The circular economy offers the construction industry ways to curb the climate crisis and prevent nature loss. For example, reuse and recycling of building materials save natural resources and reduce emissions and waste generated in the manufacture of new products.
Construction and circular economy RAKI training examines emissions caused by the built environment as well as other environmental impacts and methods to reduce them. The online training, which utilizes playfulness and interactivity, demonstrates in a practical way what the circular economy means in construction.
The goal is for current and future builders to understand what sustainable construction is and how everyone involved in construction can influence the carbon footprint produced by construction through their actions.
The time for change is now
The construction sector plays a significant role as a trend-setter in the green transition. The built environment produces a large part of greenhouse gas emissions and its environmental effects are considerable. A large part of the earth's natural resources and unrefined energy is used in buildings and construction.
The Finnish-scale built environment causes almost a third of all greenhouse gas emissions in Finland. The majority of emissions in the built environment are caused by the energy consumption of buildings during operation, and the next biggest burdens are the manufacturing of construction products and emissions during construction sites.
When the built environment's share of environmental impacts is large, the construction industry's potential for reducing climate emissions and protecting the environment is also large. Builders can act as a driver of society in a low-carbon circular economy.
Change requires knowledge and skill
Sustainable construction and a low-carbon circular economy are part of the ongoing global change process to meet the challenges of climate change and safeguard natural diversity. At the national and EU level, the green transition has already started to be taken over. The Green Deal program steers construction in a more sustainable direction at the EU level. The reform of the Land Use and Construction Act and the national circular economy program do the same on a Finnish scale. Finland's ambitious goal is to be carbon neutral by 2035.
Understanding change and internalizing it requires expertise. Competence for sustainable development, continuous learning, skills for adapting to change and digital skills have also been identified in the national competence foresight forum and in the Competence 2019 report published in 2035 as competences needed in the working life of the future. Acquiring skills is a big job and the education sector has an excellent vantage point to support the future goals set by the report and to be involved in making change.
Education opens perspectives on the circular economy
The Construction Industry Training Center RATEKO is known as a versatile trainer and an active developer of training in the field and a producer of learning materials and teaching content. A year ago, we once again tackled a skills challenge when we started working on another of the circular economy training pilots in the construction sector financed by Sitra.
As a result, we have an online training that gives a peek into the world of the circular economy as we see it now and which contains basic information about the promotion of a low-carbon circular economy in construction.
Construction and circular economy With RAKI training, future builders get to know the terminology of sustainable construction, understand the importance of choices and actions from the perspective of sustainable and responsible construction, and adopt new thinking models and ways of working in their own work.
Sustainably for the future
By adopting sustainable and responsible operating methods, we change the world one building at a time, and we can say we did our best when future generations ask us about our decisions and choices.
Ulla-Mari Pasala
The author works at the Construction Industry Training Center RATEKO as a training coordinator and has been involved in the construction and circular economy RAKI training. The free education aimed at secondary school students was published in August. The training is also suitable for anyone interested in the circular economy of construction.
The blog was originally published on the FinnBuild blog on August 19.8.2022, XNUMX.
Really great news! Have you already received feedback on how the training was received? The training is aimed at secondary school students, could it also work for university of applied sciences students?
Hello! Yes, training works for anyone. The main target group is indeed secondary vocational students in the field, but the training is structured in such a way that it is suitable for anyone interested in the subject. The feedback so far has been positive: praise has come from e.g. versatility, good implementation and easy execution.