What’s new

The meeting was the first of a series of breakfast seminars organized under the auspices of Klimavennlige bygg Innlandet. The meeting opened with a briefing on the project, and Eivind Selvig spoke on the topic What is a climate-friendly building? There are no clear answers to the question, but the goal must be for the building to have a significantly lower climate footprint than those built according to “normal” practice.

– The climate-friendly buildings use materials that have a low climate footprint, including reuse. Energy consumption should be low and the proportion of renewable energy must be high. In addition, emissions at the construction site, the choice of building land and location with regard to transportation have a lot to do with the total,” Selvig explained.

Climate Friendly Buildings Innlandet has chosen to emphasize climate-friendly material choices, although it is the sum of all the focus areas that will contribute to the overall goal: to reduce CO2 emissions in the Norwegian construction industry and help to achieve national climate goals and the goals of the Paris Agreement.

At the meeting at Bylab, three players were brought in to talk about their work on the newly opened Drivkrafthuset in Hamar. The 13,000 m2 building was completed in November 2023 after an impressive construction period of just 22 months. The developer Utstillingsplassen Eiendom, tenant Eidsiva and contractor Betonmast Innlandet all have clear ambitions for sustainability, including greenhouse gas emissions. This was reflected, among other things, in the use of environmentally friendly, purified environmental concrete, which produces 75% lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional concrete, and the use of robust materials throughout. The eco-concrete’s low emissions are partly due to the addition of reused excavated material that has been washed, cleaned and sorted. The building will be certified as BREEAM Excellent and has calculated greenhouse gas emissions from materials that are at least 20% lower than the reference level achieved. It has energy label A and is built as a passive house with a leakage rate of 0.3. The building is connected to Eidsiva Bioenergi’s district heating system for space heating, hot water and space cooling (absorptive cooling). The district heating was also used for building drying. There is also a photovoltaic system on the roof.

Over the next few weeks, similar breakfast seminars will be held at

• Lillehammer Wednesday, January 24

• Kongsvinger Wednesday, January 31

• Gjøvik Wednesday, February 7

Program

08:00 Doors open
Refreshments, mingling and visit to the exhibition

09.30 – 13.45 Conference opening
09.00 Welcome
Knut Werner Lindeberg Alsén and Aasmund Bunkholt

09.35 – 13.45 Session 1 Architecture and Artificial Intelligence
09:35 Artificial intelligence and digital transformation
By architect Hugo Nilsen CEO at OCODU Design Lab
09:55 A new workflow – digital fabrication.
By architect Aksel Ludvigsen, Technology Lead LOF Architects

10:10 “Rethinking Architecture in the age of A.I.”
By architect Tim Fu, Studio Tim Fu (transmitted digitally, live)

10:30 Break with mingling, activities at the exhibition and refreshments

Activities in the exhibition

– 3D printing showcase
– Exhibitions & new products and much more!”
– 3DNet, showcasing the latest in desktop 3D printing

11:00 Making architects accountable again, by democratising the access to building knowledge. By Franz Forsberg, CEO Spacio

11:30 Artificial intelligence requires knowledge and intelligence about the material properties of wood and its potential.
Sustainability Manager Hege Voll Midtgaard, Bergene Holm

11:50 -12:30 Lunch with mingling and visit to the exhibition

12:30 Digital Materiality in Architecture.
Professor and architect Fabio Gramazio, ETH Zurich

12:55 Seeing is Believing: How Visual Technologies Empower Communities. Dr. Scient. Associate Professor Ramzi Hassan, NMBU

13:10 Dialogue between speakers and conference participants

13:45 – 14:00 Break: Mingling and refreshments

14:00 – 15:00 Session 2 Presentation of subject networks and groups

14.00 Geometry group- SINTEF
Researcher Konstantinos Gavriil, SINTEF

14:10 NMBUtre Project manager
Project manager Knut Magnar Sandland, NMBU
Associate professor Gabrielle Bergh, NMBU

14.20 Norwegian Wood Cluster
Cluster leader Berit Sanness

14.30 InnoTre
Cluster leader Krister Moen

14.40 Wood Works! Cluster
Cluster leader Kjersti Kinderås

14.50 AHO WORKS AWARDS (Outstanding use of wood in architecture)
Winner Brage Banken Lervåg, AHO (Project: “Book exchange”)

15.00 Closing time

The conference is streamed. Info and registration

The Norwegian Wood Cluster is one of the supporters of the Wood Conference in 2024.

