Knowing your supply chains
General description
The sourcing of (raw) materials can create significant environmental damage. A circular building strategy should also focus on the effects of supply chains. For example, a sustainable forest management is a prerequisite when building with wood. Additionally, by knowing your supply chains or even creating them, new innovative processes or the avoidance of waste becomes possible.
Examples
STROHUIS
Braunschweig, Germany
There is no standardisation or precise characteristic values for straw, because the material has different characteristics in different regions. That is why the company Baustroh GmbH was founded in Germany. The company has built up a network of farmers in Germany who can press straw as a building material and provides certification. The certification process of a straw bale as insulation material is very simple. Only the density, the dimensions and the degree of dryness are important. For the Strohuis, a farmer in Verden, northern Germany, not far from the project delivered the straw. This farmer specialises in baling straw for buildings and is also Baustroh GmbH’s largest supplier. The way his business model works is that he creates a network of neighbouring farmers in his region and presses the straw for them in a standard size and density. In this way, a building material is created from a local network that could be sold throughout Germany or even in the EU.