STRABAG aiming to establish sustainable materials cycle for regional construction sector with pilot project in Bremen

• Federal Minister Klara Geywitz visits construction site of STRABAG Circular Construction & Technology Center (C3)
• Competence centre to establish resource-saving, low-carbon circular construction economy in the region
• STRABAG CEO Klemens Haselsteiner announces construction of further C3s in Europe

With the planned STRABAG Circular Construction & Technology Center (C3) in Bremen, STRABAG wants to drive forward the development of a sustainable and resource-saving circular economy in the construction sector. Several important steps remain to be taken on the market before this goal can be achieved, however. On 17 June 2023, STRABAG project partners from science and industry met on the C3 construction site at Bremen’s old oil harbour to discuss how to take these steps and to talk about the opportunities of circular construction with Klara Geywitz, Germany’s Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building, along with STRABAG CEO Klemens Haselsteiner. The STRABAG pilot project, which represents the company’s entry into the systematic recycling of regional construction waste (urban mining), aims to set an example throughout the industry and across borders. The site, which is heavily contaminated from the former refinery, is currently undergoing extensive remediation. During her visit to the construction site, the Federal Minister was briefed on the progress of the work and on the status of the plant design by the project team from STRABAG Environmental Technology. For STRABAG, the Bremen C3 is only the first step. Location scouting is currently ongoing for additional sites to be built throughout Europe under the leadership of STRABAG Umwelttechnik GmbH.

In her conversation with the project participants, Federal Minister Geywitz emphasised, “There clearly is a great need for buildings. At the same time, resources are limited. This makes it important for us to see the value of existing buildings from previous generations and to use them to construct the buildings of the future. The C3 Bremen is an example of how STRABAG has recognised this trend and is doing pioneering work on the path to a circular economy in construction. In order for the circular economy to succeed, however, we not only have to work on what is technically feasible, but also create more legal certainty and acceptance in society for the use of recycled building materials.”

“We are proud to be developing and driving forward this lighthouse project for the city of Bremen and for the region. The project also is a great example of the STRABAG Group’s commitment to leading the way in establishing sustainable and resource-efficient construction processes and products throughout the industry. The C3 has a model character for us and should serve as a blueprint for further STRABAG recycling centres in Europe. This will require a clear political commitment and planning certainty,” said Klemens Haselsteiner.

In reality, however, the construction industry is still far from having a functioning circular economy. Only a fraction of the approximately 229 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste in Germany is currently processed into high-quality secondary raw materials and used accordingly. Common practice, on the other hand, is the downcycling of construction waste (e.g. as fill material in road construction) or its disposal in landfills. Only 13% of the building materials used nationwide currently consist of recycled materials. The result: resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and pressure on the ecosystem is growing. Although the know-how for efficient and ecological material flow management has been available for a long time, there is still a lack of both demand and supply of recycled construction materials. In short: something needs to be done to get the material cycle in construction going.

Milestone on the way to circular construction
The C3 in Bremen is a milestone on the path to achieving a closed building material cycle in the region and to creating a sustainable and circular construction industry. The goal is an ambitious one: Following site remediation and construction, debris materials will be delivered to the new circular technology centre to be separated and recycled as secondary raw materials down to the finest, high-quality particle sizes for use as equivalent substitutes for primary raw materials, e.g. in asphalt and concrete production. For the continuous optimisation and further development of the technical processes, STRABAG will expand the centre into a technology and research facility with a start-up campus for construction waste recycling and other environmental technology business fields. Collaborating with universities, testing laboratories and specialist institutes, C3 will research and develop new recycling options for the circular economy of tomorrow. The new centre for urban mining and rubble processing is slated to accommodate around 130 employees from various units of the STRABAG Group.

 The C3 is being built using sustainable methods of construction and with primarily climate-friendly building materials such as wood and recycled concrete. Following completion, the facility will be operated in an energy self-sufficient and climate neutral capacity. Power is to be generated by photovoltaics and a wind turbine, with electricity storage units to absorb any peak loads.

STRABAG C3 awarded sustainability prize
The STRABAG Circular Construction & Technology Center in Bremen has won the German Award for Sustainability Projects in the category of Raw Materials and Procurement. During the award ceremony for the project team from STRABAG Umwelttechnik GmbH, the judges praised the C3 as an “end-to-end, future-oriented approach that serves as an example with considerable relevance to the construction industry”. The judges also applauded the collaboration between industry and research and the fact that the project was being monitored through scientific supervision. This is where the potential for the development of new technologies is emerging, they said.