Demolition for innovation: Uppsala is building back greener

Demolition for innovation: Uppsala is building back greener 

What can tearing down a building teach us about circularity? In Uppsala, Sweden, they are showing that lessons from practical experience are invaluable.  

The city administration is using demolition and renovation projects as real-world laboratories to explore circular construction methods. From steel to concrete, the building blocks that make up the city will be given a second life. 

In the European Union, construction and demolition waste (CDW) accounts for more than a third of all waste generated, and for 5-12% of EU countries’ total emissions. Creating a circular ecosystem where construction materials can be re-used and recycled is one of the main ways to reduce these figures. 

“Achieving circularity in the building sector is crucial if we’re serious about our climate action. With Uppsala expected to grow significantly in the coming decades, the way we construct and renovate buildings will play a vital role in our sustainability journey,” says David Preuss, Development Manager in Uppsala’s Sustainability Department.

To learn how to mainstream circularity in the building sector, pilot projects have been launched in the districts of Ulleråker and Gottsunda under Uppsala’s SCALE UP – Systematic Climate Action to Lower Emissions project, which receives funding from the Pilot Cities Programme facilitated by NetZeroCities.

Just a short train ride from Stockholm, this fourth-largest Swedish city boasts historical richness evocative of the Viking times, as burial grounds and centuries-old sites scattered across its landscape.

Beyond these remnants of the past, Uppsala is a vibrant university town, driving research in sustainability and life sciences. Through the SCALE UP project, Uppsala has set its sights on a future that is climate-neutral and circular.

Circular demolition in Ulleråker

In Ulleråker, two building complexes are being demolished to salvage materials for new developments.

“By physically taking down buildings and analysing what we can reuse, we’ve moved from theory to practice,” says Preuss. “It’s really easy to get lost in theoretical discussions, but at the end of the day, this hands-on approach is teaching us much more about how to implement circularity effectively.”

Tearing down buildings is teaching the local government and their partners how to build back greener.

“The exercise for us here is to really see how much of the material from the demolition we can actually reuse, and what the barriers are in practice,” says Preuss.

For example, the city is learning that complications were – and often are – bigger than Preuss and his team anticipated. Some of the materials were contaminated and some of the initial plans fell through.

However, learning from the real-world process has been invaluable. “We are able to see what the needs are at each step. Where do we store the materials? How do we ensure they are safe and good quality for re-use? Is there someone lined up to actually use the material?” Answering these questions is building up the city’s capacity to orchestrate a truly circular construction process.

Renovation in Gottsunda

Meanwhile, in Gottsunda, with its large, multi-story apartment buildings from the 1960’s and 70’s, the city is focusing on circular renovation.

“Gottsunda is a great example of how circular construction can apply to renovation,” says Preuss.

“We’re not just focusing on new builds, but on how we can extend the life of existing structures in a sustainable way.”

The project aims to reduce the environmental impact of older buildings while preserving their character and infrastructure. By extending the life of building materials from existing structures the hope is to reduce waste generated by the renovation process, and ultimately provide the city administration and their partners with crucial experience in actual costs and salvage techniques.

Circular construction roadblocks 

According to Preuss, one of the most significant challenges is the coordination required among various stakeholders, exacerbated by the lack of infrastructure for material reuse.  

“There’s currently no real market for salvaged construction materials in Uppsala, which makes the logistics of reusing materials more difficult. You need a chain of actors—from those who disassemble buildings to those who can recondition and repurpose materials—and coordinating this chain is a work in progress,” says Preuss. 

Storage of these materials is another issue. Once materials are salvaged, they need to be stored before they can be reused, and finding the physical space for this in a city with limited available land is another obstacle.

However, Preuss sees another learning opportunity, as “these projects are helping us understand what needs to be done to make circular construction possible,” he says.  

And the benefits of circular construction go beyond sustainability—they also present economic advantages if reusing materials can lower costs.

“Circular construction is about efficiency—not just in materials, but in how we think about growth and sustainability,” says Preuss.  

Mainstreaming circularity through collaboration

Uppsala benefits from a strong collaboration with local businesses through the Uppsala Climate Protocol, bringing together around 40 organisations from the private sector, universities and the municipality.

“Our goal is to establish a marketplace where the municipality is just one of many actors,” Preuss says. “We’re laying the groundwork now, but we hope that in a few years the market will be self-sustaining, driven by private businesses.”

According to Preuss, while the city administration has regulatory powers, partnerships are particularly important in the building sector, where private actors play a central role in driving circularity. The vision is one of the city administration as a facilitator.

This is true beyond the construction sector and into areas such as waste management and mobility, all of which contribute to the overarching goal of climate neutrality by 2030.