Artikkelit

Julkaisun nimiCo-developing sustainability – a consumer-inclusive approach to wooden housing business in Finland
KirjoittajatEliisa Kylkilahti, Minna Autio, Viktor Harvio, Ulrika Holmberg, Anne Toppinen
JulkaisijaHousing Studies
ISBN/DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2022.2114592
Julkaisupäivä9.9.2022

Abstract

The housing construction industry can address sustainability issues by developing its business practices. This requires a shift from a firm-driven business logic to a consumer-inclusive approach where consumers and businesses together enhance sustainable development. By analyzing data from focus group discussions with both industry experts in the wooden multi-storey construction business and consumers residing in novel wooden buildings, this study examines how businesses can engage consumers in the development of sustainable housing. The results are presented as an iterative dialogue process that acknowledges consumers as important actors to whom innovative housing solutions should be appropriately introduced and whose lived experiences need to be understood. The findings indicate that consumer experiences can feed the creation and uptake of innovations that enhance sustainability in the construction sector. The study fosters the material aspect of sustainable housing and, by highlighting consumer participation and communication, proposes tools for its consumer-inclusive co-development.

Julkaisun nimiCitizen beliefs concerning wood as a construction material under extreme weather events.
KirjoittajatVehola, A., Hurmekoski, E., Lähtinen, K., Ruokamo, E., Roos, A., Toivonen, R. & Toppinen, A.
JulkaisijaCanadian Journal of Forest Research
ISBN/DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2022-0108
Julkaisupäivä27.07.2022

Abstract

Climate change places great pressure on the construction sector to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions and to create solutions that perform well in changing weather conditions. Our study explores citizen perceptions on wood usage as a building material under expected mitigation and adaptation measures aimed at a changing climate and extreme weather events. The data are founded on an internet-based survey material collected from a consumer panel from Finland and Sweden during May–June 2021, with a total of 2015 responses. By employing exploratory factor analysis, we identified similar belief structures for the two countries, consisting of both positive and negative views on wood construction. In linear regression models for predicting these beliefs, the perceived seriousness of climate change was found to increase positive views on wood construction but was insignificant for negative views. Both in Finland and Sweden, higher familiarity with wooden multistory construction was found to connect with more positive views on the potential of wood in building, e.g., due to carbon storage and material properties. Our findings underline the potential of wood material use as one avenue of climate change adaptation in the built environment. Future research should study how citizens’ concerns for extreme weather events affect their future material preferences in their everyday living environments, also beyond the Nordic region.

Julkaisun nimiWooden multi-storey construction market development – systematic literature review within a global scope with insights on the Nordic region
KirjoittajatJaakko Jussila, Emil Nagy, Katja Lähtinen, Elias Hurmekoski, Liina Häyrinen, Cecilia Mark-Herbert, Anders Roos, Ritva Toivonen, Anne Toppinen
JulkaisijaSilva Fennica
ISBN/DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14214/sf.10609 
Julkaisupäivä20.01.2022

Tiivistelmä

Puun käyttö kerrostalorakentamisessa on noussut mielenkiintoiseksi vaihtoehdoksi kaupunkiympäristössä, sillä puu toimii rakennuksissa pitkäaikaisena hiilivarastona. Tutkimuskatsauksemme keskittyi kokoamaan yhteen puukerrostalorakentamisen markkinoiden kasvun keskeisiä esteitä ja mahdollistavia tekijöitä, tunnistamaan alan keskeisiä toimijoita sekä käytettyjä tutkimusmenetelmiä. Synteesi muodostui vuosien 2000–2020 aikana ilmestyneistä vajaasta 700 artikkelista Web of Science ja Scopus-tietokannoissa, joista 42 artikkelia valikoitui lopulliseen sisältöanalyysiin. Tulosten mukaan puukerrostalorakentamisen yleistymistä tukee erityisesti teollisen esivalmistuksen mahdollistama kustannustehokkuus sekä erityisesti kuluttajien ja arkkitehtien näkemykset puumateriaalien eduista kestävän kehityksen näkökulmasta. Olemassa olevaa tutkimusta hallitsevat tapaustutkimukset, laadullisten aineistojen käyttö ja maantieteellinen keskittyminen Pohjoismaihin.

Abstract

Climate change sets high pressures on the construction industry to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Due to the carbon storage properties and potential to use renewable resources efficiently, wooden multi-storey construction (WMC) is an interesting alternative for the construction industry to enhance sustainable development combined with the aesthetic and well-being benefits of wood perceived among many consumers. For forest industry firms, industrial wood construction is a possibility to seek for business opportunities and bring socio-economic benefits for local economies. Despite positive drivers, WMC still remains a niche even in the forest-rich countries.The purpose of our study is to add understanding on the WMC market development by conducting a systematic literature analysis on international peer-reviewed studies from the past 20 years. Our special focus is on the role of WMC in the housing markets studied from the perspectives of the demand, supply and local governance factors. As specific aims, we 1) synthesize the key barriers and enabling factors for the WMC market growth; 2) identify the actors addressed in the existing studies connected to the WMC market development, and 3) summarize research methods and analytical approaches used in the previous studies. As a systematic method to make literature searches in Web of Science and Scopus for years 2000–2020, we employed PRISMA guidelines. By using pre-determined keywords, our searches resulted in a sample of 696 articles, of which 42 full articles were after selection procedure included in-depth content analysis. Our results showed cost-efficiency gains from industrialized prefabrication and perceived sustainability benefits by consumers and architects enabled a WMC market diffusion. The lack of experiences on the WMC, and path dependencies to use concrete and steel continue to be key barriers for increased WMC. Although our research scope was the global WMC market development, most of the literature concerned the Nordic region. The key actors covered in the literature were businesses (e.g., contractors, manufacturers and architects) involved in the wood construction value-chains, while residents and actors in the local governance were seldomly addressed. Currently, case studies, the use of qualitative data sets and focus on the Nordic region dominate the literature. This hinders the generalizability of findings in different regional contexts. In the future, more research is needed on how sustainability-driven wood construction value-chains are successfully shaping up in different geographical regions, and how they could challenge the dominant concrete-based construction regime.