The circular economy (CE) in construction literature engages with individual CE concepts, mostly at the ‘macro’/‘meso’ levels, and lacks holistic frameworks of indicators for circularity assessments (CAs) to inform decision-making at the ‘micro’ (project) level. This article presents a model using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for circular proposal selection in building projects based on a previously validated conceptual framework. The model involves twelve circularity indicators (CIs) classed under five themes relevant to building lifecycle stages. A questionnaire survey was used to establish the final weight vector of CIs. Participants acknowledged the immediate and prolonged effects of design on circularity and viewed waste as ‘design flaws’ but focused on aspirational design indicators relevant to achieving future circularity and missed opportunities for embedding circular materials in design. Moreover, UK participants showed distinctive behaviours towards CAs (proactive/reactive) based on work experience. ‘UK-Experts’ focused on ‘front-end’ design indicators, while ‘UK-Non-experts’ focused on ‘back-end’ waste management indicators. The findings indicate a partial transition to CE better described as a ‘recycle/reuse economy’. CAs and multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques facilitate automated decision-making, which provides a new pathway to digital transformation within built environment. Future research will develop a decision-making tool and apply the proposed model in real-life projects.

The construction circular economy (CE) literature lacks a holistic framework for systematic assessment of project ‘circularity’, thereby impeding industry restructuring and full transition to CE. The proposed ‘project life-cycle assessment circularity indicators and themes’ (PLACIT) framework supports thematic circularity ratings in construction projects using 12 circularity indicators (CIs), representing high-level requirements of CE, grouped into five themes relevant to project life-cycle stages. This helps identify areas of good practice and those requiring circularity improvements. A systematic literature review, structured in line with PLACIT, revealed an increasing association between CE and ‘constructability’ but varying engagement with CIs. The predominant engagement with indicators within the industry’s comfort zone indicates supply-push practices focusing on aspirational CE design solutions and CE management, missing opportunities from engaging with more demand-pull indicators – for example, reduced material inputs – and embedding circular materials in design practices. Full transition to CE will require engaging with a wide range of indicators throughout the whole project life cycle in a more complex network. Moreover, PLACIT has potentials to set clear boundaries between ‘sustainability’ and CE concepts, currently ill defined in the literature. Future research (Association for Project Management supported) will seek to validate PLACIT using expert feedback and use circularity ratings to support decision making in construction.

Purpose: The development of circular construction supply chains (CCSCs) is impeded by various barriers, but the current literature overlooks the interrelationships among these barriers and the varying nature of associated countermeasures with the growth of circular economy (CE). This paper aims to develop new perspectives about the transition to CCSCs through the lens of supply-push (SP)/demand-pull (DP) strategies and related underpinning theories.Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review including 136 journal articles was undertaken to identify barriers to CCSCs and associated countermeasures that are analysed for their relevance to SP/DP. The interplay between SP/DP approaches was discussed using the “technology acceptance” and “innovation chain” models.Findings: (1) Thirty-five barriers were identified and organised into nine main barrier factors; (2) the predominant factors are knowledge and awareness, policy and regulations, technological capabilities, and incentives; (3) CCSCs transition is SP-configured primarily driven by actors above the project network; (4) “push” measures are devised to gradually create a “pull” environment and can be revoked when demand for circularity is created, suggesting a new “push-to-pull” perspective of CCSCs; and (5) a complex adaptative system is witnessed in relationships between barriers and countermeasures, and interactions among actors at all levels.Practical implications: The findings offer practitioners countermeasures to barriers encountered in CE initiatives. It also informs policymakers of adjusting policies to accommodate the SP-DP movement in steering the circular transition.Originality/value: This study uses theoretical models to interpret the dynamics in CCSCs transition and proposes a new definition of CCSCs highlighting their complex and dual transitional/transformational nature.

Circular economy (CE) provokes a rethink of construction supply chains by integrating reverse logistics (RL) to promote reuse and recycling of construction materials. However, the situation in construction is still lagging behind other sectors due to various barriers. Policy support plays an indispensable role in driving top-down momentum towards CE. While previous studies have explored the barriers to RL in construction, the interdependencies of these barriers and their relevance to CE policies have been largely overlooked. This study conducted an expert workshop to develop an overarching policy framework for RL development towards circular construction. A system dynamics (SD) model was developed using the Fuzzy-DEMATEL method to grasp the interrelationships between RL barriers and explore the potential of policy interventions for their mitigation. The proposed model comprised twenty-five barriers organised into six barrier factors. Results revealed that the lack of "knowledge and awareness", and "policy and regulation" were the root causes of other barriers. Establishing CE standards and guidelines is pivotal to shaping CE policies and easing the barriers. Current CE initiatives were driven by a soft voluntary policy approach, while the significance of hard mandatory regulations was undermined, which has slowed down the transition. A policy framework adopting a staggered approach was proposed for a strategic regulation control, starting with supportive polices and gradually advancing to stringent regulations over time. This will support policymakers in devising high-leverage policies. Future research will target a specific material supply chain to develop a framework of bespoke policy interventions to optimise its RL.

Purpose: Effective procurement of infrastructure is partly dependent on infrastructure procurement personnel having the skills that are important for the discharge of their role. Addressing the infrastructure deficits in developing countries, therefore, calls for an understanding of the skills that are important for the discharge of the roles of public personnel that are involved in infrastructure procurement. This study aims to investigate these skills from the perspective of public infrastructure procurement personnel in the sub-Saharan African region. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey of procurement personnel yielded 590 useable responses, which were analysed using t-tests and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Findings: EFA established eight key components of important infrastructure procurement skills to include skills related to: project success factors; social and environmental sustainability; marketing and e-procurement; project phase management, the application of procurement laws and procedures; soft skills, ICT and communication; and data analysis and team building. Originality/value: The findings are crucial in developing infrastructure procurement capacity building programmes that would be appropriate for infrastructure procurement personnel in developing country contexts. Infrastructure procurement personnel ought to engage more in capacity development training that is aligned to enhancing skills within the eight components.

Though a relatively large number of studies on sustainable project governance (SPG) have been undertaken, the existing corpus of literature is bereft of a comprehensive review paper that scientometrically analyses the materials published hitherto and puts forward the research gaps and the corresponding future works to be conducted. To fill this knowledge gap, this study undertakes a bibliometric review and scientometric analysis by meticulously delving into the relevant body of knowledge of sustainable governance reported in different databases. From the results obtained using CiteSpace software, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) most of the keywords with high centrality rankings are related to the environment, (2) “participation” and “land use” are the most important clusters, (3) the United Kingdom and the United States are by far the most advanced countries in the concerned field, (4) the hot topics within the defined clusters are “industry”, “transition management”, “property rights”, and “natural resources”, and (5) the two salient keywords are “public participation” and “insight”. The attained findings lay out a solid foundation for researchers and practitioners towards fostering the area of SPG, by focusing on land use, community participation, politics, climate change, and the water–energy–food nexus and finding ways to tackle the elaborated shortcomings.