Article published on IR.LV
The European Green Deal has entered our everyday lives with great strides. While the emission reduction targets are familiar for transport, forests, and energy, they are rather new for buildings and construction. For some, they will give them another reason to be horrified and criticize Brussels for its wrong policies, for others – new business.
Emissions policy prevails ironically
On the one hand, the topic of sustainable construction contains a lot of so-called “round” words that seem boringly familiar. On the other hand, behind them lies a major change in the entire construction sector – both in habits and market shares.
The European Union (EU) has developed legislation that will improve the energy efficiency of buildings and the sustainability of building materials. For example, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) provides for major changes in the energy performance standards of buildings, while the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) sets stricter standards for the environmental friendliness of building materials. This will promote sustainable construction and reduce environmental pollution, improve the energy efficiency of buildings by reducing energy consumption and emissions, and encourage the choice of materials that are less harmful to the environment.
These all seemed like political slogans until they were filled with numerical parameters at the level of each sector and even the company. Thus, politics confidently steers free market competition and redistributes market shares.
Sustainable construction is a relatively new concept in Latvia, but public awareness of the topic is growing. Latvia has committed to achieving ambitious emission reduction targets by 2030 and 2050 to ensure climate neutrality.
The Construction Products Regulation (CPR) is quite radical in its own way, setting requirements for the safety and quality of construction products, but it also includes requirements for the sustainability of materials and emissions. The revision of the CPR will provide for a Life Cycle Assessment, which will allow for the assessment of the environmental impact of construction materials throughout their life cycle – from the extraction of raw materials to the disposal of the product. Digital product passports will also be introduced, which will include information on the origin, composition, ecological impact and possibilities for recycling of the product. These legislative changes will promote transparency and responsibility in the construction industry, as well as help to choose more sustainable materials.
Thus, it is difficult to even comprehend all the changes that the construction sector will undergo – from the client and financier, to the manager and the consumer, who will have to pay for all the beautiful things.
New policy in building valuation
The EPBD not only sets new requirements for the energy efficiency and renovation of buildings, it also stipulates that by 2028, all buildings with an area exceeding 1,000 square meters will have to undergo a life cycle assessment, or global warming potential (GWP), and from 2030 this requirement will apply to all new buildings.
The building’s life cycle GPP indicates the overall impact of a building on emissions that contribute to climate change. It combines greenhouse gas emissions embodied in construction products and direct and indirect emissions from operation, and this indicator will have to be included in the building’s energy performance certificate. At the same time, the directive requires EU member states to develop National Building Renovation Plans by 2027, which would serve as a roadmap for progressive carbon limits for new buildings, with a view to achieving the climate-neutrality target by 2050.
The regulations will change the way we assess the environmental impact of buildings. While today we still assess buildings by their annual energy consumption per square meter (kWh/m²), in the future we will also assess another characteristic – CO₂ emissions per square meter (CO2 eq/m2).
Sustainable construction practices already exist in the Nordic countries. The Nordic countries already require or plan to require climate declarations, and some of them also set a limit on how much CO2 a building can emit per year. One of them is Denmark, where such a limit has been set since 2021, which the Danish government decided to tighten in 2024. In preparation for the 2025 negotiations on the new limit value, the Danish construction industry itself (!) demanded stricter regulation than that set in the Danish National Sustainable Construction Strategy, claiming that the industry is ready for ambitious changes. With a slight time lag, these requirements and good practices will also enter our everyday politics and business.
First, the customer orders the music.
Like all new things that are on the right side of history, sustainable construction is also demanding – it requires attention at all stages and with the client first. The owner and client of the new building have a special responsibility, as they will have to face the dilemma of higher costs and how to justify them further to their clients and financiers, namely, they will have to be able to justify the economic benefits.
Sustainable construction provides several significant benefits, such as lower operating costs resulting from more efficient energy and resource consumption. Sustainably constructed buildings would consume less energy for heating and cooling, which in the long term reduces energy bills and provides economic benefits for owners. In addition, sustainable construction improves indoor quality, ensuring a healthier and more comfortable living and working environment with improved ventilation, greater use of natural light, and an overall more favorable indoor microclimate.
The client of the recent Paris Olympic Games promoted the use of “low carbon” or even “ultra-low carbon” concrete in its buildings by using precast concrete slabs made from bio-based materials.
Such “global” practices are gradually becoming known in Latvia. There are pioneers in the topic in Latvia and examples of good practice are outlined. The State Joint Stock Company Valsts nekustamie īpašumi is one of the companies that conscientiously implements a sustainability strategy and from which we can learn. Several of the latest real estate projects have also implemented at least part of the new EU requirements (in the Verde, Linstow projects, etc.).
The well-known retail company Lidl has even received several certificates, including the Green Office certificate from the World Wide Fund for Nature program, which confirms the reduction of the ecological footprint. Meanwhile, the Lidl logistics center has received the international EDGE certificate for sustainable buildings, as it used sustainable building materials in its construction, ensuring 24% energy and 27% water savings.
In turn, Latvijas finieris has concentrated the capacity of testing equipment in one place to work together with customers in various industrial sectors on the development of innovative birch plywood properties, paving the way for a wider replacement of fossil resources with wood-based solutions.
However, these are still only exceptions that occur in the best sense of the word in a self-operating mode; systemic, uniform regulations and clear market practices have yet to be established.
