ECOFUNC is reshaping building materials with bio-based panels designed with real-world performance, safety, and circularity in mind.
Construction is one of the world’s largest industries, but also one of the most difficult to decarbonise. ECOFUNC begins with that reality. The building and construction sector accounts for more than 35% of global final energy use (but around 40% in Europe), around 37% of global carbon emissions, up to 50% of natural resource use and around half of all solid waste.
ECOFUNC focuses on three products that are used throughout modern buildings: ventilated facade cladding, suspended ceiling tiles, and internal partition walls. These products shape the performance, appearance, durability and comfort of buildings. Currently, these products are typically made from materials that are energy-intensive and/or difficult to recycle, such as ceramics, plaster, fiberglass, and fossil-based components. ECOFUNC aims to change this by developing circular, bio-based and functional alternatives that work not only in the laboratory but also in real buildings.
problem
The problem is not only that current construction panels have a high environmental impact, but also that there is a deeper problem. The field still lacks scalable alternatives that combine sustainability, technical performance, regulatory compliance, and recyclability. In particular, there is still a lack of biocomposite solutions for facade cladding, ceiling tiles and partition walls that reach at least TRL 6, meet industry standards and can be integrated into real industrial value chains.
This gap is important because buildings will not accept materials that perform poorly. New panels must withstand fire, moisture, mechanical loads, abrasion, and aging. They must also meet indoor air quality requirements, acoustic goals, and thermal performance thresholds. ECOFUNC therefore treats sustainability and performance as inseparable. This project does not seek to replace traditional materials with “greener” options that require lower quality acceptance by the market. ECOFUNC develops panels that meet stringent architectural specifications including bending strength, fire classification, weather resistance, water absorption, sound reduction, and indoor emissions.
There are also end-of-life issues. Traditional panel systems often lock together materials that are difficult to separate and difficult to reuse. ECOFUNC directly addresses that bottleneck. The project has been designed around circularity from the beginning, from the initial materials design, to mechanical recycling routes for furniture and automotive applications, and chemical recycling routes aimed at recovering high-value molecules for reuse in new production chains.
chance
ECOFUNC believes there is a huge opportunity to redesign the mass production market using lighter, cleaner and more circular materials. The project aims to establish the first circular value chain in the EU and associated countries and introduce the full chain from raw materials to finished products in TRL 7.
This opportunity is simultaneously important environmentally, economically and industrially. ECOFUNC targets at least 60% less carbon footprint across its lifecycle during manufacturing compared to benchmark products, contains at least 85% bio-based or recyclable materials, and at least 90% of processes meet No Significant Hazard standards. It also aims to reduce lifecycle costs by up to 20% compared to traditional panels, with approximately 90% of the savings expected to come from lower operating and maintenance costs.
Opportunities extend beyond the construction industry. ECOFUNC is intentionally designed to have spillover applications in automotive and furniture. This is important because scale is one of the biggest barriers to new materials. By validating products in multiple areas, ECOFUNC increases the potential for European industry to increase demand, especially bio-based materials, reduce costs and strengthen supply chain resilience. The proposal envisages six new circular value chains in the short term and an additional four value chains in the medium term, with ambitions for revenue and market uptake related to sustainable panel products.
approach
ECOFUNC’s approach is systematic (Figure 1). First, the project will develop raw materials. CO2BioClean develops carbon negative polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). ECOFUNC chose PHA because its properties can be tailored to different applications and because PHA offers the rare combination of being bio-based, processable, durable in use, and completely biodegradable in the natural environment without leaving behind any microplastics. Helian Polymers formulates PHAs for foams, matrices and reinforcing fibers with the support of additives supplied by Avient and bio-based flame retardant systems developed by Tecnalia. Vestaeco is working on pre-treatment of straw fibers to effectively combine them with PHA in biocomposite boards.
