Green buildings

With urbanisation, demographic changes, and climate change, our cities and their buildings are facing immense challenges. Creative and innovative thinking can lead us towards a more sustainable approach to designing, creating, and using the buildings that form the basis for our everyday lives, to the benefit of both our planet and the people that populate our urban centres. Ensuring green buildings that are sustainable and energy-efficient will be key to our efforts to tackle climate change.

Cities occupy 3% of Earth’s land but account for 70% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions

70 %

Buildings are responsible for 40% of global energy consumption and 33% of greenhouse gas emissions

40 %

In Europe alone, more than 220 million buildings – or 75% of the building stock – are energy-inefficient, with many relying on fossil fuels for heating and cooling

75 %

Related facts

Explore green buildings

Creation date: Latest first

publications

Climate partnerships

+7

Playbook: How to engage the private sector in climate action plans

16 September 2022

Learnings from the Danish climate partnerships on the road to 70% greenhouse gas emissions reduction

News

Circular business models

+9

Countdown to 2030: A new era for public-private partnerships

7 September 2022

How can public-private partnerships enable a more resilient and green economy, and what needs to be done utilizing stakeholders and across borders to accelerate climate action? Join our event on 20 September when leaders from business and government highlight the importance of public-private climate action.

News

Sustainable fuels

+11

From billions to trillions: Mobilising trillions of dollars for the green transition

7 September 2022

With a look into the future where large amounts of fossil fuels will continue to be extracted, it has only become even more important to mobilize the necessary funds and financing for the green transition, while ensuring that the right funds are linked to the right green projects. Join our high-level event on 20 September when leaders from business and government take a close look at international partnerships and collective efforts to enable the necessary conditions for green investments.

News

Wind energy

+9

State of Green at New York Climate Week

State of Green is hosting three events during New York Climate Week in September, focusing on the importance of public-private climate action.

solutions

Buildings

+7

Heat pump uses heat waste from Nordea’s data centre

Data centres produce a lot of waste heat. And if not taken advantage of, its potential savings are lost. That is why Nordea and Høje Taastrup District Heating wished to establish a project where a heat pump uses heat waste from Nordea’s data centre. The project was defined by the fact that Høje Taas

News

Green financing

+3

PKA’s CEO Takes a Seat in Influential Climate Alliance

CEO of PKA, Jon Johnsen, is the only Dane to be part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) climate network. The UN is behind the initiative, and members of the network include some of the biggest private investors in the world. The goal is to accelerate financing of the green transformation especially in emerging markets.

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Meet Danish green buildings professionals

Company

Living labs

+13

BABLE Smart Cities

BABLE provides business and technology services for smart city green solutions. We create automated services that simplify and offer expert advice to guide transition, development and scaling. Our onl

Company

Green financing

+6

PKA

PKA is a non-profit labor market pension fund based in Denmark. We manage the pensions of 350,000 members employed primarily in the social service and health care sectors

Company

Buildings

+7

Transition ApS

Transition supports the transition to a sustainable society.

Company

Bio-based circular solutions

+34

Viegand Maagøe

We co-create the green transition. The transition relies on a combination of technologies, financing, people, and communications. This is why we are experts in advising about these topics.

Company

Energy efficiency

+5

frient

frient offers high-quality smart home devices that can reduce electricity consumption, enable home automation, and protect the users' homes and families. The frient devices are available for installer

Public Sector

Urban planning and development

+3

Middelfart Municipality

Middelfart Municipality (MM) on the island of Fyn has worked with climate actions since 2007. The municipality is one of the first in Denmark to hold a Climate Action Plan together with a political ag

Company

Buildings

+4

ADEPT

ADEPT focus on urban development and building architecture with an aim to push users, clients, profession and the world around us towards a deeper responsibility for the limited global resources. We d

Company

Buildings

+3

Nordic Waste A/S

At Nordic Waste we are specialists in biological and chemical treatment of contaminated soil and residual products from the industry etc. The purpose is to recycle the soil and residual products back

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Explore related focus areas

Air pollution

With urbanisation set to increase, air pollution will affect even more people in the future if no action is taken. Through strict environmental legislation and air quality monitoring, Denmark has reduced atmospheric pollution in most areas to less than one-fifth of the levels during the late 70s.

Climate change adaptation

Expanding mitigation to include adaptation in dealing with climate change, enables a holistic view that can combat previous negative social, environmental, and economic impacts and result in both climate resilient and more liveable places to live. Over the next 15-20 years, Denmark will spend more than EUR 5 billion on adapting its cities to climate changes.

District energy

Put simply, district energy is about moving energy in water, with a valuable temperature, from a place of production to the place of consumption. Denmark’s district heating system is highly energy efficient and has been one of the key drivers for reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions from the energy sector.

Green buildings

With urbanisation, demographic changes, and climate change, our cities and their buildings are facing immense challenges. Creative and innovative thinking can lead us towards a more sustainable approach to designing, creating, and using the buildings that form the basis for our everyday lives, to the benefit of both our planet and the people that populate our urban centres. Ensuring that new buildings are sustainable and energy-efficient will be key to our efforts to tackle climate change.

Smart cities

As the pace of urbanisation quickens, cities face immense challenges related to waste management, mobility, climate adaptation and energy. However, as their political, economic, and technological power grows, cities can harness this trend to act as leaders in the green transition and drivers of the green economy. Cities need smart solutions to ensure that they are optimised for sustainable economic activity, energy consumption, and an improved environmental impact.

Urban mobility

Cities must be built for people to be sustainable, healthy, and liveable. Targeted policy-making with urban mobility in mind is a strong reinforcement of these objectives. The key is to acknowledge the importance of city space and city life as an attractive, informal, and democratic meeting place for the city residents.

Urban waste management

Urban waste management entails the entire system of collecting, sorting, treating, utilising and ultimately disposing of waste. When properly facilitated it can provide a source of energy and resources, while significantly reducing pollution.

Urban water management

Cities around the world increasingly face pressure from both growing populations and climate change, challenging urban water supply in terms of available resources and in terms of treatment of increased wastewater volumes. An integrated approach to urban water management can ensure cost efficiency and synergies. E.g., wastewater treatment can provide the city with energy and nature-based solutions can delay or store rainwater for later use.