The building and construction (B&C) industry, a significant global economic sector with a market size of $5.4 trillion in 2021, is projected to reach $11.1 trillion by 2031. Despite its significance, the sector is a leading contributor to environmental degradation, accounting for a large portion of global energy consumption, carbon emissions, natural resource depletion, and solid waste generation. ECOFUNC seeks to mitigate these impacts by advancing the use of carbon-negative polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), produced by microorganisms using CO2 as feedstock, thereby reducing the sector’s environmental footprint. The project will establish the first EU-based circular value chains for applications such as ventilated façade cladding, ceiling tiles, and internal partition walls. This will be achieved through the development of recyclable PHA-based panels, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional, non-biobased, and non-recyclable materials. ECOFUNC will also integrate bio-based flame retardants, natural fibers, and PHA foams to create high-performance panels, targeting a global warming potential of under 0.5 kg CO2-eq/m² and aiming to reduce life cycle costs by up to 20%. Guided by sustainability frameworks, including the DNSH and SSbD principles, the project is driven by a consortium of industry leaders and research institutions working on PHAs, fiber processing, panel production, and product validation. As part of its broader impact, ECOFUNC will explore the use of panels in the automotive sector as a spillover activity. Furthermore, end-of-life strategies will be implemented, incorporating both chemical recycling to convert PHA back into virgin-grade material and mechanical recycling to re-purpose it for applications in furniture and automotive. The project will develop 11 technologies and 10 value chains aimed at transforming the B&C industry, demonstrating the technical and economic viability of PHAs in promoting sustainable material practices.

The goal of EcoReFibre is to develop and demonstrate innovative demos for environmentally sound and commercially viable recycling of end-of-life fibreboards, which currently have no commercially viable recycling methods. The quantities of fibreboard waste are growing exponentially in line with the growth in production capacity, and it is highly likely that more than 60 million tons of fibreboard waste have been created in Europe the last 5 years. This has caught the European recycling sector off-guard. EcoReFibre is crucial to Europe's wood-based panel and wood recycling sectors because of various inter-linked market challenges of the current situation for creating secondary materials from wood waste. EcoReFibre builds a strong pan-European consortium bringing together leading research institutes, companies and European associations who will develop and demonstrate a range of recycling technologies for waste fibreboard. Validation and demonstration of the technologies will take place in an operational environment as system prototypes (TRL7) or in the relevant industrial environment (TRL6). These include a sorting line that is able to efficiently sort post-consumer wood waste, extraction technologies for secondary materials (calibrated wood fines and wood fibres) from the sorted waste fractions, and conversion to valuable products, i.e. various fibreboard and insulation products, particleboard and novel biocomposites. As a major impact, the secondary fibres will substitute up to 25% of the virgin fibres currently used in the manufacture of new fibreboard. The economic viability of the technologies is achieved through a synergistic circular economy approach that exploits multiple valorisation pathways of secondary raw materials. The novel fibreboard recycling technologies are transferrable and exploitable for many other biobased industries. Environmental and social impacts and benefits are integrated into a life cycle perspective.

SMAS - Sustainable Modular Architectural System aims at market for modular buildings in the field of Construction Industry with innovative technological solutions and energy efficient product SMAS is the industrialization and commercialization fallout of PR.I.M.E3 - Procedures & Innovation for Modular buildings Energy-Efficient and Eco-friendly - a 3-year pre-industrialization research project, co-funded by Italian Ministry of Environment. SMAS module unit has a floor area 50 m2; the varying combination of modules allows for different architectural solutions by type and sizeto the realization of Eco Villages. Main object of this proposal is to industrialize the whole process. Environmental benefits: reduction of 80% of net energy demand and relevant carbon emissions compared to traditional structures. The primary energy demand for winter heating and DHW allows to place the SMAS building module in energy class A +, providing an energy intensity equal to 6.93 kWh / m2 per year. SMAS integrates the following innovative subsystems components: - bearing structure - patented – using recycled and recyclable Metal alloy profile; recycled / recyclable - thermal insulation- patented- made of recycled industry-waste materials - H-NAC (Hybrid-Natural Air Conditioning) Wall – patent pending – including controlled natural ventilation and passive cooling techniques; - waste water cycle – recovery of thermal energy by grey water reuse; - home management automation The greater speed and simplicity of structure realisation in place due to both the totally dry assemble of the various elements of modular building and the ability to pre-assemble it by prefabricated structures, makes the system particularly suitable in case of emergency related to natural disasters or refugees migration

In order to stimulate the rural bioeconomy and industrial competitiveness, achieve climate mitigation and biodiversity targets, and increase the resilience of production systems, the European Union needs forerunners, both in primary production and industry. Despite the widely recognised and urgent need to substitute fossil raw materials with renewables, under-developed biomass processing methods and business models, and poor understanding of the multiple benefits of well-planned, novel applications currently restrict the implementation of sustainable value chains with balanced environmental, economic and social outcomes. Every step in the novel bio-based fibre value chains targeted by FIBSUN need to be optimised, from cultivation practices, industrial processes, and business models, through to understanding the needs of consumers. The use of novel industrial feedstocks must not lead to undesirable land-use changes, such as the conversion of forest or land currently used for food production into land used for fibre biomass production. Instead, the related land use must be designed to alleviate the harmful effects of desertification, contamination, flooding or mining, by using degraded soils and marginal land to cultivate underutilised biomass feedstocks which can restore soil productivity and enhance the provision of diverse ES. FIBSUN will address these challenges using a multidisciplinary and multi-actor approach involving research organisations, companies and a wide range of stakeholders in a co-creational process aiming at outcomes and long-term impacts promoting green transition in the EU.