Role of Construction Material Transport for Achieving a Circular Economy in the Construction Industry: a Systematic Literature Review

Rizwan Kazmi () and Deepty Jain ()
Additional contact information
Rizwan Kazmi: Birla Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture & Planning
Deepty Jain: Indian Institute of Technology, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre

Circular Economy and Sustainability, 2025, vol. 5, issue 5, 3743-3761

Abstract: Abstract Construction transport is a significant construction activity contributing to resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In the last decade, the concept of circular economy in the construction industry has gained momentum, which aims to eliminate waste and shift from take, make, consume, and dispose to grow, make, use, and restore. As per the author's knowledge, there is limited to no understanding of the impact of the circular economy on transporting construction materials and, therefore, emissions. This lack of understanding is significant as it hinders the industry's ability to [specific implications]. The article presents a systematic literature review of the circular economy in the construction industry with a focus on the transport of building materials. Using a five-step screening method, 41 relevant articles are selected for review. These are classified into two categories: Outcome/Impact-based & Approach-based. These were further classified as Outcome/Impact-based, which is carbon emissions/greenhouse gas emissions; waste management; and Approach-based, which is sustainability and green buildings, construction logistics and supply chain management, and transportation infrastructure. The review shows a growing interest in the research on circular economy in the building industry. However, there is a lack of holistic understanding of the impact of the circular economy on construction material transport in the construction industry. In the end, a discussion of the outcome/impact and approach-based studies and their findings is conducted, and the article concludes with identifying knowledge gaps and potential research opportunities in the respective research themes, seeking the attention of scholars, policy and decision-makers which will help in a holistic integration of circular economy in the construction industry.

Keywords: Construction transport; Circular economy; Construction industry; Sustainable construction; Greenhouse gas emissions; Construction logistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43615-025-00553-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:circec:v:5:y:2025:i:5:d:10.1007_s43615-025-00553-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43615

DOI: 10.1007/s43615-025-00553-z

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Circular Economy and Sustainability from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().