Over the last few years, several Nordic countries have been actively working towards the development and implementation of regulations on climate declarations for buildings, aiming to reduce the climate impact from new buildings. The act on climate declarations for buildings has come into force in Sweden on 1st January 2022, in Norway on 1st July 2022 and in Denmark on 1st January 2023, respectively. Finland plans to put the legislation on climate declarations for buildings into effect by 2025 at the latest. Furthermore, the Nordic authorities are cooperating to achieve a carbon-neutral built environment and harmonize the calculation rules in the Nordic countries.
This report aims to provide an overview of the current and upcoming regulations on climate declarations for buildings in four of the Nordic countries. The emphasis is on the requirements for the inclusion of geotechnical works in the climate declarations for buildings in the different countries. The reason is that the execution of geotechnical works is often material- and energy-intensive, which can have a significant climate impact during the construction process.The results of the overview show that there are both similarities and differences among the national regulations on climate declarations för buildings in those Nordic countries. Examples of the similarities include the use of a 50-year reference study period and the inclusion of the product stage (module A1-A3). Differences exist regarding, among other things, the system boundaries (modules and building elements), the reference units (e.g., kg CO2e per gross floor area (GFA) or per heated floor area), and the generic factors (e.g., 1.2 or 1.25) for the generic climate data (“conservative values”) for building materials.
The scope of geotechnical works included in the Nordic regulations on climate declarations varies. For example, raft and pile foundations are included in Norway, Denmark and Finland, while only raft foundations are included in Sweden. Some of the other geotechnical works are included in Denmark (such as permanent sheet pile walls for buildings) and in Finland (such as soil stabilization and retaining walls), while ground preparation and excavation are excluded in both countries. The current Norwegian climate declaration has no requirements on the inclusion of geotechnical works other than shallow and deep foundations. In May 2023, the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building, and Planning (Boverket) proposed that groundworks and soil reinforcement should be included in an extended climate declaration from 2027.
Setting carbon footprint limit values is another important issue of climate declarations for buildings. In Denmark, a legally binding limit value of 12 kg CO2e/m2/year (including modules A1-A3, B4, B6 and C3-C4, with a calculation period of 50 years) applies during the period 2023-2024, which will be gradually tighten in 2025, 2027 and 2029. Sweden and Finland are preparing to introduce the limit values, while it is unclear when limit values will be introduced in Norway. In May 2023, Boverket proposed that the limit values (kg CO2e/m2 GFA, including modules A1-A5) for different types of buildings will be introduced in Sweden from 2025. So far, there is limited discussion (e.g., in Denmark) about the development of limit values for climate emissions from geotechnical works in the context of climate declarations for buildings in the Nordic region.