Carbon Neutral Construction in Lahti, European Green Capital

City of Lahti in Finland is the European Green Capital 2021. We have already abandoned the use of coal and will become a carbon-neutral city by 2025 as the first major city in Finland. Lahti is known as an agile research and development area for environmental technology, where the environmental monitoring, circular economy, land use and construction sectors cooperate seamlessly and efficiently. This enables the development and testing of interdisciplinary innovations on a practical scale. In Lahti, we are creating a product development, research and piloting platform for innovations in carbon-neutral and energy-efficient construction - covering the entire life cycle of buildings, from zoning to the utilisation of demolition materials.
The Carbon Neutral Construction Development Centre was established in Lahti in autumn 2020. City of Lahti is seeking solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of construction in both new and old buildings. The Centre focuses on global megatrends: renewable energy production, minimisation of energy use, recycling of demolition materials and use of organic materials in buildings as carbon sinks. It involves the City of Lahti and the city-owned construction companies, as well as the educational institutions and several companies in the area.