YIT has already designed and implemented many environments that promote biodiversity. It can be seen, for example, as original trees in the Teaching Forest of the Gesterby school center and as butterflies along the Raide-Joker. Supporting biodiversity is one way to speed up the transition to sustainability and ensure that future generations have the opportunity to live in a healthy and safe environment.
Let's leave the original trees in place, plant wild plants in Finland and protect the existence of some species.
But now it's not in the forest, but in the yard: all these examples are possible actions when YIT starts planning the yard of a new residential building for its client. The goal is that the yard supports biodiversity, i.e. the diversity of nature. It means the abundance of species and their habitats and the genetic variation within species.
The importance of actions that support biodiversity is emphasized by the fact that natural diversity has weakened in the light of research.
"The construction industry has opportunities to do positive things to support biodiversity in urban environments, and our renewed yard concept is such. Our customers also appreciate the consideration of nature values", quality manager Hanne Perälä from YIT says. He is responsible for sustainable development in the housing business.
Yards that support biodiversity are also generally more sustainable and better adapted to changes in the environment, such as climate change.
Reducing adverse effects
When YIT's designers start designing the yard of a residential building, they have the updated yard design guidelines to support them. It ensures that the biodiversity-related principles and means for managing biodiversity impacts outlined in YIT's responsibility policy are put into practice. The first yard according to the design instructions is already being planned.
One of the key principles is the mitigation hierarchy. It means that the primary aim is to avoid and reduce harmful effects on biodiversity.
"We can consider whether part of the yard plot can be left wild and whether the original trees can be left uncut. Not all actions can be carried out in all yards. Zoning, for example, affects what can be done. We also have a dialogue with the cities in order to achieve the best result in terms of biodiversity," Perälä explains.
The nature values of the yard can also be increased by renovation and restoration, if it is not possible to avoid harmful effects. The innovative actions aim at improving the state of nature and nature values compared to the starting situation. These activities adapt to nature's own activities.
"Renovation includes, among other things, our regional development projects, where we can significantly renew, for example, the environment that used to be an industrial area. Not all of our projects can make such extensive reforms, but we can always do something. If there isn't enough space for a meadow in the yard, we can build, for example, flower beds and insect hotels made of species preferred by pollinators," says Perälä.
A means of accelerating the sustainability transition
For YIT, supporting biodiversity is also a means of accelerating the transition to sustainability. It is the case that more diverse ecosystems, such as forests and wetlands, act as carbon sinks that bind harmful carbon dioxide emissions. Both of these will be in the Gesterby school center, which is under construction. YIT has planned and implemented the school center for Kirkkonummi municipality as a life-cycle project, which includes 20 years of service and maintenance responsibility.
The municipality strongly wants a yard that supports biodiversity for the school center with just under 1 students. The area to be built is no less than 300 square meters in size, which is equivalent to almost nine and a half full-sized football fields.
When examining the surfaces of the yard, the forest to be saved and plantation forest is the size of a football field*. Including the renovated and new meadow, the butterfly meadow, on the other hand, is more than two and a half football fields in front. The proportion of grass in the area that is poor in biodiversity does not even cover an entire football field
The rest of the surfaces are covered by asphalt, stone ash, bark mulch, sand artificial grass, gravel, wetlands and a safety platform.
"The main ideas have been to preserve as much of the existing nature as possible, to add as much meadow as possible and to favor native wild species that need less maintenance", planning manager Tony Lökfors It tells about YIT's life cycle services.
And of course, the yard will also have intertwining bushes and flowers, as well as playground equipment, playgrounds and sitting areas.
A stormwater wetland protects water quality
The most impressive biodiversity works of the Gesterby school center are related to the stormwater wetland and the forest. Stormwater can contain many kinds of pollutants, such as heavy metals, microplastics and nutrients, which we want to prevent from entering nature.
Lökfors says that, for example, the stormwater on the south side of the plot is delayed in pipes, from where it is led to the stormwater wetland that delays the water. Some of the pipes travel above ground so that students can marvel at them.
"Stormwater management can safeguard water quality before it discharges into the area's waterways. There will also be a pier at the edge of the wetland that can be used for lessons," Lökfors describes the social responsibility of the project. The wetland itself contains loam and filter and structural fabrics, and there is a small island in the middle of it. Trees and plants that thrive in wetter conditions, such as reeds and tar reeds, are planted around the wetland.
The trees are allowed to rot in the Teaching Forest
In the teaching forest, all domestic tree species, from spruce to maple, will be planted, and a reference point will be made for domestic stone species. The school teachers have prepared a list of different types of stone.
"The aim is to keep the area as natural as possible, so only dangerous trees are cut down. Some of the trees are allowed to rot in the forest. A barrier-free stone ash trail will also be built there alongside the paths covered with wood chips," says Lökfors.
The solutions are based on the solid know-how of YIT and its partners in promoting biodiversity in small and large environments. For example, in the Raide-Jokeri light rail project, felled trees were left to rot along the track, where harmful alien species were also removed and roasting fields favored by insects and butterflies were built.
"We are excited to come up with new diverse operating environments with our customers. It's great to be involved in promoting natural diversity in construction and to bring it into the users' lives", concludes Lökfors.
*The size of the football field is calculated according to the recommendation of the European football association UEFA: 105 x 68 meters, which means an area of approximately 7 square meters.
The article was previously published on the website of Green Building Council Finland.
