To enable the development of this innovative and sustainable economic sector, SAVASCO is structured around four main objectives:

• The development of methods to collect and process sunflower and maize stalks, at a moderate cost, for the production of plant-based aggregates with controlled physicochemical properties.
• The formulation, implementation, and characterization of construction products incorporating these plant-based aggregates.
• The identification and networking of actors in a cross-border value chain for the recovery of maize and sunflower stalks in construction materials (agricultural cooperatives, designers, artisans, construction industry, material distributors, research laboratories, and training organizations).
• Life cycle analysis of the developed construction products and of the industry in general.

Main expected achievements:

• Develop a process to collect maize and sunflower stalks at a moderate cost.
• Process the stalks to provide two types of plant-based aggregates from sunflower, maize, and bark fractions.
• Characterize these produced plant-based aggregates at a multi-physical, environmental, and economic level.
• Formulate, implement, and characterize the use performance and durability of this complete bioclimatic construction solution.
• Build two instrumented prototypes, valued as research, training, and communication tools.
• Evaluate the environmental, economic, and social performance of the construction products and the developed sector.
• Create an association bringing together farmers, construction professionals, laboratories, and institutions to formalize the sector’s structuring and constitute a tool to defend their interests, as well as to federate and support companies and territories for their development beyond the SAVASCO project timeframe.