Stora Enso targets to increase the knowledge about sustainable construction and construction materials. It is therefore joining the World Green Building Week, the largest annual and global communication campaign on sustainable buildings organised by the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC).
“We see our participation in the World Green Building Week important. We need to change raw materials we are constructing with and this initiative with WorldGBC enables us to reach wide audiences to increase knowledge in sustainable wooden construction,” says Jari Suominen, Head of Stora Enso’s Wood Products division.
In 2018, the World Green Building Week campaign reached over 155 million people. This year’s theme highlights how buildings can be made more sustainable in all stages of its lifecycle – including material choice.
“Stora Enso has helped us lead the change towards a building sector that meets the decarbonisation goals of the Paris Agreement, addressing both operational and embodied emissions” says James Drinkwater, Director of WorldGBC’s Europe Regional Network. “As a campaign ambassador and advocate for new policies such as the EU’s ‘Level(s)’ framework that seek to mainstream lifecycle assessment, they are evidence to politicians that the sector is ready to deliver net zero carbon.”
Carbon dioxide emissions from construction materials – mostly cement and steel – account for approximately 11% of all global emissions. WorldGBC’s report will help drive stakeholder interventions that will increase the use of low-carbon materials.
Stora Enso has also supported the creation of the WorldGBC’s ”Bringing embodied carbon upfront” report that highlights the importance of emissions from materials. Stora Enso will actively support the launch of the report and use the campaign to position wood products as solutions.
Stora Enso has a unique position as a provider of sustainable construction materials: “We provide building solutions that help reduce energy use in buildings; our materials have a low-carbon footprint due to the relatively low Green House Gas emissions in production; and they store carbon throughout their lifetime,” Suominen says. “Our sustainably sourced wood is renewable and at the very end of their life cycle, Stora Enso’s wood products can be safely converted into renewable bioenergy without becoming waste.”
“Our recent LightHouse project in Joensuu, Finland, demonstrates that the WorldGBC’s vision for 2050 can already today be nearly achieved by choosing wood as the main construction material,” Jari Suominen continues.
World Green Building Council (WGBC) is the world’s largest international organisation promoting the practice of sustainable building. Stora Enso Wood Products joined WGBC in 2017 as a European Partner. This year’s campaign runs from 23 to 27 September and aims to raise awareness of the carbon dioxide emissions from all stages of a building’s lifecycle.
You can follow Stora Enso’s World Green Building Week activities in Stora Enso’s social media channels and in general with World Green Building Week hashtags #BuildingLife #WGBW2019.