The project “Packaging and construction – circular resource utilization and packaging of wood materials for construction” has been carried out as a collaborative project between the Circular Packaging Cluster and the Norwegian Wood Cluster, and with support from Viken County Council. The main purpose of the project has been to collaborate on solutions for better resource utilization of wood for buildings and contribute to efficient, circular packaging in the wood industry and construction industry.

The basic idea behind the project is to transfer experience between the packaging value chain and the wood industry in order to contribute to a more circular, industrial economy. Packaging has been actively developing circular business models for many years and the turnover rate is high, making the value chain well suited to the development and piloting of various systemic, technical and commercial solutions.

– For our companies, it has been useful to get to know the systemic thinking of the Circular Packaging Cluster. Among other things, the project has identified blockages to increased circularity in the wood industry, which the Circular Packaging Cluster will present during the webinar. In addition, Forestia, as part of the project, has rethought the packaging area and made very interesting experiences, which Forestia’s CEO. Kristian Hanssen will talk about,” says cluster leader Berit Sanness.

Program 8.30-10.00

Brief introduction to the clusters and the project

v/Ola Ronæss, Circular Packaging Cluster, and Berit Sanness, Norwegian Wood Cluster

Project findings: Circular barriers and solutions in the wood industry

v/Ola Ronæss and Jørgen Ingeberg, Circular Packaging Cluster

CASE: Testing a solution where cardboard replaces chipboard as packaging

v/adm.dir. Kristian Hanssen, Forestia AS

Questions and comments

You can also find the program here

Registration

Link to registration can be found here: REGISTRATION

First up was a webinar on weighting climate in public procurement on January 30. It was attended by 32 people from municipalities, consultancy firms and construction companies. Eivind Selvig gave an introduction to the new requirement that climate must be weighted with a minimum of 30 percent in public tenders.

How should the requirement be practiced, and what do the new requirements mean for the construction sector? The public sector purchases goods for around NOK 740 billion a year (Statistics Norway 2023), and the climate footprint of these procurements is approximately 10.3 million tons of CO2 (Menon, 2023). Eivind showed various examples of how requirements and weighting can be designed, as well as a brief presentation of DFØ’s guide. You can watch a recording of the webinar here.

Kongsvinger: Climate-friendly buildings that lead the way

On January 31, 19 people met for a breakfast seminar at Sentrum VGS in Kongsvinger. Edward Aas, Sustainability Manager at ØM Fjeld, presented the BREEAM Outstanding project The Plus and four different forms of contract that the company has worked with in processes involving climate-friendly buildings. ØM Fjeld’s own conclusion was that the form of contract is set based on the criteria and requirements determined by the developer, and that cooperation and trust are crucial to achieving climate-friendly buildings.

The debate panel included Ole Gunnar Holen from Sør-Odal municipality, Anders Hauger from Arkitektlaget and Asgeir Kvam from Sweco. Together with the contractors, architects and consultants in attendance, there was discussion and exchange on the topic of reuse. “Today, it’s not clear how best to compare costs between building new and renovating. We need to get better at this, and we need some guides for the work.

A number of wishes emerged from the meeting; about rehabilitation, forms of construction, greenhouse gas calculations and climate planning in smaller construction projects. The participants clearly expressed that they wanted a local meeting place to discuss and further develop these topics and ideas.

Stangeskovene AS was established in 1899 and comprises forest properties, production of timber and windows as well as building materials stores. In total, the Group has approximately 270 employees and a total turnover of approximately NOK 1.3 million. Most of the Group’s operations are located in Østfold, the eastern part of >Akershus and the southern part of Inland Norway. The head office is located in Aurskog-Høland in Akershus.

