Projects
Our goal is that the built environment is a key part of solving climate change. We work for a sustainable built environment, through sustainable business.
Ongoing projects
#BuildingLife
#BuildingLife: Ten European Green Building Councils deliver the EU Green Deal by tackling the whole-life environmental impacts of the buildings sector
In the runup to COP26, WorldGBC has convened ten European Green Building Councils to galvanise climate action in the built environment through national and regional decarbonisation roadmaps.
The Green Building Councils spearheading the project are Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK.
Read more from World GBC.
Read more from Green Building Council Finland.
LIFE Level(s)
The LIFEforLLL(s) project will focus on actions to mainstream the Level(s) key indicators on LCA, LCC and IAQ. Eight of the 22 members of the European Green Building Councils will take the Theory of Change as a basis for the project, which will involve stakeholders from the public, private sector and certification schemes to explore how these key indicators can be implemented on a pan-European scale. The project seeks to do this by achieving the following objectives, the first step in creating the conditions for the European construction sector to mainstream Level(s):
- alignment of Europes leading green building certification schemes with Level(s) to ensure they are aligned in approach and generate more comparable data on life-cycle performance
- identification of administrative and data requirements needed to support Level(s) across Europe
- working with public authorities to align green public procurement criteria with Level(s)
- building the capacity of stakeholders across the whole sector value chain to apply the indicators
- generating awareness across industry and government on the necessity of Level(s) and a life-cycle approach framework in addressing climate and environmental risk.
Read more from LifeforLLL(s) on LIFE Public Database.
Read more from Green Building Council Finland.
Kiinteistö- ja rakentamisalan kiertotalouden osaamiskeskittymä - expertise in the circular economy of the real estate and construction industry
The real estate and construction circular economy competence center brings together industry expertise, the best operating models and innovations. Read more from Green Building Council Finland.
The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment
The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (the Commitment) challenges business, organisations, cities, states and regions to reach net zero carbon in operation for all assets under their direct control by 2030, and to advocate for all buildings to be net zero carbon in operation by 2050.
Read more from World GBC.
Read more from Green Building Council Finland.
Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme of the One Planet Network (One Planet SBC Programme 2019-2022)
SBC Programme contributes to the One Plan for One Planet by accelerating the shift towards sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12) in the buildings and construction sector. The objective is to raise awareness and share knowledge and information on SBC, and stimulate cooperation between SBC experts and organisations for the development of practical tools, policy guidance, and collaborative projects for SBC implementation in countries.
For 2019-2022, the SBC programme will expand the scope of its interventions from housing/building to built environment and concentrate its activities in the following thematic focus areas:
Affordable and resilient building practices
The Programme aims to zoom in on specific needs of countries and identify/develop appropriate approaches/solutions to support countries for (i) the prevention and management of risks in the built environment, (ii) structural improvements aimed at sustainability and resilience in construction and post-disaster reconstruction and (iii) climate and disaster resilient affordable housing (e.g. in national and subnational social housing programmes).
Circular built environment
The Programme aims to promote circularity principles and approaches to support countries in achieving their climate commitments, environmental commitments, and development objectives. This includes the promotion of sustainably sourced materials including through the reuse of different waste streams. This second thematic focus area directly supports the SBC programme’s aspirational target “to work towards circular built environment, aiming at reducing waste and a global 30 % recovery rate of construction and demolition waste”.
SBC Programme seeks to (i) make the case for SBC to countries, (ii) provide training and technical and policy guidance based on science to key stakeholders for shifting policies and actions towards the promotion of sustainable buildings and construction, and (iii) facilitate the creation partnerships for SBC implementation.
SBC is led by the Ministry of the Environment, Finland and co-led by UN Environment and RMIT University from Australia.
Read more about the Programme here.
Projects we participate in
Nordic Networks for Circular Construction project aims at accelerating the implementation of the best practices of circular economy in the Nordic construction sector. The project is part of Finland’s chairmanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
MAKING-CITY is a 60-month Horizon 2020 project launched in December 2018. It aims to address and demonstrate the urban energy system transformation towards smart and low-carbon cities, based on the Positive Energy District (PED) concept. The PED operational models developed in MAKING-CITY will help European and other cities around the world to adopt a long-term City Vision 2050 for energy transition and sustainable urbanisation whilst turning citizens into actors of this transformation.
Dramatically Reducing Embodied Carbon in Europe
The Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance’s ‘Dramatically Reducing Embodied Carbon in Europe’ project aims to foster widespread adoption of ambitious local, national and regional policies that will reduce embodied carbon and increase the uptake of bio-based materials in the built environment in Europe.
Past projects
Ilmastoviisaat Taloyhtiöt
Ilmastoviisaat Taloyhtiöt (“Climate Smart Housing Companies”) project’s goal is to get housing companies and occupants to be an active part of smart cities, and the prevention of climate change.
Housing companies have a wide variety of knowledge, such as dimension information, energy consumption, conditions, repair history, energy and condition reviews, and long-term plans. However, the knowledge is fragmented into multiple actors’ systems which makes it difficult to provide information to occupants or to share it with a company. Information is not often found in digital form, which makes it difficult for new solutions to enter this market.
Climate Smart Housing Companies project aims to open up markets for new types of energy efficiency services and solutions in blocks of flats (housing companies). The project will develop common policies and practices for the collection, ownership, and sharing of residential apartment buildings’ data, in order to make this information accessible and to enable companies to develop a new kind of service business for this customer segment (housing companies and / or individual residents).
