Towards continuous improvement: a critical review of circular economy assessment measures in construction

<p dir="ltr">The circular economy (CE) has gained momentum across diverse sectors, engaging policymakers, scholars and practitioners in sustainability-focused research. Recognised as a key strategy for sustainable development, the CE aims to decouple economic growth from finite resource consumption, aligning with long-term goals like zero waste and carbon neutrality. The construction sector, being highly resource-intensive and wasteful, has been prioritised by several governments worldwide for circular practices. However, the practical implementation of CE in this sector has proven challenging. A clear understanding of CE performance assessment measures and progress remains lacking. As such, this paper sets out to appraise current CE performance assessment and continuous improvement measures in a critical literature review. A total of 82 papers from research and grey literature, including standards and widely adopted industry tools, were mapped across stakeholder groups (standardisation organisations, government bodies, organisational initiatives, and researchers) and systemic levels of application (global regions, cities, buildings, companies, products and materials). Through latent content analysis, underlying patterns and limitations of the existing CE assessment frameworks and tools were captured, including methodological fragmentation, limited stakeholder alignment, underrepresentation of social and business model indicators and the lack of standardised, stage-specific frameworks. Continuous improvement efforts were also nascent. Four priority areas are proposed for future research: 1) development of harmonised assessment frameworks; 2) co-developed tools with the industry; 3) digital data management; 4) structured continuous improvement roadmaps. These findings support future research, policy and standardisation efforts, particularly in expanding on the ongoing ISO daughter standard BSI B/558/1 on Circular Economy in the Construction Sector.</p>