To achieve net zero in buildings and infrastructure
we need to think beyond best practices.
It will require deep collaboration across the entire value chain
and a transformation in the way
buildings are designed, built, powered and ultimately deconstructed.
In this series, we speak to senior executives from leading Nordic companies
about what they believe are the biggest green growth opportunities.
I’m Esben.
Welcome to Nordic Net Zero
At present, buildings and infrastructure
accounts for up to 40 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the Nordics.
With the right kind of investments and a switch towards greener alternatives,
we have a 54 megaton reduction potential.
Looking into partnerships to succeed in the green transition,
if I want to give one concrete example, I would like to see new players
that get into the circularity value chain
that helps us to get our materials back to the factories,
and that separates the waste streams from the construction site
so that we can get our materials back
and also other material that we can use to upcycle.
One of the biggest challenges with the circularity in the building industry for building materials
is the huge amount we are dealing with and that we tend to mix these products.
So I think there are public / private partnerships needed
where governments, companies, industries
and even between countries you look at waste streams
Today about 1/3 of waste on the planet arise from the construction industry.
That needs to be solved, because we have only one planet
and we have more and more people.
And if we are just going to tear everything down and rebuild it
it is simply not big enough.
So we need to take care of what we have,
renovate it and we need to use circular materials,
so when we build new energy efficient buildings,
we use materials, that at end of life can be used again.
So, we don’t waste this planet.
Obviously our handprint, support and decarbonization of the planet is super important,
but we have an important homework as we are a big emitter,
we are a manufacturing, deep processing company,
we need to reduce our footprint and the way we do that
is that we have to put in quite some R&D resources to develop new technologies.
We dropped our CO2 Absolute emissions with more than 70%
and also per ton produced with more than 70%.
We started off with testing to melt with natural gas,
that is better that using any other fossil fuels,
and once we felt comfortable with that process,
we took the step and now we are doing it with biogas,
which means we are CO2 free on that part of the energy equation.
If we look at the solutions to decarbonize buildings and construction industry,
they're actually all there.
We often talk about new technologies and that,
but isolation has been here for 80 years,
heat pumps,
better windows -
It all exist.
It is actually just a matter of getting the work done.
To take on climate leadership and help others decarbonize,
we have to decarbonize our own house first.
It will require use of sustainable alternatives such as green steel and cement,
as well as thinking recycle and waste management
across the lifecycle of the building.
We have to improve energy efficiency
and cut down on energy consumption overall as well.
Abandon fossil fuel boilers
and move towards district heating and heat pumps to heat our houses.
But going green is not only good for the climate.
It’s good for business too.