MASCO

Making the builder invest more cheaply in building materials that remain in circulation

Living Lab MASCO is betting on the opportunities offered by leveraged finance for more circular construction. Through a MASCO model, builders can invest more cheaply in building materials, provided they remain in circulation after use.

A MASCO is a kind of hub that brings circular materials into circulation, even after several life cycles. Circular materials have a high reuse value, so MASCO can enable a new type of investment model for those materials. Through a MASCO model, building owners can invest more cheaply in building materials, provided they remain in circulation after use.

Similar to ESCOs (=Energy Service Companies), this lowers the investment threshold and could make buildings much more independent of primary raw materials in the future. The financial sector finds in this new model an answer to the growing demand for sustainable investment products. Such a model does not yet exist in Flanders and requires insights from different disciplines.

A diverse partnership of frontrunners wants to establish a first for Flanders in this living lab: financial, legal digital and circularity experts do targeted research together on the basis of two 'pure' circular materials: JUUNOO office walls and NNOF office furniture. Answers to organisational, financial and legal questions should convince the rest of the construction and financial sector of the financial and ecological benefits for the building sector.