The construction industry is undergoing a significant transformation driven by digitalization and an unwavering commitment to implementing circular economy (CE) principles and sustainability into its core practices. Emerging digital technologies (DTs), such as Material Passports (MPs), Building Information Modelling (BIM) Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Scanning technologies, Blockchain technology (BCT), the Internet of Things (IoT) stand out as pivotal tools capable of expediting the transition towards CE implementation in buildings. This study highlights the significant potential of six DTs to support CE application throughout the building lifecycle. Furthermore, it delves into the potential synergies among these diverse DTs, highlighting the additional benefits that collaboration can bring across different lifecycle stages of a building project. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of MPs with other DTs, showing promise in assessing resource availability, volumes, and flows. This integration optimizes waste reduction and recycling plans, contributing to more precise selective and smart deconstruction planning. The combined use of DTs offers substantial benefits to stakeholders, enabling them to make informed decisions regarding maintenance and understand the current quality of specific materials. Through these means, the study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the array of DTs propelling circular building practices. It also explores emerging trends in this dynamic field, scrutinizing the effectiveness of adopting these technologies throughout the building life cycle stages, and anticipating potential challenges these technologies may face.

The twin transition driven by European agendas emphasises the dual benefits of integrating digital technologies with green sustainability concepts. In the built environment and construction sector, this integration is exemplified by leveraging digitalisation to enhance circularity in construction processes. This chapter explores this synergy by focusing on the development and application of Material and Building Passports (MPs and BPs). It discusses how these passports are digitally utilised to optimise circularity aspects of buildings and construction materials. The chapter delineates the evolution of MPs and BPs, clarifying their various definitions, variants, and potential applications to support the sector's twin transition. Additionally, it examines numerous initiatives and pilot projects aimed at defining the passports, including their requirements and conditions, and the standardisation efforts to ensure their widespread adoption through a unified content structure. The roles of MPs and BPs across different lifecycle stages are elaborated, with a particular emphasis on the enhanced functionalities enabled by Building Information Modelling (BIM). Moreover, the chapter identifies several barriers impeding the full adoption of these passports, such as legislative and standardisation challenges, information security concerns, lack of collaboration, and issues with information accessibility and sharing. It concludes by suggesting future research directions to further refine the passports for optimised use by construction industry stakeholders.

The transition towards a Circular Economy (CE) stands as a pivotal strategy in reshaping our prevailing consumption patterns towards more sustainable resource management. Within this context, the European Union places a strong emphasis on elevating recycling and renovation rates while reducing dependence on primary resources, with a particular focus on the construction industry. Material and Building Passports have emerged as potential tools to facilitate this transition. They play a multifaceted role in CE, serving to raise awareness of the building’s performance, functioning as digital repositories of extensive data, and acting as consulting instruments for stakeholders involved in renovation actions, energy management, and building operation. However, a universally accepted definition of these tools remains elusive, and diverse interpretations persist. To contribute to a deeper understanding of these tools, this study embarks on a comprehensive review, tracing their evolutionary journey and delving into the potentialities and synergies they offer in fostering circularity throughout the life cycle of buildings. It also examines the barriers hindering their full-scale development and adoption, including the lack of standardization and legislative measures, financial constraints, issues of stakeholder involvement and responsibility, as well as challenges associated with data accessibility.

Humanity in our days is fighting with climate change effects and the depletion of natural resources. In this direction, the adoption of sustainable and circular practices is considered vital and in most cases is prescribed by regulations. The construction sector is responsible for massive amounts of energy consumed during the extraction of raw materials, the production of building materials, the construction phase, the operating phase of the buildings, and also during their demolition and end-of-life. The latter one already gathers the scientific community’s interest with the efforts being focused on efficient Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) management solutions. Meanwhile, Building Information Modelling (BIM), as a storage medium of information about all building components, offers various advantages on a building’s optimum design and operation, allowing information exchange among all involved stakeholders. Although many studies demonstrate the effectiveness of BIMs in reducing construction waste for new buildings, there is not extensive research on how BIMs can contribute to CDW reduction for an existing building. In this review study, the existing studies addressing BIM integration on CDW management are analyzed, pointing out the advantages that this strategy offers on reducing CDW and managing them efficiently, increasing reuse and recycle rates, and promoting circularity. The main challenges this approach presents, mainly attributed to the difficulty of gathering the required information with the appropriate accuracy about an existing building, are extensively discussed, along with future research needs, necessary for a further enhancement of this technique.