Convergence of Circular Economy With Industry 5.0 to Enhance Sustainability: Paradigm Shift in the Construction Industry

ABSTRACT The evolving Industry 5.0 landscape demands adaptability to technological advancements, emphasizing human‐machine interaction. Integrating Circular Economy (CE) principles with Industry 5.0 can significantly enhance sustainability in construction. Moreover, attention must be paid to developing future industrial revolutions such as Industry 6.0, in line with CE, prioritizing sustainable construction. Despite the potential benefits, literature lacks substantial exploration of this convergence. Addressing this gap, this study develops a framework to converge CE principles with Industry 5.0 and its future revolutions to enhance construction sustainability. A four‐round qualitative Delphi method was conducted with domain experts, and data were analyzed using manual content analysis. The findings indicate that key Industry 5.0 elements: human‐centricity, sustainability, and resilience, can be integrated with CE principles through enabling technologies. The framework demonstrates how assigning repetitive, waste‐prone tasks to collaborative robots enables human workers to focus on value‐added activities, reducing material wastage while strengthening human‐centricity. Further, this study introduces three new elements necessary for achieving sustainability in future industrial revolutions: policies and ethics, change management and transformation, and smart materials utilization. This research contributes to the limited academic discourse on the convergence of CE and Industry 5.0, while also offering insights into how upcoming industrial paradigms can be shaped to support sustainable transformation of construction.