Copenhagen to showcase sustainability in building

The eyes of the global architectural industry are on Copenhagen during its year as Capital of Architecture, which gives reason to gauge sustainability in the city’s buildings. Director of the Green Building Council takes stock.

Tricky building balance in Copenhagen

In Copenhagen, Sisse Norman Canguilhem highlights several challenges – especially the difficulty of striking the right balance between meeting housing needs while addressing a climate crisis:

“On the one hand, we’re in the middle of a climate crisis, and we should largely stop building new buildings. On the other hand, we have to recognise that society has other interests: The need for more housing is one of them. Buildings in the wrong places is another example. On top of which come all the buildings that are not suited for modern purposes, or which are simply in bad condition.”

“For a city like Copenhagen, where the pace of development is so fast, it’s hard to stop in one’s tracks and do anything but follow the easiest course of action. Often, you end up constructing a new building that meets everyone’s interests, except those of the climate and the environment. But there’s no way around it. We need to be much more aware and thrifty when choosing to build new.”

Recognised building certifications such as DGNB provide a tool for balancing interests and ensuring a holistic approach to sustainability that also benefits the users of buildings.

It is not only private players who are choosing documented sustainable building. In 2020, the City of Copenhagen’s City Council decided that public buildings with a contract sum in excess of DKK 20 million must in future be DGNB-certified at min. Silver level or certified in accordance with the Nordic Swan Ecolabel.

Sustainable prototypes

For the duration of Copenhagen’s status as Capital of Architecture in 2023, the City of Copenhagen, together with various partners, has built seven Sustainable Development Goal pavilions along the waterfront. Some are more artistic in their design, while others experiment with materials, but common to them all is that they offer different solutions to how we can build sustainable homes with a low carbon footprint in future while focusing on people’s health and well-being.

The pavilions serve as signature projects for Capital of Architecture 2023 and the UIA World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen, where approx. 10,000 people from the industry will be participating and immersing themselves in sustainable building on 2-6 July 2023.

Green Building Council: Three megatrends in sustainable building

Sisse Norman Canguilhem, acting director at the Green Building Council, points to the three biggest trends in sustainable building right now:

New EU legislation

“Under the umbrella of the European Green Deal, a large number of important regulations and directives are currently being rolled out by the Commission. At the moment, many companies are in the process of getting to grips with the taxonomy and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which will redirect private capital towards more sustainable investments. This is going to play a big role.” 

ESG and sustainability reporting

“These days you would be hard pushed to find a large company in the construction and real estate industry that has not taken on one or more ESG managers. Once they have gathered sufficient valid data on their sustainability initiatives, I expect this to have a big impact on their internal decision-making processes. At the same time, it will promote transparency across companies.” 

Climate requirements in building regulations

“The requirement for LCA calculations and associated threshold values for large buildings is in many ways a milestone – even though in my opinion the threshold is far too high. The very fact that everyone will now be forced to measure buildings’ CO₂ emissions will create a real awareness among all stakeholders throughout the value chain.”