Inaugural lecture for Professor in Sustainable Buildings: ’Buildings role in the climate crisis – status, possibilities and need’

Description

Construction plays a crucial role in the sustainable transition of our society and in achieving our climate goals. In the Nordic countries, people spend about 90% of their time inside buildings. In Europe, 8% of the workforce is related to construction. Similarly, construction uses 40% of our energy, 40% of our materials, 33% of our water resources and 30% of our waste. Worldwide, buildings are responsible for 40% of the total climate impacts, where the number is 30% in Denmark. Therefore, knowledge and efforts within sustainable construction with low climate impacts are an important topic.

We have worked intensively with the development and learning of life cycle assessments – or LCA – in construction in Denmark for a decade. Denmark is among the first countries in the world to include CO2 limits in the building regulation, which will enter into force in January 2023. These requirements are based on the use of the national LCA tool for the building sector, LCAbyg, and the analyses of buildings' climate impact, which Harpa has been leading for more than a decade at BUILD.

On 6 August, another alarming report came from the IPCC climate panel, once again showing that drastic measures are needed to avoid the worst global climate disasters. The question is what future is the construction sector looking into and what do we need to do in order to achieve our climate goals?

This work is the focal point of the inaugural lecture 'Buildings role in the climate crisis – status, possibilities and need', which will provide insight into Harpa Birgisdottir's research so far and an idea of ​​where the field needs to move to be able to solve some of the challenges of the future.

After the lecture, there will be a presentation from the Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason, who has been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2021 for his book "On time and water".

The lecture is held in English. Participation in present and through streaming.

PROGRAMME:
14:00 – 15:15 Inaugural lecture by Prof. Harpa Birgisdottir and presentation from author Andri Snær Magnason
15:15 Reception by the auditorium

Period	29 Sept 2021
Held at	Department of the Built Environment
Degree of Recognition	National