Most Finns live and work in cities. Growing and developing cities require more construction. In turn, a lot of energy and mineral resources are needed to construct, operate and renovate buildings. Construction sector also generates waste and emissions. Europe's Green Deal programme commits stakeholders in the built environment to work together to tackle these problems. There is a lot of thinking going on in the sector about how to achieve the targets in practice.

Among construction companies, greening of cities and supporting biodiversity are hot topics. The cities of the future should have more green roofs and walls, green courtyards, green neighbourhoods that improve people’s well-being and there should be less polluting transport. 

Denmark and the Netherlands, for example, have been active in launching experiments in regenerative construction. In regenerative construction, the building is not only constructed sustainably, but it also produces and distributes valuable natural resources. Such thinking is not yet widespread in Finland. 

“We have a wide range of design and consultancy expertise and know-how in the construction business. I expect that in Finland we will see the emergence of networks that will begin to promote these innovative perspectives,” says Sami Lankiniemi, Innovation Director at Sitowise. According to Lankiniemi, now is the time for a debate across the value network on how the current system has led to damaging impacts on nature and what lessons have been learned.