DRASTIC will pave the way for significant whole life-cycle GHG emission reduction in new construction and (deep-energy) retrofit by demonstrating affordable innovative circular solutions in 5 different geographical zones, covering different building layers (accounting for 90% of GHG emissions), raw materials (accounting for 72% GHG emissions), buildings typologies (accounting for 80% of all buildings), circular strategies (reaching up to 60% of GHG emission reduction), and local drivers. The demonstrators untap on EU scale the potential of 491 MTCO2-eq savings annually and a financial divergence potential of 33.4 B€ annually, within defined market conditions and based on circular business models. To reach this ambitious goal, 23 partners from 8 European countries collaborate, covering the entire value chain and supported by a co-creation strategy with relevant stakeholders. To assess and validate the solutions, an innovative multi-cyclic performance assessment framework will be developed and applied, integrating multi-cycle LCA, multi-cycle LCC, circularity and sufficiency for construction and building related products and components. Novel data-driven tools covering quality evaluation, thermal efficiency, automatic identification of assets and their reusability condition, multi-cycle traceability, and social acceptance will be enhanced, demonstrated and combined in a toolbox integrated in a common digital platform, going beyond a digital building logbook. High impact dissemination and communication of results/key deliverables will be led by the World Green Building Council and maximized by its global network. The DRASTIC project will contribute to the objectives of the EU by demonstrating the feasibility of promising and affordable new technologies, processes and products combined with new business models for faster market uptake, leading towards more sustainable buildings with reduced life-cycle carbon, high life-cycle performance and reduced life-cycle costs.

This project proposes a breakthrough resource model for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) fostering a steep change in the way we design and fabricate our built environment, overcoming the fundamental limits that the natural variability sets within bio-based material streams for the green transformation of the industry. With a central focus on the alternative materials of waste-sourced and fast-growing materials, RAW assembles world-leading researchers and entrepreneurs in material sourcing (UIBK, LTU, OMTRE), non-destructive material characterisation (LTU, DTU), non-prescriptive computational design, and adaptive fabrication (KADK, USTUT) in a unique consortium to establish the foundation of a novel resource model for AEC linking design, analysis and fabrication through an innovative computational infrastructure and embracing the variability of resources, with the ambition to minimise waste, enable circularity, increase carbon storage in building, allow uptake of currently disregarded bio-based materials in AEC and pave the way for new aesthetic expressions and tectonics in architecture.

The transformation of the European Process Industry needs to embrace circular economy and restorative feedback loops, as a key pillar of the design of entire value chains. Construction, as a waste-intensive sector, is expected to greatly benefit from the potential impacts of circular economy models, to optimize the use of resources, reduce exploitation of raw materials and costs associated with its supply. In the construction and manufacturing process industries, a key challenge to allow the actual uptake of circular economy models and of upcycled /repurposed and/or recycled materials, lies on the need to guarantee that reclaimed materials can offer the same level of quality, performance, and safety of new secondary products. The aim of CIRCULess, is to contribute to foster circularity in the construction and manufacturing process industries, by minimizing Construction and Demolition waste (C&DW) as well as Manufacturing waste (CDM), with focus on mineral (i.e. concrete) and timber-based material streams, which is aligned with the objectives of the Processes4Planet Partnership, by developing new processes for circularity of secondary materials from wastes/residues for all industrial processes, without compromising quality and performance as well as sustainable-by-design circular products. CIRCULess main objective will be addressed by experimenting new circular products and novel processing techniques to improve the quality and performances of secondary materials up to industry expected standards, improve value chain environmental friendliness, maximize recycled components. These actions will benefit from the support and will provide inputs to a tailored digital platform to orient decision making and operational activities. Finally, to foster uptake by the construction sector, recommendations for standards updates and relevant training material for both upskilling current construction workforce and create new specialized profiles in the sector will be created.