The Government has decided that no later than 2045, Sweden shall have no net green gas emissions to the atmosphere. The building and infrastructure sector has developed a roadmap that will contribute to the goal and lead to joint efforts from the entire sector. The National Board of Housing has proposed that the lifecycle perspective should be a starting point for all new and redeveloped buildings, as well as the management of existing once. The Swedish Transport Administration also demands reduced climate impact from planning, construction, operation and maintenance of major construction projects.
Calculations of climate impact from buildings currently focus on the usage stage. As more lifecycle analyzes of new buildings are carried out, they show that the product and construction stage account for a significant part of a building’s climate impact. Therefore, there is a need for increased insight and knowledge within the building sector regarding the importance of the construction phase for the climate. More knowledge about the climate impact from foundation methods is also needed. At present, declaration of the climate impact from foundation methods are performed separately from the total climate impact of a building. According to Sweden’s Construction Industries and IVA (2014) the climate impact from the construction phase would increase by 50 percent if groundworks and foundation work were to be included in the climate calculations of a building.
The goal of the project is to produce quality-assured generic data for climate impact and for the use of primary energy from foundation methods. The data will correspond to the range of methods that are available on the market and are representative for Swedish conditions. The project will also describe the prerequisites for a digital database structure for these data and its application in the building process. The purpose of the project is to provide prerequisites for climate-smart choices of foundation methods.
Project leader: Christel Carlsson, Statens geotekniska institut