Circular economy & built environment
Material Passport
A digital record documenting the materials, products and components in a building — composition, origin, embodied carbon and reuse potential — so they can be recovered at end of life.
Definition
A material passport is a digital record documenting the materials, products and components used in a building, typically including material type, origin, composition, manufacturer, embodied carbon, expected lifespan and reuse or recycling potential. By giving materials an accessible identity, passports enable recovery and reuse, turning buildings into "material banks". The EU-funded Buildings as Material Banks (BAMB) project piloted over 300 passports, and platforms such as Madaster operate them commercially.
References
digital identity card concept, data fields, chain-wide access
formal definition, passport variants
Overview
What it means
Today demolition destroys information along with value; a passport preserves both, supporting design for disassembly, residual-value estimation and circular procurement. Related variants include product passports and the EU's forthcoming Digital Product Passport.
How it is used
Created at design stage (often linked to BIM models) and updated through the building's life; used for circularity scoring, certification, deconstruction planning and secondary materials marketplaces.
Why it matters
Construction consumes vast resources and generates huge waste streams; material passports are a key information infrastructure for closing the loop in the built environment.
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