Emma Suokka's family home looks like a modern apartment building from the outside, but inside it is functional and bright. The building is Finland's seventh Swan-labelled apartment building.
Responsible construction and sustainable living are becoming more and more important among home buyers. Emma Suokas says that the most important things for them when choosing an apartment were the home's functionality, location and construction quality. Responsibility came as an added bonus in the apartment, because as a construction professional Suokas knew what the Sign of the Swan means. For him, the sign represents the transparency of the carefully thought-out and controlled construction process.
"For my spouse, I emphasized the energy efficiency of the house and the apartment and the safety of the building materials, as well as the quality assurance of each construction phase," sums up Suokas.
Susenmarki takes into account the stricter requirements
The couple made a reservation as soon as the pre-marketing started and bought the apartment in 2020. The first child was already born when the deal was made, and Kuopuski announced the result just before the move in March 2022. According to Suokka, the layout of the well-planned square adapts well to different life stages and the increase in family size.
"One of the big and important things for us in the Jutsenmerkety apartment is that it holds its value. The environmental requirements for construction will become stricter, and these homes have already taken them into account in advance," says Suokas.
By 2030, a complex of approximately 850 apartments will be built on Puustellinkallio in Leppävaara. JM Finland's first Swan-labelled house was completed in Pasila in 2020 and the second in Leppävaara in 2021. The home of the Suokka family is JM Finland's and at the same time the seventh Swan-labelled apartment building intended for owner-occupation in all of Finland.
Extra points for the bike service point
Moving into a swan-labeled house was no accident, because Suokas has been involved in his employer JM Suomen's Swan-label work since the beginning. In 2017, he was able to design and implement the company's first basic permit for new construction, Joutsenmerki.
In his role as project manager, Suokas was responsible for the construction of the Puustellinkallio area and his own future home. Now Suokas is involved in updating Joutsenmerki's fourth generation basic permit, which is supposed to be put into use at the beginning of next year. JM Suomi is the only construction company in Finland that offers Swan-labelled apartment buildings for owner-occupation.
"Swan-labelled construction has more than 40 criteria, which include not only the design, but also the entire construction phase. The more visible and most interesting criteria for residents are energy efficiency, such as water-saving faucets, and carefully selected safe building materials and chemicals. The procurement of materials and chemicals plays a big role in the implementation of the criteria."
Another advantage of Swan-labelled construction is that, since each house receives its own certificate, all construction stages are confirmed by a third-party quality assurance process.
"The additional points collected by each building are also related to meeting the criteria. We have a great bike service point, which in everyday use is also a place for the whole house's children and dogs," says Suokas excitedly.
Suokas clarifies that some of the products used in the apartment may be Swan-labeled and some may be approved by the Swan-label. For example, their interior paints and parquet are Joutsenmarki products, while the kitchen with its furniture and appliances is a whole approved by the Joutsenmarki.
Including biodiversity as a new criterion
"Now at JM, we are preparing to introduce the criteria of the fourth generation of the Joutsenmarki, which has strictures on the previous ones. Completely new is, for example, the consideration of natural diversity. It can be seen in the fact that in the future we will evaluate the initial situation of the plot with an expert and how its natural diversity can be preserved or even improved."
The EU's taxonomy is also reflected in the new criteria, such as evaluating the plot of land from the perspective of responsibility. Potential climate risks should already be investigated and analyzed during the procurement phase. "These have been taken into account before, but in the future they will have their own tools," Suokas explains.
Facts
- The built environment and construction produce about a third of Finland's CO2 load.
- The basic license granted to JM Finland in 2018 was Finland's first Joutsenmarki basic license granted to the construction industry. Now JM Suomi is applying for a basic license for the fourth generation criteria.
- The Swan mark ensures environmentally friendly and sustainable choices and the transparency of construction.
- There are now 12 JM residential buildings in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa that have been marked with the Swan. New residential buildings are planned for the capital region as well as for Nokia and Tampere.
- There are 43 mandatory criteria and 23 additional points in the Joutsenmarki new construction criteria, under which at least 23 additional points must be collected, for example, in an apartment building.
- The criteria concern, among other things, the building's energy use, quality control of the construction process, and ensuring the suitability of construction products and chemicals.
- The new criteria are related to, among other things, biodiversity, the building's low carbon footprint, resource efficiency and circular economy.