UN Habitat in close cooperation with CARBON TURNAROUND recently finalized the project Circular Construction in Sub-Saharan Africa (CiCoSA). The project is aiming to promote the use of recycled materials in the building and construction sector in order to contribute to a decarbonization of the build environment in Africa. In the Sub-Saharan region, a huge need for new residential buildings exists, driven by population growth and urbanization trends. Most of the building stock in the year 2050 still needs to be build, therefore it is key to avoid unsustainable construction practices with high carbon footprint. Therefore, the use of secondary building materials by recycling for example Construction and Demolition waste, or the use of biomass resources (e.g. agricultural waste and by-products) as building materials can play an important role to contribute to lower emissions from the construction and building sector.
The outcome of the CiCoSA project are a Handbook and an Implementation Guide for policy makers, project developers, stakeholders from the construction industry, and investors, in order to improve capacity building about the versatile opportunities, which exists by using secondary building materials by introducing the Circular Economy concept in the construction sector. The two documents have been elaborated by the Circular Economy experts from CARBON TURNAROUND and will contribute to a more sustainable development path in the Sub-Saharan region. Both documents can be downloaded from the UN Habitat website: