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The City of Helsinki works determinedly to decrease the emissions of infrastructure construction and to promote circular economy in infrastructure projects. Planning, technical solutions and material choices have significant impact on how much emissions the construction work produces. New innovations in materials or machinery, for example, can reduce emissions in the future roadworks.

A new service opened today provides impartial data on the climate impacts of construction products used in Finland, such as carbon footprint and handprint, material efficiency and recyclability. This information harmonises the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the life cycle of buildings, facilitating low-carbon building design. The service is free of charge and open to everyone.

Joining the Towards Carbon Neutral Municipalities (Hinku) network has led to lower greenhouse gas emission levels in member municipalities in Finland. The majority of Hinku municipalities found that network membership has also improved the effectiveness of local climate work, according to a recent study by the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE.

In the new Kuninkaantammi residential area, there will be in near future constructed apartment buildings of which procurement was steered by a low carbon footprint. In practice, this means that in addition to increasing energy efficiency the aim is to minimize the emissions of construction and material production.