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Circular Economy (CE) has been gaining traction as an alternative for the traditional produce-
use-dispose economic system, with the potential of alleviating virgin material use and environmental impacts. TU Delft recognizes the potential for this concept and has articulated the ambition for a circular campus by 2030 in the TU Delft Strategic Framework 2018-2024.This report discusses the findings of research into how this ambition could take shape and addresses the following question: How can TU Delft as an educational institution implement the principles of CE in order to reach its circularity target by 2030? In order to answer this question, a number of sub questions were posited. These were: What are the principles of CE, and how do they apply to the TU Delft as a system? What is the CE context and what does a vision for TU Delft look like? Into which Priority Areas can future work for a circular campus be structured in order to facilitate a CE transition? What is the current situation of selected Priority Areas, what are best practices of other universities for them, and which measures are required to realize the implementation of those within TU Delft’s roadmap to circularity?
How can the circularity performance of investigated material based Priority Areas, Priority Area I and II, be measured in order to include them in a monitoring system? A four-step framework was developed to answer the sub questions and develop a roadmap towards a circular campus by 2030. The first step consisted of desk research, in which the concept of CE is explored further in depth and the TU Delft is defined as a system and context variables were compared to those of frontrunner universities. Then, as a second step, the larger CE context of The Netherlands and EU was explored. On the basis of this and conducted interviews nine Priority Areas (PA) were formulated to split up the larger concept of a circular campus. These PAs were: Operational End-of-Use (EoU) Material, Non-Operational Material, Construction & Demolition Material, Energy, Water, Land Use, Transport, Leadership and Communication.
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