Circular Economy as a New Concept for Sustainable Building Development in Serbia

The concept of circular economy has become an important topic nowadays. This paper provides a brief literature review that introduces sustainability and the circular economy by presenting their origins and their conceptual definitions. In accordance with the above-mentioned, the standards applied in Serbia are enumerated. In April 2020, the Roadmap for Circular Economy in Serbia, the first document that initiated a dialogue between decisionmakers, industry representatives, academia and civil society in order to define the goals, future steps and a time frame for the transition from a traditional linear model to the circular economy, was adopted. In November 2020, Serbia accepted the conditions of the European Union for linking the European Green Deal with the strategic development of the region by signing the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans. Furthermore, Serbia has a Digital Platform for the Circular Economy that provides support to companies through business models, examples of good practice and tools, in order to more easily apply the circular business model, and reduce the carbon footprint in production processes and products. Although the implementation of the circular economy is at the very beginning, there are already several examples of good practice in Serbia, in terms of sustainable building materials.