4. Coordination with other relevant projects

The NNCC initiative operates in tandem with several complementary efforts. Among these, the Nordic Sustainable Construction initiative stands out as a sister project, crucial in the regional strategy to fortify the sustainability of the Nordic construction and housing sector. Another initiative, the Nordic Carbon Neutral Bauhaus, strives to integrate aesthetic and cultural dimensions with circular construction principles. This chapter outlines the coordination efforts between the NNCC and these efforts, elucidating how these collaborations contribute to a cohesive regional approach towards sustainable development.

The Nordic Sustainable Construction program, orchestrated by the Danish Housing and Planning Authority, focuses on five strategic work packages. These packages aim to address key areas such as the harmonisation of life cycle assessments, the promotion of sustainable construction materials and architecture, the achievement of emission-free construction sites, and capacity building for the reuse of construction materials along with bolstering international collaborations. Furthermore, a fifth package led by Nordic Innovation concentrates on evolving circular business models and enhancing procurement processes. Together, these efforts represent a robust framework for advancing sustainable construction across the Nordic countries.

The Nordic Sustainable Construction program's emphasis on harmonising life cycle assessments directly complements the NNCC project's efforts under Work Package 3 to develop holistic indicators and metrics for measuring circular construction progress. By aligning life cycle assessment methodologies across the Nordics, both initiatives can leverage consistent data to benchmark environmental impacts and material flows – critical for tracking the transition to circular and sustainable practices.

Furthermore, the Nordic Sustainable Construction program's stream on promoting sustainable materials and architecture shows considerable overlap with the material circularity principles at the core of the NNCC's vision. Advancing sustainable product sourcing, design for longevity, ease of maintenance and renovation align with circular strategies to maximise the utilisation and value retention of buildings and components over their lifecycle.

The push for emission-free construction sites clearly reinforces the NNCC's ambitions to minimise the environmental footprint across all construction activities and value chain stages. Adopting circular processes like increased material reuse and recycling will be essential to curbing emissions at construction sites.

Importantly, both the Nordic Sustainable Construction initiative's focus on building capacity for construction material reuse, as well as the NNCC's national fora and dissemination efforts under Work Packages 5 and 6, represent complementary pathways for equipping the industry with skills and knowledge to drive this transition. Cross-pollination between these workstreams can multiply their impact.

Finally, the emphasis within Nordic Sustainable Construction on fostering circular business models and sustainable procurement serves as a critical economic enabler. The NNCC's policy recommendations and measurement frameworks provide the strategic guardrails, which can mobilise investments in circular business innovations and align procurement with circularity principles – vital for incentivizing this systemic industry shift.

The project has published two reports, which are especially relevant from the perspective of circular construction.

As such, the Nordic Sustainable Construction programmes at different policy levels can also act as a pivotal implementation vehicle for realising the NNCC's circular construction visions and recommendations in a tangible, coordinated manner across the Nordics. Ensuring strategic alignment and collaborative integration between these efforts is paramount to amplify their mutual impact while avoiding duplicative inefficiencies.

Moving forward, establishing governance structures and shared resources for cross-programme coordination can ensure seamless exchange of insights, learnings, and best practices. Joint working groups, harmonised data repositories, and co-sponsored capacity-building initiatives represent potential avenues. Regular alignment between programme leadership can also identify emerging gaps and synergistic opportunities to be capitalised upon through concerted actions.

The Nordic Carbon Neutral Bauhaus is another effort echoing the themes explored in this NNCC report. In 2021, the Finnish rotating presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers organised a series of co-design webinars to provide the New European Bauhaus with Nordic ideas. The outcomes of these events have been summarised in the report “New European Bauhaus: Reflections from the Nordic co-design”.

The Nordic Carbon Neutral Bauhaus aims to connect relevant actors across the Nordics and beyond to imagine sustainable futures and the role of architecture, design and art in making it reality. The initiative has organised various events around the Nordics and Europe, produced a podcast series and activated students in a design competition. Various inspirational materials, videos, podcasts and reports are available at the website. The Nordic Carbon Neutral Bauhaus is yet another example of the Nordic commitment to advancing sustainable and circular construction practices also in the context of the broader goals of the New European Bauhaus.

The experience of the Nordic Carbon Neutral Bauhaus shows that the New European Bauhaus would benefit from prioritising further cross-regional knowledge exchange and championing pilot projects that showcase innovative circular construction principles, setting a new standard for sustainable and circular urban development across Europe.