BIOgBouw: putting bio-circular solutions into practice
BIOgBouw is a VLAIO COOCK+ project that supports the Flemish construction sector in its transition towards bio-circular building materials and construction systems with a lower environmental impact.
The project brings together Buildwise, Embuild Flanders, VITO and NAV to further scale up existing innovations, make knowledge accessible, and increase trust and market acceptance.
The construction sector faces a major challenge. Today, it accounts for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions. Bio-based and geo-based materials offer significant potential to reduce this impact. However, their large-scale use is still too often hindered by uncertainty about performance, limited practical experience, a lack of recognised references and unclear guidelines.
BIOgBouw addresses these challenges by scaling up existing and new bio-circular solutions, from innovative materials to complete construction systems. It does so by building scientific knowledge, testing and validating system performance, developing practical cases, and creating guidelines and implementation frameworks. In this way, the project strengthens confidence in bio-circular solutions and actively removes market barriers.
Short-term and long-term ambition
By 2030, BIOgBouw aims for at least 20% of material choices in new construction projects and public procurement to be bio-circular. In the longer term, the project will contribute to a climate-neutral construction sector by 2050, in which bio-circular materials and systems are the norm rather than the exception.
How BIOgBouw will achieve this
BIOgBouw takes an integrated approach based on four pillars:
- Building knowledge: Collecting and sharing knowledge about bio-circular materials and systems, complemented by new insights from research and testing.
- Strengthening confidence: Validating performance through representative system tests, including fire safety, hygrothermal performance and acoustics, as well as practice-oriented evaluations.
- Recognition and market acceptance: Developing tools and evidence for specifications, procurement and certification, supported by reliable environmental data and sustainability indicators.
- Broad dissemination: Actively sharing knowledge and results with the sector through the networks of Buildwise, Embuild, NAV, VITO, Kamp C and Bouwunie.
Who is it for?
BIOgBouw targets architects, contractors, manufacturers, specifiers and clients. In short, all stakeholders who play a key role in selecting, applying and scaling up bio-circular building materials and systems.
How does VITO contribute to this project?
Within BIOgBouw, VITO contributes its expertise in life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental impact and circularity assessment in the construction sector. We lead the work on environmental information and sustainability aspects. We also support manufacturers of bio-circular building materials in assessing their environmental performance in a well-founded and practical way.
More specifically, we guide manufacturers through the steps towards obtaining a Belgian Environmental Product Declaration (B-EPD) and using environmental data in TOTEM. We pay particular attention to topics that are relevant to bio-circular materials, such as biogenic carbon, system boundaries, circularity, and the link between environmental information and future regulations. The project also develops practical tools to improve the assessment and communication of environmental and circularity performance.
