Keynote Address – Transforming Australia’s built environment: circular and sustainability opportunities explored

The United Nations has been warning us of the triple planetary crises facing humanity today. The triple planetary crises refer to climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. These are all linked to the resources we consume. Scarcity and overconsumption of resources have led to alarming problems across environmental, social, and economic considerations, which is what sustainability is about. Our current production and consumption patterns are not sustainable. We extract raw materials and use them to generate products without taking prudent care of the attendant about environmental and social problems. Consumers use and then dispose of products (including buildings). A new paradigm is emerging, where we move away from the so-called linear economy and transition to a circular economy. While the will to move to a circular economy is gradually growing worldwide, it’s not yet clear how to effectively transition to, and govern its implementation. Currently, Australia’s circularity rate is less than 5% whereas countries such as the Netherlands is almost 30%.  Australia’s ambition is to double its circularity rate by 2035. This presentation examines how Australia can transition towards a circular economy and explores lessons that can be drawn from other countries.