Biobased building products are here. Now comes the right choice.
In one year, the number of biobased building products with a full environmental declaration in the Nationale Milieudatabase (the Dutch national environmental database) grew from 92 to 245. That is almost three times as many. Look only at that figure and you might think biobased construction is finally breaking through.
But the building site tells a different story. The Benchmark Biobased Bouwen 2026 by KTGO shows that supply is growing fast, while projects are still hardly choosing it. The products are ready. They just aren’t being ordered.
3.3 percent, while the target is 30
The figures from the benchmark are clear. In large-scale housing renovations, the biobased share is 3.3 percent. In non-residential construction it is 2.4 percent. The Dutch national biobased construction programme (Nationale Aanpak Biobased Bouwen) sets a 2030 target of 30 percent biobased insulation in home retrofits and renovation.
That is not a small gap. That is a chasm.
And yet there is good news too. The number of regional supply chains grew from 11 to 16, and the number of building concepts with at least 30 percent biobased structural components from 6 to 16. According to the benchmark, renovation is the only market showing real growth; new construction lags far behind. So the willingness is there. Just not at the moment that counts: when the order is placed.
Why does it stay on the shelf?
If the products exist, why does almost nobody choose them? There are a few explanations. To be honest, they are quite understandable.
Price and availability play a role. According to the Dutch government, construction companies can build biobased more often if the materials are available at a feasible price. Many biobased building materials are also still made abroad.
On top of that there is uncertainty. Earlier this year, specialists in the trade magazine PONT warned that by no means all claimed benefits of biobased materials hold up in practice. Objective information about their properties is often missing. If you are in doubt, you choose what you know. That isn’t unwillingness. It is avoiding risk.
That is exactly why proof matters so much. A certification or an environmental declaration in the Nationale Milieudatabase turns a promise into something you can check. So that growth from 92 to 245 products is more than a nice number: more and more biobased products can simply be included in an MPG calculation, the Dutch environmental performance assessment for buildings.
The moment comes more often than you think
A building isn’t made sustainable in one go. It happens in steps, at the moments when something needs replacing anyway. Window frames after thirty years, an installation that has reached the end of its life. And the roof.
During a roof renovation, everything is opened up. The old roofing comes off, the insulation is tackled, a new roof edge goes on. In that short time, a lot of material choices are made. Usually they fall on whatever was used twenty years ago, simply because that’s how it’s done and nobody stops to think about it.
That, in our view, is where the quickest gains are. You don’t need to start an extra project or demolish a building. The work is already scheduled. The only thing that changes is what goes on the order list.
Where the roof edge comes in
The roof edge isn’t a component people think about much. It has to fit, finish the roof neatly and last a long time. But on a flat roof you quickly end up with a fair number of running metres. Every metre is a material choice.
That is why New Circle developed the Biobased Roof Edge Profile, designed for extensive sedum roofs and green roofs. The profile is made of HDPE from renewable raw materials, with a biobased content of at least 98 percent. It has a technical service life of around 50 years, a ten-year warranty and is fully recyclable. This year, the expert jury of the KVK Innovatie Top 100 selected the profile in the Circular Economy category.
Just as important is how you fix it. Gluing isn’t necessary: the profiles are linked together with biobased connectors. Lay them loose, and at the next renovation they come off intact and can be used again. That makes a difference. Biobased without demountability only shifts the problem; a glued-down product, however natural, still ends up in the skip.
In all fairness: we don’t yet have our own environmental declaration in the Nationale Milieudatabase. The life cycle assessment of the profile is underway. As soon as it is complete, we will share the results.
The rules are shifting
Waiting also makes less and less sense. Since 1 July 2026, the Dutch environmental performance requirement for offices has been 15 percent stricter. For schools, shops, healthcare facilities and industrial buildings, a requirement applies for the first time. These are precisely the buildings with large flat roofs.
The next step is already on the calendar. From 1 January 2028, a whole life carbon calculation covering the entire life cycle will be required for new buildings over 1,000 m². From 2030, a legal limit will follow for the climate impact of both energy and material use.
That affects new construction first. But anyone renovating a roof now is laying materials that will still be there in twenty years. What feels optional today will probably just be the norm by then.
Scaling up starts with the order
The benchmark shows that the market has more than enough biobased products. What is missing is the moment someone actually chooses them. That doesn’t lie with one party. The client sets the requirements, the architect or consultant specifies them, the roofer installs. If one link keeps choosing what it knows, nothing happens.
Do you have a roof renovation planned in the coming period? Get in touch with us. We are happy to think along about what a biobased, demountable roof edge can mean for your project. In the meantime, take a look at the Biobased Roof Edge Profile.
