Research: Systems mapping of Scotland’s built environment and energy Infrastructure sectors
23 October 2025
To meet Scotland’s ambitious climate and circular goals, coordinated action across industries will be needed to meet the country’s statutory targets and goals around waste reduction, increasing resource productivity and extending material lifetimes.
Given their significant resource intensity and role in delivering low-carbon infrastructure, the built environment and energy infrastructure sectors have a critical role to play in the transition to a net zero society.
To facilitate the shift towards a circular economy in these areas, Resource Futures was commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland to research and deliver interactive systems maps for both sectors, outlining the cultural, institutional, material, and social condition shaping the adoption of (or lack of uptake of) circular practices.
As well as highlighting areas barriers to change and opportunities for future focus (including collaboration, enabling infrastructure, and shifts in policy and culture), the systems maps show how many of these factors are interconnected, allowing for a broader picture of not only how and where intervention might be needed, but also how these interventions may impact other factors across both eco-systems.
The interactive maps offers stakeholders in Scotland a key baseline for understanding the circular dynamics in play in these sectors, and exist as ‘living tools’ that can be revisited and refined as further evidence emerges.
