The Ministry of the Environment has commissioned a road map aimed at regulatory control of the carbon footprint of buildings. The construction industry RT urges the ministry to exercise restraint and warns that a hasty roadmap will risk the quality of construction and increase costs without the desired environmental benefits.
The construction industry RT thinks it is good that construction is directed towards choices that have less impact on the environment. RT sees the problem with the road map presented by the Ministry of the Environment is that when focusing only on carbon footprint control, other aspects of sustainable construction are easily forgotten, such as the long-term durability of the building and its parts, flexibility of transformation, fault tolerance and certain safety and health factors, and ultimately the preservation of the value of the building.
Another problematic point in RT's opinion is the life cycle assessment (LCA) proposed as a carbon footprint calculation tool. RT has promoted its implementation on a voluntary basis, as it helps to draw attention to key issues. However, it is not suitable as a tool for official guidance, because it contains a lot of uncertainties and theoretical assumptions and thus a large margin of error. For example, verified service life information only exists for certain materials and structures.
"If the service life of different options is based only on unverified table values, it reduces the motivation to strive for the longest possible solutions. This completely goes against the principles of sustainable construction and even the circular economy," Rakennusteollisuus RT's director of environment and energy Pekka Vuorinen says.
According to Vuorinen, setting the proposed building type-specific emission ceilings is very difficult and largely theoretical, because an equal and credible comparison of buildings with each other is practically impossible. "Emission ceilings based on future scenarios do not support construction in accordance with sustainable development, but more comprehensive impact assessments are needed, which also take other aspects into account."
The carbon footprint of a building is not the sum of the carbon footprints of its building components
The Ministry of the Environment justifies the road map and the need for guidance with the significant carbon footprint reduction potential contained in building materials. From this, we are looking for fast-acting ways to fulfill the obligations of the Paris climate agreement and the goals of climate policy.
In the roadmap, the regulation would be extended to greenhouse gas emissions from building materials. According to Vuorinen, this would ignore a key principle in accordance with the standards drawn up by the technical committee CEN/TC350: the environmental effects must always be assessed for the entire building and its entire life cycle.
"Building materials are only intermediate products and the carbon footprint of the building is not the sum of the carbon footprints of its building components. The vast majority of emissions from buildings still come from energy consumption during their use, i.e. heating and maintenance and repair," Vuorinen reminds.
Vuorinen states that often the larger carbon footprint of individual materials and products is justified in order to reach the lowest possible lifetime emissions for the entire building. Due to the different technical and functional properties of the building, such as heat and sound insulation or moisture and fire resistance, a greater use of materials is required, which means a larger carbon footprint in the manufacturing phase.
Construction is the most environmentally friendly way to use wood, but wood is not the most environmentally friendly way to build
With the increased energy efficiency of new construction and emission-free heating methods, the relative share of the construction phase and building materials in the building's total emissions increases. However, the actual emissions do not increase. In addition to the emissions of the building's operational phase, the emissions of construction products have already been reduced considerably, both market-driven and with the EU's emissions trading system. Vuorinen emphasizes that the Ministry of the Environment's effectiveness estimates are based on selected relative percentage figures, not on absolute emission reduction amounts in tons.
"It's no secret that the goal of the government program and the Ministry of the Environment is to promote wood construction. Carbon sequestered by wood and climate benefits are used as the basis. Of course, construction can be the most environmentally friendly way to use wood, but according to research, wood is not the most environmentally friendly way to build. Purpose-seeking and one-off calculations thus aim to repeatedly present, for example, by examining the environmental effects only with regard to the construction phase or a short defined service life," states Vuorinen.
The Ministry of the Environment has also justified the need for carbon footprint management by the fact that the most effective means of reducing energy consumption and emissions during the use of buildings are beginning to be used in terms of cost-optimal regulatory management. In light of this, Vuorinen finds it strange that the Ministry of the Environment, in its proposal for the Energy Efficiency Regulation for Buildings, gives solid wood building components relief in terms of both the E-numbers that determine energy efficiency and the U-value requirements for thermal insulation. In this way, higher energy consumption, higher carbon dioxide emissions for the entire life cycle and at the same time the costs are paid by the user.
The real estate and construction sector accounts for as much as 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Vuorinen reminds that the share of new construction in this is very small and since the building stock renews by only 1,5 percent annually, it does not achieve quick effects.
"The controlled improvement of the energy efficiency of the existing building stock and the increase of the low-emission form of energy used in them are by far the most significant area in the pursuit of low-carbon in the real estate and construction sector. In terms of improving other resource efficiency, Rakennusteollisuus RT supports the unification of market-driven, voluntary actions and their evaluation methods, as well as the need to bring other aspects of sustainable construction into different evaluations alongside the carbon footprint. In this way, innovation is encouraged, cost-effectiveness is ensured and real sustainability is promoted."
See also
The Ministry of the Environment's procurement guide for green public construction directs construction with less burden on the environment (news release 20.6.2017 June XNUMX)
More information
Environment and Energy Director Pekka Vuorinen, tel. 050 4692021
Director of Communications Merja Vuoripuro, tel. 040 587 2642