The Fieldlab provides more knowledge, more evidence, more cooperation, but also more questions. New questions that need new research, new collaboration and new experiments to find answers. Because what we have known for a long time and what this field lab also shows: “To really build sustainably, you have to look at the entire system”. Hence this action agenda. A call to action for everyone who sees a role for themselves in this transition to take the next steps together.

1. New times call for new/adapted rules and laws.
Now many sustainable building materials and many start-ups are excluded because all laws, regulations and certification processes are based on an old fossil industry. The MPG, BENG and other requirements in the Building Decree must be thoroughly examined in order to make them appropriate for a new, regenerative economy.

2. Whoever is good gets goodies, whoever is naughty is the roe. Reward the good.
Dear Government, Biobased materials store a lot of CO2 and do not leave any waste behind. That should be rewarded. Now it’s all about the lowest price. This rewards wrong thinking and keeps the green industry too expensive. Put a tax on those who pollute and lighten the burden on those who go green. In this way we can offer farmers a new revenue model, encourage builders to switch and give residents a healthier, more energy-efficient life.

3. Clients, take your responsibility. Choose sustainable.
Dear clients. Whether you are a private individual, a company, a housing association, or a government, whoever has the building built will do a request. This is still (too) often focused purely on the lowest price. But this request contains the perfect opportunity to stimulate and consequently scale up more green, regenerative, biobased and circular construction. Every request can make the world a bit healthier in the coming years. Show guts and take responsibility, dear clients, and dare to ask greener.

4. It’s time to scale up.
We now know that it is possible, circular and biobased construction, but if we really want it, we have to create scale. That means growing more, harvesting more, scaling up more and applying more. This not only increases the supply but also the demand because with scale the price also drops drastically. Scaling up requires help, so governments and investors should grab the hemp by the fiber and encourage a conscious, good, green scaling up.

5. Building the chain is the real construction task.
From farmer to processor to builder via bank and policy makers to citizen. Until a few years ago this chain was as strange as it is now logical and necessary. The more we invest in bringing these parties together, the more we build a new economy that can deal with nitrogen, CO2, housing shortage, perspective for farmers, short chains, regenerative nature and nice, affordable housing for everyone.

6. What the farmer, citizen, builder does not know, he does not like.
Unknown makes unloved. We urgently need to set up a national campaign in which we let both the general population and experts from the chain experience the many benefits of biobased and circular (re)construction. Apart from the enormous contribution to the environment and nature and apart from the new perspectives it offers farmers, builders and local industry, biobased and circular construction and renovation, for example, also provide a healthier working environment for builders and a healthier living environment for residents. In addition, you get a new aesthetic in our homes and buildings, the possibilities of which are endless. It’s time for a new menu and it says green, healthy and beautiful.