The built environment uses a substantial amount of energy and minerals. In terms of volume, construction minerals are much more important than industrial and metallic minerals. Construction minerals are not scarce: sand, gravel, stone, lime and clay can be found almost everywhere. However, producing building materials such as cement, asphalt and brick from these construction minerals is energy and material intensive. The actual use of buildings also affects overall energy use and CO2 emissions in the built environment. Technological innovations, awareness programmes and urban planning have all been deployed to reduce the consumption of fossil-based energy by residents of houses and offices. And we are making considerable progress: the zero-energy building is now within reach.

The production, reuse and recycling of building materials are creating inspiring innovations. This chapter will present three successful business cases that illustrate the virtue of know-how combined with creativity. One example is the ClickBrick®, which eliminates the need to use cement and enables bricks to be used over and over again. Another example is ASCEM, which produces cement from fly ash and other secondary materials, substantially reducing the use of virgin materials as well as CO2 emissions. And last but not least, there is the Highly Ecological Recycling Asphalt System (HERA), which makes it possible to produce higher quality asphalt using less energy and creating fewer emissions while re-using up to 100% used asphalt.

It is not only new technology that is making breakthroughs in resource efficiency in the built environment possible. Indeed, the very concept of building is also changing. Essentially, building is a circular process in which building materials can be used and reused endlessly. However, the traditional business case in the building sector is a linear one. Each link in the chain of materials production, assembly, and the use and demolition of buildings has its own costs and benefits. Park 20/20, a business estate near Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, is an example of a circular business case, in which the building is perceived as a ‘materials bank’.