At the beginning of next year, a new construction law will enter into force, which will bring significant changes to the implementation and tendering of construction projects. In particular, the climate aspect comes to the fore when projects are required to calculate their carbon footprint as part of the construction process. This requirement is related to the new climate clearance requirement.

From the beginning of 2026, construction projects must submit a climate report in connection with the final inspection, which contains precise information about the building’s calculated carbon footprint and carbon handprint over the entire life cycle. The new construction law and the consideration of carbon neutrality in tenders offer an opportunity for significant progress in the field of sustainable development.

Careful procurement planning and clear carbon neutrality criteria ensure that reducing the carbon footprint and reducing climate impacts are an essential part of future construction projects.

Author: Sini Koskinen, Puutuoteollisuus ry

The climate assessment gives an overall picture of the climate effects of the construction project

The climate report is an essential document that gives an overall picture of the climate effects of the construction project. In the assessment of the carbon footprint, all phases of the building’s life cycle are taken into account, from the production of building materials and the construction phase to the time of use and finally to the demolition phase and the waste treatment of the materials. The length of the evaluation period is standardized to 50 years, even if the building’s planned service life is longer. In addition, the carbon footprint must also be taken into account in the climate assessment, which evaluates possible positive climate effects outside the life cycle, such as the carbon storage of materials, reuse and recycling, and the use of renewable energy. The carbon footprint of a wooden building, i.e. the positive climate effects, can be many times compared to e.g. a concrete or steel-framed reference object.

The carbon footprint serves as a tendering criterion

Taking carbon neutrality into account in tenders for construction projects can significantly contribute to the achievement of climate goals. Municipalities and cities can set carbon neutrality requirements in tenders for projects, which would encourage companies to develop their services and products in a sustainable direction. In connection with the competition, the carbon footprint can have its own evaluation score, which motivates bidders to take carbon emissions into account even more when preparing their bid. Companies can also be asked to submit the calculations in connection with the offer, but this may decrease the enthusiasm for the offer due to the costs incurred by the companies from the calculation.

In several public projects, the carbon footprint calculation is carried out only after the plans have been completed or the project has been completed. A stronger control mechanism from calculation can be obtained if it is harnessed to control the project right from the beginning of planning.

The tender that guides the design can be organized in two parts, whereby the client’s consultant calculates the carbon footprint from the preliminary plans, and the bidders receive feedback on the current direction of their project’s carbon emissions. In the next step, competitors can improve the carbon footprint of their project based on the feedback, e.g. by changing the material choices. The emissions from the final offers are recalculated and they affect the scoring.

It is important to get comparable calculations

When calculating the carbon footprint, you should pay attention to the fact that the results are comparable with each other. Carbon footprint calculations may be new to many companies, so hiring a professional consultant to perform calculations on all offers ensures unbiased and comparable results. The criteria and requirements for the calculation must also be precisely defined in the request for tender phase, so that bidders can be prepared for them when preparing the offer.

It is also worth considering whether the weighting of the competition’s evaluation criteria could be changed so that the carbon-neutral goals get even more attention? The importance of carbon neutrality can be increased by dividing the criteria into three parts: price, quality and carbon neutrality. In this way, carbon neutrality is not easily left as a secondary role at the feet of the price tag, but is emphasized even more strongly in the scoring of projects.

It is worth considering whether it would make sense to use the emission limit value when scoring the carbon footprint, or whether it would be better to rank the projects based on the calculated carbon footprint and distribute points accordingly. Such a tendering model creates healthy competition between companies in achieving carbon neutrality goals and encourages companies to really develop their products and operating methods to be lower carbon.