Interesting in several key areas
– Stangeskovene is one of the few companies that encompasses the entire wood-mechanical value chain with forestry, industry and building materials. This makes it natural for the group to participate in the Norwegian Wood Cluster, as the entire business can participate in a joint program,” says CEO Per Morten Wangen. Per Morten Wangen, Stangeskovene AS.

– For us, membership of the Norwegian Wood Cluster will be particularly interesting in the areas of sustainability with associated certifications, skills development and recruitment of the workforce of the future, standardization and increased digitization in the industry’s transaction exchange in the value chain. We therefore look forward to taking an active part in the cluster’s work and contributing to a good sharing culture,” says Wangen.

Valuable supplement
Cluster leader Berit Sanness welcomes Stangeskovene AS as a member of the cluster.

– As an integrated business, Stangeskovene will be able to contribute expertise and participate in various interdisciplinary forums within the Norwegian Wood Cluster. The Group also signals that it will be able to clarify and test conditions in various sub-projects that require integrated collaboration. Stangeskovene thus represents a valuable supplement to the current members,” says Berit Sanness.

Formally, it is the board of Norwegian Wood Cluster SA that processes applications for membership of the cluster. Stangeskovene AS was admitted as a member during the board meeting on February 6, 2024.

The aim of the seminar was to provide insight into how the EU taxonomy affects the financial industry and, in particular, what products banks can offer within green loans.

– The overview from Finance Norway provided the right platform before Kommunalbanken, DNB Bank, SpareBank1 Østlandet and Innovation Norway contributed with their presentations. The banks’ presentations complemented each other well, so I think we got a lot of interesting insights through the seminar,” says cluster manager Berit Sanness of Norwegian Wood Cluster.

– In addition to the speakers delivering very interesting presentations, there was also good dialog with the participants. The feedback was also that the banks’ representatives found it useful to be updated on other banks’ work with the taxonomy and green loans, so we are pleased with that,” says Sanness.

The big picture

It’s essential for the forestry and timber industry to keep a close eye on what’s happening in the field of sustainable finance. It was therefore worth its weight in gold that Kristian Ruth, Director of Sustainability at Finance Norway, had made the trip to Mjøstårnet to give the status of sustainable finance and analyze where we are heading.

CEO Kristian Ruth gave a very good overview of the situation in the EU today and talked about expectations for the future. The legal requirements lead to a significant increase in reporting requirements and affect companies at different times depending on their size.

– Although there is a lot to get to grips with, the aim is that the EU taxonomy will simplify matters. As more companies are required to submit sustainability reports, we will have a basis for comparing companies. The taxonomy will set clear boundaries for what is sustainable and what is not. In this way, the framework of the EU taxonomy can help guide companies in the right direction,” Ruth explained.

In the coming years, a lot of sustainability information will be reported for the first time and the market’s response will be crucial.

– Our advice is that it is already wise to prepare for the coming reporting requirements regarding sustainable finance,” said Kristian Ruth.

Senior researcher Timothy D. Searchinger at Princton University is, among other things, co-author of a Nature article from 2023 entitled: The Carbon Costs of Global Wood Harvest”. He contributed with a digital presentation at the owners’ meeting, explaining why he believes timber is not carbon neutral and that the climate impacts of logging have been overlooked.

Searchinger: Timber is not carbon neutral

– Modern forestry is valuable, but not carbon-neutral. Even if a forest is used for CLT, most of the carbon will still be lost very quickly. Everything that doesn’t become timber (roots, bark, pulpwood, coppice/chips) is decomposed or burned. This carbon loss is repaid over a long period of time, but not over 30-40 years. Therefore, forestry will lead to more carbon emissions than absorption,” said Searchinger.

He pointed out that consumption is expected to increase by 54% from 2010 to 2050 in the richer part of the world.

– It has been said that wood is carbon neutral as long as we don’t cut down more than we grow. But if we harvest less, the forests will grow more, i.e. bind more carbon. “We believe that we should keep the need for wood down so that more natural forests are maintained. This is the most positive thing for climate emissions over the next 20-30 years,” said Searchinger.

