The Circular City and Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage Index: Measuring the investment opportunity in Europe

The long-lived, culturally relevant, and unique buildings of Europe's urban landscapes embody the values of the circular economy (CE) and sustainability. They are central to urban identities, generation after generation. Furthermore, adaptive reuse of cultural heritage buildings (ARCH) contributes to slowing down the extraction of natural resources, reducing energy for new buildings, and reducing construction and demolition waste and greenhouse gas emissions. ARCH's inherent characteristics distinctly express the 2019 European Green Deal's CE objectives and the 2020 building Renovation Wave Strategy. In this context, European city managers, heritage conservationists, and other stakeholders need a systematic method to characterize the investment opportunity for ARCH, considering CE. To fill this methodological gap, this study introduces a new composite indicator called the Circular City Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage Index.