GBC Finland’s role in the project is to gather market insights and best practices for the exploitation and sharing of digital information in housing companies. The findings will be compiled into a digital guide and shared in trainings in 2020.
10YFP SBC (2015–2018)
The Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) Programme is part of the United Nations 10YFP framework. The 10YFP is a global framework that enhances international cooperation to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production in both developed and developing countries.
Buildings and Construction sectors account for 40% of global energy use, 30% of energy-related GHG emissions, approximately 12% of water use, nearly 40% of waste, and employs 10% of the workforce, including many SMEs. The built environment can catalyse opportunities for a wide array of global and local challenges including climate change, land-use, demographic shifts, water and other resource scarcities.
The SBC Programme aims to foster a mutual understanding of sustainable buildings among relevant stakeholders and to identify the knowledge, resources and incentives required to build, maintain and use them; ensuring structures are healthy to live and work in; that they sustainably utilise energy, water, land and other key resources, respect environmental limits; are responsive to climate change; and contribute to the social and economic development of the communities where they stand.
The 10YFP SBC Programme is led by the Ministry of the Environment of Finland and co-led by UN Environment and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) from Australia.
For additional information please contact Pekka Huovila (firstname.lastname@figbc.fi)
EeMAP (2017–2018)
The EeMAP Initiative aims to create a standardised “energy efficient mortgage”, according to which building owners are incentivised to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings or acquire an already energy efficient property by way of preferential financing conditions linked to the mortgage.
EeMAP represents the first time a group of major banks and mortgage lenders, as well as companies and organisations from the building and energy industries have proactively come together to discuss the private financing of energy efficiency.
The Initiative is led by the European Mortgage Federation – European Covered Bond Council, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, RICS, the Europe Regional Network of World Green Building Council, E.ON and Research Center SAFE.
Read more about EeMAP here.
Build Upon (2015–2017)
Build Upon was a two year Horizon2020 project, aimed at helping European countries design and implement strong, long-term national strategies for the renovation of their existing buildings. Deep building renovation represents one of the single most critical tools to massively lower Europe’s CO2 emissions, create jobs in the construction sector and improve the quality of the existing built environment for the good of European citizens.
Build Upon managed to gather a coalition of over 300 businesses and organisations, including cities, public authorities, property developers, manufacturers and energy utilities, as well as trade organisations, NGO’s and universities to urge Europe to curb emissions from buildings. The coalition called the need for “ambitious ‘national renovation strategies’ that set out clear targets, milestones and measures on transforming existing buildings.
The project was led by 13 Green Building Councils (GBCs) from across Europe, coordinated by GBC España and supported by WorldGBC.
Read more about Build Upon here.
Climate Street (2015–2017)
The Climate Street project aimed to find and test ways to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions together with residents, companies, and real-estate property owners.
Two streets, one in Helsinki and one in the neighboring city Vantaa were selected to be transformed as testbeds for climate friendly solutions by the municipalities. The streets were chosen based on their central location and upcoming street renovations.
One of the first goals for Climate Street was getting target groups to feel ownership over the project and facilitate grass root actions. The needs and motivations of inhabitants and companies were carefully studied, after which the solutions were proposed. The strategy was successful and climate actions were embraced by the local stakeholders.
The Climate Street project was carried out by the Vantaa and Helsinki Environment Centres together with the Green Building Council, the HSY Climate Info and Aalto University. Climate Street got funding from the European Regional Development Fund, and it was part of the Finland’s Six City Strategy.
Read more about Climate Street here.
ERA17 (2010–2017)
In January 2010, then Minister of Housing Jan Vapaavuori gathered a group of experts to map out the best ways to take Finland further in energy-smartness. The ERA17 for an Energy-Smart Built Environment 2017 action plan is the fruit of this collaboration.
The goal of ERA17 was to reach the energy efficiency requirements set for 2020 three years early, in 2017, in Finland’s centennial year. The ultimate goal of the plan is that in 2050, Finland will be able to offer the world’s best living and operating environment for people and businesses.
During ERA17, energy-smart actions were advanced in terms of both improved regulation and practical work. The action plan helped increase collaboration between the public and private sector as well as collaboration in spreading and recognising the most energy-smart practices.
This action plan was led by RAKLI ry, The Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT, The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, The Finnish Real Estate Federation (FREF), the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation and the Ministry of the Environment Finland. Green Building Council Finland coordinated the project.
Read more about ERA17 here.
For additional information please contact Jessica Karhu
(firstname.lastname@figbc.fi)
Nordic Guide to Sustainable Materials (2014–2015)
The project’s aim was to make a guide, relevant for both refurbishments and new buildings that would define sustainable functional criteria for building materials common within the Nordic countries, and offer product data reflecting Nordic practice (legislation, market drivers, procurements and production methods).
The project also resulted in closer cooperation within this field among Nordic organisations.
For additional information please contact Jessica Karhu
(firstname.lastname@figbc.fi)
Nordic Urban Development (2014–2015)
The Nordic Urban Development project created a joint Nordic framework for sustainable urban development, with the aim of at least 40 urban development projects using it for sustainable urban development in 2016.
For additional information please contact Jessica Karhu (firstname.lastname@figbc.fi)