To help buyers and clients choose environmentally friendly solutions, it is important to provide clear guidelines with defined objectives from EU legislation. These guidelines will provide information on the principles of sustainable construction. It is also essential to explain how emissions calculations are performed to understand how the chosen construction solutions affect environmental pollution and how they will contribute to achieving climate goals. Understanding these aspects helps buyers make more informed decisions and promotes the implementation of sustainable construction practices.
Artificial intelligence and innovation at the disposal of designers and architects
Designers and architects need to implement sustainability principles from the very beginning of a project. These principles include the use of energy-efficient solutions, such as optimal insulation, energy-saving systems and technologies. Special attention should be paid to innovative building materials that offer improved sustainability properties and – most importantly – lower emissions.
If the strategic goal of climate neutrality is the same for everyone, then the paths and speed to it will be different for everyone. This will result from the ability to invest, from the sustainability strategy of the specific company and the understanding of its own sustainability risks. This logic is indicated, for example, by the company Saint Gobain, describing its understanding of market development, namely that the transformation of the building and construction industry is necessary to prevent problems caused by climate change, depletion of natural resources, as well as rapid urbanization, which is determined by the growth of the population. The company signals an understanding that in Europe, decarbonization goals and increasingly strict regulations are favorable for the renovation market, and therefore for business growth. Saint Gobain is making large investments in the construction of new so-called lightweight structures, decarbonization of construction and industry, which will solve the environmental and social problems facing society. Saint Gobain is known in many countries for reducing its environmental impact and for innovations in its production processes, such as the world’s first 100% electric plasterboard production or the world’s first glass production furnace powered by hydrogen. In 2023, the company invested more than 220 million euros in research and development in the field of decarbonization. This is a good example of how investment in innovation, combined with the ability to collect, process and measure its emissions data, is becoming a central element of the company’s business model.
The life cycle global warming potential (GWP) of a building indicates the total emissions impact of a building. It combines greenhouse gas emissions embodied in construction products and direct and indirect emissions from operation. The requirement to calculate the life cycle GWP of new buildings is therefore a first step towards taking greater account of the performance of buildings throughout their life cycle.
Latvia, like all EU Member States, will have to set minimum energy performance requirements for buildings and building elements in order to achieve a cost-optimal balance between investments and energy costs saved over the life cycle of the building. In addition, as the example of Denmark shows, Member States will regularly review their minimum energy performance requirements for buildings, taking into account technical developments. Needless to say, in light of general digitalisation, construction documentation will have to be prepared in machine-readable data technologies that can be processed by artificial intelligence.
Builders and lifelong learning
The next “element” in the implementation of sustainable construction is the builders themselves. To achieve these goals, training and qualification improvement of builders, engineers, as well as support for the implementation of innovations and technologies using EU funds are necessary. Such an approach will help the Latvian construction sector to be ready for new standards. It is essential to learn to count and analyze emissions throughout the construction process to determine where emissions can be reduced and classify buildings according to emission requirements. International sustainable construction certifications, such as BREEAM and LEED, provide guidelines and standards in this area. The involvement of the College of Civil Engineering, Riga Technical University will be critically important.
Building materials – from slogans to numbers
The contribution of building materials manufacturers to reducing emissions is particularly important and therefore carries a special responsibility. Green building materials are those that are produced using environmentally friendly methods and resources. They help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and promote the reuse of resources. These sentences were also political slogans for years, but are now filled with measurable, verifiable targets expressed in numbers. If you could once “buy off” with beautiful phrases about corporate responsibility, now EU regulations require measurable, verifiable targets and even “worse” – require verification of performance.
There is some experience in the sector, and the actions of market leaders are worth implementing as good practice. Sector leaders are already planning how to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Some are even going further and want to achieve this goal as early as 2045. This means that a manufacturer must not only be able to calculate its emissions, but also prepare a roadmap for achieving climate neutrality.
Among the companies that have planned and described their climate neutrality path are Knauf, Saint Gobain, and other global and European leaders that are well-known in Latvia. As always, market leaders “pull” the entire market with them, which results in changing market shares. Those that fail to adapt to new regulations and market standards risk falling behind and losing out to the competition.
Like many others, Knauf aims to produce with the highest possible energy efficiency and with the lowest emissions. In order to move forward gradually, the company has set short-term goals, such as reducing the carbon content of its products by 15% by 2025 compared to 2021. The company independently audits the reduction in emissions at each stage of the product life cycle and includes it in the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). This requires continuous technological improvement, as it is the key to future success, which is why it invests in being technologically ready to move towards a low-carbon production cycle. The conclusion is that the building materials manufacturer, in this case Knauf, needs to set a further goal, but it is even more important to define the tools and procedures for how it intends to achieve these goals. In addition, the principles of sustainability require companies to become even more open about their actions on the path to climate neutrality, so the proclaimed plans must be verifiable.
Will there be new jobs?
Many European Union countries, such as Scandinavia, are successfully implementing sustainable construction practices by integrating requirements for measuring CO2 emissions per square meter. Latvia should plan to implement this practice. It can provide benefits to local businesses, attract investors and maintain export opportunities with new jobs. For residents, such a policy could mean an improved quality of life, albeit at higher initial costs, lower energy costs in the long term and an overall healthier living environment. All these benefits combined ensure that sustainable construction becomes an inevitable element in Latvia’s future development.