Calculates on a 40-year horizon and ignores substitution

Professor Erik Trømborg from NMBU said there was nothing new in Searchinger’s approach and that this is something NMBU has been teaching for 15 years. But his calculation of carbon neutrality is based on a 30-40 year cycle, while it takes 80-90 years from planting a tree until it is ready for felling in our boreal forests.

– Therefore, after 40 years, the curve shows that emissions from the forest are greater than removals. If he had extended the curve to 90 years, they would have met!” said Trømborg.

Both Trømborg and several members of the audience were critical of the fact that substitution was not mentioned in the presentation. “If we’re going to use less wood, what should we use more of?

– Should we treat biogenic and fossil carbon in the same way? What we release from the forest takes 80-90 years to sequester, and we need to be aware of that. Searchinger doesn’t discuss the alternatives, and I think the oil industry is happy about that. The global challenge is the use of fossil carbon. Is it then okay that we continue to use a lot of fossil fuels and push the problem in front of us? Trømborg asked.

Status of Skjerven Biopark

During the owners’ meeting, the participants received a brief update on the development of Skjerven Biopark. Active efforts are being made to establish an R&D center for the woodworking industry and bio-based materials in connection with Skjerven Biopark in Gjøvik. The investment in Skjerven is part of the Inland portfolio.

– “As a result of dialog with relevant users, we are now planning to split the building at Skjerven into an office building with meeting rooms, canteen and offices, as well as a test building with a lab and facilities for early-phase testing in the areas of sound/acoustics, fire, emissions and strength properties,” said Hunton Fibre’s HR director Tore Bergsveen.

– We continue the dialog with companies. As of now, 4-5 companies have initiated various types of feasibility studies. We now hope that more companies in the Norwegian Wood Cluster will join in,” said Bergsveen.

We have had a visit from Elisabeth Sjöberg Frydenlund, special advisor at the Research Council of Norway with responsibility for Innlandet and Akershus. She holds courses in SkatteFUNN and provides guidance on the various support schemes available at the Research Council.

Support for development

SkatteFUNN is a scheme to support research and development projects in companies. If your company is involved in development projects, you can apply for SkatteFUNN and receive a 19% tax deduction on project costs. You can apply year after year, and you can apply for several projects in one and the same year. The annual limit for each company is NOK 25 million.

– This scheme is particularly suitable if the development takes place internally in the company, with the help of its own employees,” explains Frydenlund.

Simple application

This scheme is easy to apply for and has a short processing time. You must apply in the same year as the project starts, but it doesn’t matter if the project has already begun. The majority of applicants are granted a tax deduction.

– “We encourage NWC member companies to use the scheme as much as possible. You can write the application yourself, set aside a day or two and feel free to contact the Research Council for free assistance,” says Frydenlund.

Apply early

She recommends that companies apply before September 1, and preferably well in advance. “Applications tend to pile up in September, and we can’t guarantee that everyone who submits after the deadline will have their application processed for the current year,” she explains.

Read more about SkatteFUNN at https://www.forskningsradet.no/skattefunn/

Tips on how to apply: https://www.forskningsradet.no/skattefunn/sok/

You can also search for previous projects in the Research Council’s project bank

For general questions: skattefunn@forskningsradet.no, +47 22 03 75 00

On a summery May day, a group of circularly engaged people gathered at Bylab Økern to be inspired by people who work with reuse in practice.

Emil Andresen Rygh is the general manager of the Circular Resource Center and works extensively with projects and testing to reuse materials from buildings that are being demolished or rehabilitated.

Moritz Groba is an architect and partner in OsloTRE, which has built “the country’s most reusable office building”, Save the Children’s head office at Hasle. Through these two, we got to see and learn that the road to circular solutions goes through being exploratory, fearless, patient and having good players on the team.

What is the Circular Resource Center and why was it established?

Emil Andresen Rygh, CEO, explained the background – a story about a private consultancy firm with a small-scale warehouse for reused building materials, a construction tent from the Government Quarter, a public-private driver company and a number of strategic partners. The end result was the companies Sirkulær ressursssentral and Ombygg.