URGE circUlaR buildinG citiEs is a project that develops integrated urban policies on circularity in the construction sector.
With the URGE project, the City of Prato has been selected to participate in a new URBACT III Action Planning Network, the European program that promotes sustainable urban development.
The circularity and sustainability of buildings and contracts are at the heart of the URGE project on which the City of Prato will work alongside Utrecht, Monaco, Copenhagen, Kavala, Granada, Riga, Oeste and Nigrad.
Thanks to the URGE project, the municipality of Prato will develop a tool to measure the environmental and economic impact linked to the demolition of buildings by mapping and tracing the flow of materials.
The goal is to encourage circularity in the construction sector to limit the consumption of global resources. Do you know that 40% of municipal solid waste comes from construction and demolition and only 20-30% of it is recycled or reused? Often this does not happen due to poor design and lack of information on the contents of buildings.
Know that in the last 40 years the global use of materials has almost tripled, from 26.7 billion tons in 1970 to 84.4 billion tons in 2015.
Forecasts estimate that this data will double by 2050, as highlighted by the World Economic Forum's White Paper on circular economy (2018).
By 2025, 1 billion homes worldwide will be needed, 75% of which will be residential and 25% commercial.
Meeting this demand through current "linear constructions" and housing practices will require an investment of approximately 9-11 billion dollars in total and will have significant environmental impacts, such as those deriving from the extraction of inert materials that are felt locally and globally.
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