Two Danish foundations challenge developers to create buildings with 75% less emissions

The aim is to have a carbon impact of only 2.5 kg of CO2 per square metre per year

It has been long established that the construction sector is one of the main CO2 emitters in Europe and any serious ambitions about decarbonization needs to address the challenge of building in a way that is cleaner, more resourceful and more efficient.

With that vision in mind, two Danish philanthropic foundations, Realdania and Villum Fonden, have announced a challenge to local developers and housing associations to create buildings whose construction carbon footprint has been cut by 75%.

The goal of the challenge is to show a viable and working model that can be adopted wholesale by the entire housing construction sector in Denmark (and why not beyond) by the year 2030.

Healthy and attractive homes

The initiative will activate builders, architects, engineers, contractors, researchers and idea developers in all parts of the process with the common goal of reducing the construction sector’s footprint by 75%. 

Nine private developers and public housing organizations across Denmark have been selected to build examples, that will show the entire industry how it is possible to build new homes with four times less climate impact than normal construction projects. The development of the first project is set to start this year.

The chosen projects each receive a grant from the foundations to finance sustainable development, innovation and knowledge sharing, which can contribute to reducing the climate footprint to a historically low level.

With the grant, each developer undertakes an aim for a climate impact of only 2.5 kg CO2-eq/m2/year. This is a quarter of the average climate impact of new constructions in Denmark and approximately a fifth of the new statutory limit value of 12 kg CO2-eq/m2/year, according to State of Green.

The development process must ensure that the solutions are scalable, and in this way, the example buildings will stimulate both supply and demand for sustainable housing in Denmark.