Evaluating the COVID-19 impacts on the construction and demolition waste management and resource recovery industry: experience from the Australian built environment sector

Sustainability of energy, water, and environmental systems: a view of recent advances: Special issue dedicated to 2021 conference on sustainable development of energy, water, and environment systems

This paper presents an overview for the Special Issue (SI) of Clean Technology and Environmental Policy journal (CTEP), and it includes accepted papers from 16th Conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) held from October 10-15, 2021, in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Considering CTEPs policy of high-quality research papers, guest editors have invited 35 research articles, presented at the SDEWES 2021 conference. After a vigorous review process, 12 papers have been accepted for publication in this special issue. All 12 accepted papers are briefly presented in this overview together with a wider view that presents research efforts within the SDEWES community published through previous SDEWES special issues.

Application of Sustainable Procurement Policy to Improve the Circularity of Construction and Demolition Waste Resources in Australia

The sustainable management of construction and demolition (C&D) necessitates efficient waste minimisation policies. Sustainable procurement of recycled waste products (RWPs) is an encouragement-based policy approach that can serve this purpose. This policy aids stakeholders in enhancing the circular economy (CE) in the built environment (BE) sector. However, this procurement method is yet to be successfully adapted globally or in Australia. Hence, this study was conducted to shed light on the use of sustainable procurement in the Australian BE sector. Based on a mixed-methods methodology, 49 relevant academic, industry and government publications were analysed during the review process. The findings reveal that the two most significant obstacles are the lack of supportive organisational culture and uncertainty about RWP quality. In addition, implementing clear and supporting regulations and maintaining transparency and good governance are identified as the two most important enablers. A model was proposed to facilitate the adoption of sustainable procurement, based on the research findings. The study includes a number of suggestions to encourage the acquisition of C&D RWPs for construction projects. This review is anticipated to contribute to three areas: sustainable procurement theory, policy development, and BE sector practice.