The Key Strategies to Implement Circular Economy in Building Projects—A Case Study of Taiwan

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Manuscript ID: sustainability-1056977

Title: "The Key Strategies to Implement Circular Economy in Building Projects- A Case Study of Taiwan"

REVIEW

In the paper, the Authors carried out a serial of case study of Circular Economy (CE) focused pilot projects both in the Netherlands and Taiwan and semi‐structured interviews with key project stakeholders of Taiwan projects to understand which CE related practices are applicable for building projects in Taiwan and the reasons behind.

1. In the introduction: the Authors should discuss international situation, regulations, and approaches, and should motivate the research to be of high interest for the addressees; the Authors should explain how the article has been structured by presenting the different sections.    

2. Literature review is absent, and should be addressed. Moreover, the Authors should explain how their study fill the gap in the literature. Finally, the following studies should be considered, for their importance in the field:

https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12125120

https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.17221/343/2020-AGRICECON

3. The Authors should discuss how the results can be interpreted in perspective of previous studies and of the working hypotheses.

4. Policy implications, limitations of the study and future research directions should be addressed.

5. Tables and figures should report the sources.  

6. Extensive editing of English language and style is required

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript aims to identify critical Circular Economy (CE) related practices and how they could be implemented in building projects in Taiwan. While the manuscript is interesting in scope and coverage, and it is well structured, it could however benefit more by improving the following:

• The introduction is very brief and its content as well as much of the wording is very much similar to that of the abstract. Please paraphrase some of the wording and extend the introduction.
  
  
• In the introduction, please state and describe the research questions clearly and briefly explain how they will be addressed.
• The aim of "materials and methods" section is to provide the reader with all the details of how you conducted your study. However, much of what I see in this section is the literature review (sections 2.1 - 2.2) and description of the cases (section 2.3) rather than the method itself (which is very brief as indicated in section 2.4) - kindly describe your method adequately. 
  
  
• Make sure you define the terms clearly the first time you mention them, e.g. 5R is mentioned in the manuscript several times (in the abstract, introduction and section 2.1) without explaining what its acronym stands for, only to be defined in section 2.2.
  
  
• Regarding the discussion section, elaborate more on how the identified critical CE related practices could be implemented in building projects in Taiwan (this isn't so clear in the manuscript).
  
  
• Briefly describe the limitations of your study in the conclusion to show the readers that you have considered your study's weaknesses. 
  
  
• What are the theoretical contributions of your study?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors

The paper has an interesting focus.
I have several comments, questions.

Introduction and conclusion should be extended. Please add the paragraph with the contribution of the paper. Also, an organization of the article should be added in the form “section 2 concerns…, section 3 presents… etc.” This extension must be provided in the introduction.

Define more concisely the scope of the paper, the main goal in the abstract (or in the introduction –> abstract = max 200 words).

The article refers to the idea of CE in the Nederlands. What are the provisions governing the inclusion of the circular economy (CE) in Taiwanese legislation?

In Table 1. Definitions, objectives of 5R principles and their applications in building industry - There is no reference to a holistic approach. My suggestion - add.

Tab 2 and 3 – please add the source of data and information

2.2 Research method – should be more extended. Tab. 4 should contain the number of Interviewees

Are these 2 buildings in Taiwan the only representative examples?

Develop the scope of the cited literature.

Finally I wish good luck with the paper and this field of research.

Reviewer

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Manuscript ID: sustainability-1056977

Title: "The Key Strategies to Implement Circular Economy in Building Projects- A Case Study of Taiwan"

SECOND REVIEW

The Authors improved their manuscript according to the suggestions of my previous review report.