The Minister of Housing and Communications of Finland, Ms Krista Kiuru, is prepared to use strong national measures to increase the alternatives for more environmentally friendly construction. – Energy efficiency and life-span thinking should be made an integral part of all construction, from land use and town planning to public building, repair and housing production as a whole, Minister Kiuru says.
The aim of the current government is to improve the energy efficiency in construction by various means and to reach all but zero energy construction by the year 2020. The Government’s intention is to specify the possibilities of decreasing emissions of the existing building stock and to promote education and research in energy efficient construction and repair. In addition, a comprehensive plan on how to increase the repair of the building stock will be drafted, and new practices and innovations in repair will be promoted.
”Energy wisdom and ecological thinking will be increasingly important in construction,” the new Minister of Housing and Communications, Krista Kiuru, says. “We should be prepared for the new EU energy efficiency directive,” Kiuru adds.
In their Government Programme entry, the Ministry of the Environment expressed a goal of “…promoting wood building; and in calculating the energy efficiency of building, promoting life-span calculation, which also includes the manufacture of building materials and products. Favouring the alternatives that are more environmentally friendly will be adopted as a general principle in public building projects, and ways of promoting these alternatives in publicly funded housing production will be assessed.”
Building materials to undergo life-span comparisons
According to Minister Kiuru, the government is now quite clearly outlining the future of building, with ecological and emission-free alternatives as key factors. Studies have shown that in terms of ecological sustainability, wood is a superior building material in life-span comparisons.
”With the renewed fire regulations we now have far greater possibilities for increasing the use of wood in apartment building construction,” estimates Minister Kiuru. “Building with wood is a choice well-received in Finland, and using it in housing production is wise both ecologically and economically. Therefore we should not be satisfied with its current small share, but go boldly forward and try to catch the Swedes who are far ahead,” Kiuru says.
The Government Programme mentions the possibilities of wood building several times in the areas of energy efficient building and land use, which together with the fact that the fire regulations have already been renewed, create excellent opportunities for the growth of wood-based building.
“Energy wisdom also means increasing the use of wood in building,” Kiuru states. “Wood building should be seen as part of climate policy, therefore we need significant new initiatives in energy efficient building. In addition to building regulations, land use and town planning should also support energy efficient building with a long life-span. In ten years, the energy regulations in building will be much stricter. That is why we should embark on renewing our policies on land use and town planning now, as those processes take a very long time to finish. In the future, it is imperative that large building projects can be started on an altogether new basis,” Kiuru says.
Energy efficiency to repair, too
”In terms of energy and ecological efficiency, we need comprehensive comparisons between building materials,” estimates Kiuru. “The situation also requires various types of building, such as an emphasis on the striking need for repair and refurbishment. In the apartment buildings of the 60’s and 70’s an enormous amount of repair is needed. This is another area where we must adopt energy wisdom as our norm, as the EU energy efficiency directive, ready in the next couple of years, will also apply to the old building stock,” Kiuru underlines.
With town planning measures society is able to direct land use policies, with subsidies it may facilitate repair projects, and with funding decisions it can steer public building and publicly funded housing production.
”The Government Programme entries should be understood so that society must use the tools in its possession to favour more environmentally friendly building alternatives,” Kiuru explains. “This is something that should be made visible throughout the field, ranging from land use, publicly funded rental housing production, and repairs to all public building,” Minister Kiuru concludes.
Written by Markku Laukkanen, Finnish Timber Council
Translated by Kielipalvelu Kauriin Kääntöpiiri OY / Capricorn Translations Ltd.
Further information: mikko.viljakainen@puuinfo.fi