The Sustainable Land Allocations project examines appropriate criteria for land allocation to reduce the climate impact of new construction. The project is a collaboration between the municipalities of Boden and Luleå and the construction industry and is part of the North Sweden Green Deal initiatives.
Northern Sweden is in the midst of a historically unprecedented new industrialization and transition. Huge investments are being made, while population growth is expected to increase significantly in a few years. Housing construction is a high priority in the two neighboring municipalities of Boden and Luleå, with more attractive and sustainable living and housing environments where people want to and can develop in order to supply the growing areas with skills. But the construction industry generates greenhouse gas emissions from transport, materials and heating. One challenge is therefore to make the social and climate transition go hand in hand, as the population will increase while the climate impact will be drastically reduced.
Common cause
Therefore, Luleå and Boden Municipality are joining forces to set the rules of the game and contribute to Sweden’s climate goals and the global Paris Agreement. Building with less climate impact than the current norm becomes a hygiene factor and municipalities can help operators succeed.
“The aim of the project is to create predictability for the construction industry when it comes to land allocations in the municipalities of Boden and Luleå,” says Sara Chlot, environmental strategist at the municipality of Boden and project manager for Sustainable Land Allocations.
The project is expected to lead to each municipality formulating criteria for land allocation that contribute to achieving the climate goals. The criteria should primarily contribute to reducing the climate impact of new buildings.
Workshop series
Much of the project is structured as a series of workshops with representatives from the construction industry and municipal officials in Boden and Luleå. The approach of allowing different actors to participate in the dialogue is a new concept for making use of collective experience and expertise in collaboration between the municipalities and the various parts of the construction industry. It is hoped that the series of workshops will contribute to raising awareness, as well as to creative and imaginative discussions.
The first workshop gathered around 18 participants and was held in Luleå this week, followed by two more meetings in Boden in the spring.
The project Sustainable land allocations takes place within the framework of the North Sweden Green Deal’s efforts. North Sweden Green Deal is run by Region Norrbotten and Region Västerbotten. Collaboration partners for Norrbotten are the municipalities of Norrbotten, Luleå University of Technology, the County Administrative Board of Norrbotten, Swedish Lapland Visitors Board and the municipalities of Boden, Gällivare, Kiruna, Luleå and Piteå.