Second, ECOFUNC converts PHA compounds into engineered intermediates and panels. Centexbel processes PHA into continuous and chopped fibers, turning continuous fibers into textiles. Next Technology Tecnotessile and Cormatex process chopped fibers into nonwoven fabrics and develop nonwoven coreboards based on natural fibers and PHA. VTT develops PHA-based self-reinforcing composite (SRC) face skins and free-standing panels using woven and non-woven fabrics. VTT also uses computer modeling to optimize layer structure, thickness, and performance. Volar Plastic scales up SRC panels and face skins to full size. Fraunhofer ICT develops foamed PHA core boards. Vestaeco is developing a biocomposite core board reinforced with straw. Acciona then coats the SRC panels and integrates the surface skin using the core material to create multilayer panels for ceiling and partition applications.
Third, ECOFUNC verifies performance at full scale. The project will produce full-size coated SRC panels, SRC face skins, and straw-reinforced nonwoven and foam core boards. Acciona installs panels in real construction environments, monitors humidity, internal temperature, heat flux, and air quality for at least six months, and compares the results to traditional solutions.
Fourth, ECOFUNC builds circularity and market readiness into the project itself. Centro Ricerche FIAT is validating ECOFUNC materials for automotive applications. Kastamonu Entegre is developing a furniture recycling route using panel waste. The University of Birmingham is developing pilot-scale chemical recycling for PHA. Civitta leads lifecycle assessments, lifecycle costing, techno-economic analysis, socio-economic analysis, and business modeling. The Unimos Alliance will lead communications, dissemination, exploitation, intellectual property support, stakeholder engagement, and awareness. Tecnalia also ensures safe and sustainable design and compliance with DNSH principles throughout the project.
major innovations
ECOFUNC’s innovation is not about a single material. It is an integrated platform of 11 technologies that connect raw materials, formulation, processing, verification and recycling. This project will develop new PHA grades for a variety of functionalities, bio-based intumescent flame retardants, melt-spun fibers, woven and non-woven fabrics, self-reinforcing composite panels, straw-based biocomposite boards, foam core boards, multilayer panel systems, and both mechanical and chemical end-of-life routes.
One of the major innovations is that ECOFUNC aims to introduce PHA-based self-reinforcing composites into construction applications where performance requirements are high and current solutions are rarely circular. Another is the combination of bio-based face skins with various core structures such as non-woven fabrics, foams and straw-reinforced boards. This gives ECOFUNC the flexibility to tailor thermal, acoustic, fire protection and mechanical performance to suit different building uses.
A further innovation is the project’s circular design logic. ECOFUNC does more than just make panels. It is designed with what will happen after its service life in mind. The same material family is being developed with future recycling in mind, including recovery into furniture particleboard, auto parts, and chemically recycled PHA suitable for reuse. The proposal aims to recover at least 70% of the panel material for automotive reuse, at least 50% for recycling or reuse in furniture applications, and chemical recovery of at least 85% of the PHA by weight with at least 95% purity.
influence
ECOFUNC’s influence ambitions are unusually far-reaching. On the environmental front, the project objectives aim for a global warming potential of less than 0.5 kg of CO2 equivalent per square meter during the manufacturing stage, and the impact section points out that the carbon footprint during the manufacturing stage is more than 60% lower than the benchmark product, with more than 85% bio-based or recyclable content, and that medium-term avoided emissions are estimated at 20.8 million tons of CO2 per year.
Economically, ECOFUNC aims to make bio-based panels competitive rather than niche. The proposition links this to premium products that deliver long-term value through scale-up, business modeling, new value chains, sustainability, compliance, performance and reduced lifecycle costs. It also provides ECOFUNC with market penetration first in Europe, with the possibility of expansion into other large construction markets.
Technically, ECOFUNC helps move PHA-based construction products from promising research to industrial reality. Socially, ECOFUNC aims to increase awareness and acceptance of safe and sustainable bio-based materials through field trials, pop-up events, sample books, videos, podcasts, stakeholder sessions, and policy roundtables.
The real significance of ECOFUNC lies in treating construction materials as a systems problem. It connects resin production, advanced processing, building performance, cyclical end-of-life routes, and business uptake. If ECOFUNC is successful, facades, ceilings and walls will no longer be passive architectural elements made from traditional materials that are difficult to recycle. These will be high-performance circular products built for a low-carbon economy.
Please note: This is a commercial profile
This article will also be published in the quarterly magazine issue 26.
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