to connect research, policy, and practice.

Is there anything else you'd like to mention or promote - perhaps an initiative you're involved in?

INCIEN is actively involved in several initiatives aimed at transforming the construction sector. One of the initiatives is the Built by Nature-funded project promoting mass timber and other low-emission material-based construction, where the main aim is to develop a pilot “Bohemian Deal” (voluntary sectoral agreement) to engage public and private actors in scaling the sustainable building sector. Through the Circular DigiBuild project, INCIEN supports digitalisation in the construction sector by identifying best practices and by supporting three pilots in Austria, Croatia and Bulgaria across the Danube region.

With support from the European Climate Foundation’s Buildings Programme, INCIEN contributes to policy and stakeholder engagement on whole-life carbon, adaptive reuse, circular renovation policies, support for CDW recycling, and EPR approaches for construction materials. INCIEN is also part of the nationally funded Ready-4-Ecodesign project to support companies in applying eco-design principles and digital product passports, including for building materials. INCIEN also plays a key role as a dissemination and communication partner in the CirkArena R&D Centre in the Moravian-Silesian Region, focusing on construction and demolition waste as one of its core themes.

These projects are complemented by INCIEN’s ongoing work on low-emission steel and cement and its contributions to the decarbonization sector on the EU and national level with regards to policy implementation, positioning the organisation as a central actor in the Czech Republic’s circular construction transition.

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The Circular Construction Cluster is coordinated by Future Needs, which leads Dissemination and Exploitation for Business and Education in the RECONMATIC project. We invite other European projects, academic institutions, and initiatives working on circular solutions in the built environment to join the Cluster. To express your interest or learn more, please contact egle@futureneeds.eu.

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