As modern cities continue to expand and infrastructure is being rapidly renewed, the construction sector has become one of the largest consumers of global resources. At the same time, the demolition of outdated buildings is generating enormous volumes of waste. Every year, millions of tonnes of concrete, bricks, metal, timber, and other construction materials worldwide reach the end of their service life and are removed from the economic cycle and sent to waste disposal sites. In reality, a significant proportion of these materials represent valuable resources that can be reused.
The single-use of construction materials followed by their disposal results not only in economic losses. It also increases the need to extract and process new raw materials, transport them, and manufacture new construction materials. As a result, pressure on natural resources intensifies, energy consumption increases, and the volume of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere grows.
From this perspective, the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in the construction sector is contributing to the development of a new economic model.
On 23 September 2026, the World Economic Forum (WEF), within the framework of the UpLink Low-Carbon and Circular Systems Challenge, announced 12 innovative startups aimed at reducing systemic inefficiencies in the industrial and construction sectors. Among them, the German digital platform Concular was highlighted as one of the projects offering a new approach to the construction industry.
The core idea behind the Concular platform is based on a simple but important principle: a building that is going to be demolished should be viewed as a source of materials that can be reused.
Under this approach, the structures and materials of a building are digitally inventoried before demolition. A wide range of components — from doors and windows to metal structures, wooden elements, façade components, and other materials — are digitally recorded.
Artificial intelligence algorithms analyse the technical characteristics, condition, and potential for reuse of these materials and match them with the requirements of other construction projects.
As a result, a material that is no longer needed for one project can become a ready-to-use resource for another.
This reduces the need to transport materials to waste disposal sites and subsequently purchase new raw materials. The digital platform makes it possible to directly connect available resources at one construction site with the needs of another construction project.
Such a digital solution is significant not only from an environmental perspective. It also creates tangible economic benefits for the construction business.
The Concular approach is reported to have the potential to reduce costs associated with building demolition by up to 30 percent and the costs of purchasing new construction materials by up to 20 percent.
Thus, artificial intelligence is becoming, at the same time, a tool for identifying, assessing, reallocating, and returning resources to economic circulation.
In this way, the traditional linear model of the construction sector — based on the extraction of raw materials, their use in construction, the operation of a building, and its subsequent demolition with materials being discarded as waste at the end of their service life — is gradually giving way to a circular approach. Under the new model, a building undergoes a digital audit before demolition, its materials and structural components are identified and classified, their potential for reuse is assessed, and suitable resources are redirected to other construction projects.
Such a technological approach based on the reuse of construction materials also directly contributes to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, it supports SDG 9 — “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure” — by integrating artificial intelligence, digital auditing, and databases containing information about materials into construction processes, thereby strengthening the technological and innovative capacity of the sector. At the same time, in line with SDG 11 — “Sustainable Cities and Communities” — this approach makes it possible to reduce the amount of waste generated during construction and demolition, ease the burden on urban waste management systems, and decrease the volume of materials sent to landfills.
This approach is also closely linked to SDG 12 — “Responsible Consumption and Production” — as the reuse of existing construction materials reduces the need to extract new natural resources and helps keep materials within the economic cycle for a longer period of time. At the same time, reducing the production of new cement, metal, and other construction materials creates opportunities to decrease energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, thereby making a meaningful contribution to the achievement of SDG 13 — “Climate Action”.
The experience of Concular also demonstrates another important fact: environmental requirements and digitalisation should not be viewed solely as additional obligations or costs for businesses.
On the contrary, digital material passports, artificial intelligence-based material identification, and the integration of materials into reuse chains enable companies to reduce costs, use resources more efficiently, and create new market segments.
In the future, the value of a construction material may also be determined by how many times it can be reused and how efficiently such reuse can be achieved.
In this regard, projects such as Concular, recognised by the World Economic Forum, demonstrate that the integration of digitalisation and green technologies is becoming an important direction in the development of the cities of the future.
Most importantly, this new approach encourages us to look differently at materials that we usually refer to as “construction waste”.
Concrete, metal, or timber that was considered waste yesterday may become part of a new building tomorrow. Artificial intelligence, in this context, serves as a digital bridge connecting these two points.
Madinabonu Sharifova,
Chief Specialist, NGO “Center for Sustainable Development”