Buildings and the construction on industry are a major driver of CO2 emissions and contribute to 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Currently 50% of the global population is living in urban areas and it is expected that by 2050 another 2.3 billion people will live in cities. One of the key barriers for reducing the use of high-emitting building materials such as cement, steel and plastics is its increased demand due to rapid urban growth and the lack of supply chain management systems for the building industry. The corresponding major challenges are:

• How to respond to an increasing demand for resilient building stock?
• How to transform production of high-emitting building materials needed to supply the building industry?
• How to boost local economies and catalyze a switch towards circular economy whilst drastically reducing CO2 emissions?

The project provides a pathway to systemic change in the supply chain management of the construction industry and aims to create a digital platform for Circular Crowd Production (CCPP) to produce sustainable building components. The traceability of material and information flows in supply chains has shown strong economic and sustainability benefits in other industries. Yet, there is a lack of supply chain management systems for the construction industry that address the urgent need for new housing whilst fostering circularity and reducing the use of high-emitting materials. The building system is centered around high-insulating PUR sandwich panels, commonly used in the construction industry, and manufactured by industry champion Covestro. The project will investigate the full supply chain of the PUR sandwich panel and convey a concrete use case for affordable housing construction. The proposal aims to explore a digital platform based on a distributed ledger technology such as the Blockchain to establish a regional network of Berlin-based SME and start-ups that individually work on high-emissive building materials and innovative building systems. Main goal is to connect multiple SME to act as systems supplier, optimize material and information flows and leverage synergies in order to develop a prefabricated wall panel based on PUR foam boards. The project assesses the feasibility of such a virtual company by using a shared IP model and explores new business models and opportunities for enhanced job creation. It will lead to a detailed understanding of enablers and barriers of a digital platform for Circular Crowd Production and identify, proactively address multiple SME to participate in the project.