Renovation

Abstract

Finland shows strong support for reducing its climate footprint originating from the built environment as part of the national carbon neutrality goal by 2035. Two prime examples are increasing wood use in construction and favoring building renovation to alleviate emissions from the use of virgin construction materials. However, the open question remains whether citizens also support these decarbonization pathways. By using national-level data from a randomly sampled citizen survey in Finland (n = 1448), we model citizen preferences to these two decarbonization pathways. The results suggest that a preference to renovate rather than to build anew is shown by respondents of the female gender; over 55 years of age; with a lower household equivalent income; and possessing housing property investment. Wood material is positively favored by respondents with higher age; a lower household equivalent income; living in smaller population centers in the countryside; and owning forestland. Interestingly, the effect of climate agency was negative in both models. This can be interpreted in the wood material case as reflecting conflicting views of negative environmental effects from forest harvesting to produce renewable building materials. In the renovation model case, we argue that the climatic impact of renovations remain weakly understood by citizens in Finland, given that the media and national regulations emphasize operational emissions. These results benefit both policy makers and municipal-level decision making in understanding of acceptability of wood material use and building retrofits among the general public.

Julkaisun nimi	A tale of five cities: The role of municipalities in the market diffusion of wooden residential multistory construction and retrofits
Kirjoittajat	Anne Viljanen, Katja Lähtinen, Vesa Kanninen, Anne Toppinen
Julkaisija	Forest Policy and Economics
ISBN/DOI	DOI:10.1016/j.forpol.2023.102991
Julkaisupäivä	26.5.2023

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Abstract

To enhance sustainable urban development, cities may contribute to the market diffusion of wooden multistory residential construction (WMC) and to wood use in the renovations of old multistory residential buildings (i.e., wooden retrofits). For the construction sector, building with wood enables a shift from the dominant concrete-based building regime, which has hindered the industrialization of building processes and the use of prefabricated modules. Although industrial wood construction has become more common in Finland in the 2000s, WMC and especially wooden retrofits have remained niche systems in residential building markets. The aim of our study is to provide information on how municipalities, especially cities at the core of urban development, may contribute to the market diffusion of WMC and wooden retrofits through policy instruments and via their involvement in local business ecosystems (BE). The interview data of the study were mainly gathered from 40 professionals representing the five case cities, but we also included other experts connected to local BEs that linked with the WMC and wooden renovation cases. We employed qualitative methods in the analyses. Our study shows that WMC and wooden retrofits could be catalyzed by both policy instruments and collaboration in BEs. Results show that policy instruments have been more effective when they include characteristics of the building projects (e.g., instrument usability differs between municipalities or private persons as building owners). To be powerful actors, municipalities could take on more active collaborative roles within the local BEs (e.g., as initiators of projects as building owners or as active enablers). As an implication of these results, city-level experimentation could benefit from a full range of policy measures and mixes to accelerate the diffusion of WMC and wooden retrofits.

Tiivistelmä

Kaupungit voivat merkittävästi vaikuttaa puun käyttöön uudis-, korjaus- ja täydennysrakentamisessa. Esimerkiksi kerrostalojen lisäkerrosten rakentamisessa ja julkisivujen korjauksissa puiset ratkaisut ovat mahdollisuus resurssitehokuuden parantamiseen ja kiertotalouden vahvistamiseen. Tutkimusaineistomme perustuu viidessä suomalaisissa kaupungissa tehtyihin 40 haastatteluun. Tulostemme mukaan kaupungit voivat ottaa puurakentamisen mahdollistajina erilaisia rooleja suhteessa muihin toimijoihin sekä käyttäessään erilaisia poliittisia ohjauskeinoja ja niiden yhdistelmiä. Muut toimijat näkivät usein myös kaupunkien roolin puurakentamisen edistämisessä jopa merkittävämpänä kuin haastatellut kaupunkien edustajat, jotka taas itse korostivat kaupungin roolia eri toimijoiden välisen yhteistyön edistäjänä.

Artikkelit

Ruokamo, E., Franzini, F., Lähtinen, K. & Toppinen, A. (2024). To renovate or build with wood? Results from Finnish citizen survey data.

Abstract

Viljanen, A., Lähtinen, K., Kanninen, V. & Toppinen, A. (2023). A tale of five cities: The role of municipalities in the market diffusion of wooden residential multistory construction and retrofits.

Abstract

Tiivistelmä