Decision Making Process for Constructing Low-Energy Buildings in the Public Housing Sector in Sweden

Åsa Wahlström, Björn Berggren, Josefin Florell, Rickard Nygren and Thomas Sundén
Additional contact information
Åsa Wahlström: Building Services, Lund University, Lund 221 00, Sweden
Björn Berggren: Skanska Sverige AB, Malmö 205 33, Sweden
Josefin Florell: Passivhuscentrum Västra Götaland, Alingsås 441 30, Sweden
Rickard Nygren: White Arkitekter AB, Stockholm 116 92, Sweden
Thomas Sundén: Sustainable Innovation AB, Stockholm 111 23, Sweden

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: The built environment accounts for a significant share of energy consumption and energy efficiency in this sector is important for the Swedish environmental objectives. Only a limited share of the total new construction of multifamily houses are constructed as low-energy buildings. Current building regulations lay down requirements for energy efficiency for new construction, and these will be tightened further in the future. Public housing companies often aim to be at the forefront, and the public housing sector has now built half of Sweden’s low-energy blocks of flats. Many public housing companies have tried, but it is uncertain if they will, or have, the possibilities to construct low-energy buildings on a large scale. Twenty public housing companies around Sweden have been interviewed with the aim of identifying obstacles and possibilities to be forerunners and build better than required by the building regulations. The study shows that the public housing companies build better than the law demands and intend to continue doing so. Low-energy buildings are particularly suitable in central locations where land is attractive and the required returns lower. The driving motivation is to be at the forefront and to build green. The new pressure to increase house building can lead to a risk of energy and quality issues being passed over. For the increase in the construction of low-energy buildings to continue, extended, shared and comparable decision making support for the public housing companies is needed.

Keywords: decision making process; new construction; low-energy buildings; leadership; interviews (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/10/1072/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/10/1072/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:10:p:1072-:d:81185

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().