Utforska den cirkulära ekonomins principer inom byggbranschen : Strategier för leveranskedjan och blockkedjans potentiella roll – En fallstudie hos Skanska Sverige

This research focuses on Skanska Sweden’s next sustainability focus area. This thesis explores how Skanska Sweden can enhance its circular construction strategy through supply chain management and technologies like blockchain to maintain its position as a sustainability leader over the next five to ten years. The objective is to examine circular economy principles within the construction sector, investigate how these principles can be integrated with supply chain management, assess how blockchain technologies can be utilized in these applications, and provide suggestions for the future. The research included a qualitative case study methodology based on an extensive literature review and 12 semi-structured interviews with professionals from the sustainability, supply chain, digitalization, and project delivery departments of Skanska, Sweden. Leximancer-supported content analysis was used to identify patterns and insights in the interview data. The findings of the study indicated that conceptual awareness of circularity is strong, especially in the early design stages, but areas for improvement in terms of implementation were identified due to fragmented supply chains, underdeveloped reuse logistics networks, and limited interoperability in some areas with digital systems. Participants identified blockchain and SAP as promising tools for improvement in material and lifecycle traceability, carbon data integration, and process optimization. Beyond technological aspects and organizational development aspects, such as internal knowledge gaps and cultural readiness, were also identified as areas for improvement for better integration of sustainability. In addition, organizational alignment, supplier engagement, and customer collaboration were found to be critical success factors. The thesis presents applicable solutions such as improving SAP integration for material tracking, piloting BIM-Blockchain projects, and developing regional circularity. It also suggests increasing digital literacy within the company and contributing more directly to circularity at the design stage, together with customers. This study contributes to academic and sectoral discourses by demonstrating how circularity and digitalization can act as mutually reinforcing drivers of sustainable innovation when anchored in coherent strategy and institutional commitment.