This project investigates the building and construction industry in Norway and what it takes to make the material streams more circular. Our material stream of interest is construction lumber from construction sites. This led us to the research question: “How can system-oriented design be a tool for creating a circular system for reusing construction lumber in the Norwegian building and construction industry?”

Our approach to answering the research question was to talk to as many relevant people as possible. These actors were from the different parts of the construction process and included, but not limited to, architects, contractors and waste management companies. With the acquired knowledge, we mapped out the construction process using GIGA-mapping to better understand the complexity, the connection between different stakeholders, and make design proposals that had the power to change the system. The Norwegian construction and building industry is responsible for 40% of the society's material use and 40% of the energy use. If all the Norwegian developers would use low-emission materials and have zero-emission construction sites, we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40-50 percent. This is the industry in total, including wood waste. There is work to be done in all fields and materials, but we chose to look at construction wood, partly because according to analysis' around 50% of the wood waste is technically still usable and should not be considered waste.