Keva, the Finnish public-sector pension provider, has signed the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, which aims to make buildings operate at net zero carbon emissions by the end of 2030. The commitment is an essential tool for achieving Keva’s environmental strategy goals related to its direct property ownership.
Keva has been updating the environmental strategy for its properties since the beginning of this year.
The goal is to halve the carbon emissions from the energy used in Keva’s properties by the end of 2025 and to become carbon neutral in terms of energy use by the end of 2030. Keva has signed the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment to ensure this goal is met.
“The commitment focuses on a key aspect of our new environmental strategy, which is to neutralise the climate impact of energy used in our direct investment properties,” says Carl-Henrik Roselius, Head of Real Estate Investments at Keva.
“This will ensure that we focus on the essential and that we also achieve our ambitious target in a profitable manner,” he adds, pointing out that this method suits the long-term pension investor very well.
According to Tuomas Helin, Environmental Manager at Keva’s Property Asset Unit, the aim is also to increase the energy efficiency in the properties by a fifth by the end of 2030.
“The target is to increase the share of renewable energy produced on site to 10% by the end of 2030 by investing in solar panels and heat pumps, for example. The electricity purchased for our properties has already been completely renewable since 2019,” says Helin.
All building projects starting in the 2020s will have net-zero emissions energy systems, and they will have environmental certification (LEED, BREEAM, RTS or similar), and at least 10% of the homes to be completed in 2020-2025 will be made of timber.
The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment is an efficient tool
The commitment that Keva has now signed is part of the World Green Building Council (GBC) global network operations, which aim to improve the sustainability of the built environment.
“The network has the most authoritative expertise and understanding in the property industry when it comes to promoting carbon neutrality in buildings and the ability to identify what is relevant and effective and what is not,” Tuomas Helin explains.
The GBC network comprises about 150 key organisations in the property and energy sectors in Finland alone.
All businesses, cities and regions that have signed the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment aim to make all their properties carbon neutral by the end of 2030. The signatories to the commitment spur the entire industry on, supporting the goal for all buildings in the world to be emission-free by 2050.
In Finland, the commitment has previously been signed by organisations such as Ylva, which is owned by the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, and the City of Helsinki.
“The transition to carbon-neutral energy will be one of the most significant climate actions we can take in the real estate industry in this decade. It is admirable and important that Keva, as a leading operator in the industry, is leading by example. We hope that as many organisations as possible in the property industry seize this opportunity,” says Development Manager Lauri Tähtinen from Green Building Council Finland.
For more information, please contact:
Carl-Henrik Roselius, Head of Real Estate Investments, tel. +358 500 417 997, carl-henrik.roselius@keva.fi
Tuomas Helin, Environmental Manager, tel. +358 40 827 8355, tuomas.helin@keva.fi