Today, buildings still account for almost half of the global energy consumption and carbon emission. This highlights the necessity to increase energy efficiency requirements worldwide in a common effort to reduce the construction sector's impacts on the environment. The current energy policies are driving toward a design that relies on airtight and highly insulated envelopes. As a consequence, energy efficient houses are found to have insufficient indoor air change rates, impacting on the indoor air quality and resulting in higher latent loads.

Circular economy (CE) as a new model of economic development promotes the maximum reuse/recycling of materials, goods and components in order to decrease waste generation to the largest possible extent. It aims to innovate the entire chain of production, consumption, distribution and recovery of materials and energy according to a cradle to cradle vision.