Material Passports & Circular Construction (2026)
Why it matters
The EU Taxonomy and CSRD push construction toward circularity: buildings must be designed for disassembly, materials traceable for reuse. A material passport is a digital record of what is in a building, where, and how it can be reused at end of life.
What a passport contains
Per element (or per BOQ line):
| Field | Source |
|---|---|
| material & volume/mass | BOQ components[] (resource_name, resource_quantity, resource_unit) |
| location in the building | BIM element link |
| manufacturer / EPD | procurement records |
| recycled content % | supplier declaration / EPD |
| reuse potential at EOL | disassembly class (reusable / recyclable / downcyclable / landfill) |
| embodied carbon (A1–A3) | embodied-carbon-esg skill |
Building the passport from DDC data
# per BOQ line: material inventory from CWICR components
for line in boq:
for comp in line["components"]:
if comp["type"] == "material":
passport.append({
"element": line["description"],
"material": comp["name"],
"quantity": line_quantity * comp["quantity"],
"unit": comp["unit"],
"recycled_content": epd_lookup(comp["name"]), # from EPD library
"reuse_class": disassembly_class(comp["name"]), # rule-based
})
Design-for-disassembly rules to encode
- Prefer mechanical fixings over wet trades (plaster/glue) at interfaces.
- Mark structural vs non-structural layers — non-structural is the reuse pool.
- One material per composite where possible (separate insulation from structure).
- Record as-built changes — the passport must match the building, not the drawing.
Reporting
- Total mass per material family (concrete, steel, timber, glass, insulation…).
- % recyclable/reusable by mass (EU Taxonomy circularity KPI).
- Hazardous content register (asbestos-free declaration, formaldehyde, VOC).
Resources
- EU Level(s) framework: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/circular-economy/levels_en
- Madaster (material passport platform): https://madaster.com
- EPD libraries: https://www.eco-platform.org