Mind the Gap: A Policy Gap Analysis of Programmes Promoting Timber Construction in Nordic Countries

The construction sector is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and consumers of energy, making it one of the most relevant sectors when planning reduction strategies and policies. The use of timber in the built environment has been identified as a key strategy to reduce the carb...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2021-11, Vol.13 (21), p.11876
Main Authors: Maniak-Huesser, Martyna, Tellnes, Lars G. F, Zea Escamilla, Edwin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Architects
Architecture
Building construction
Carbon
Climate change
Construction companies
Construction industry
Control
Ecological footprint
Emissions
Environmental aspects
Environmental policy
Fire protection
Fire safety
Gap analysis
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Laws, regulations and rules
Literature reviews
Safety regulations
Sustainability
Sustainable materials
Timber
Timber construction
Urban environments
Wood
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The construction sector is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and consumers of energy, making it one of the most relevant sectors when planning reduction strategies and policies. The use of timber in the built environment has been identified as a key strategy to reduce the carbon footprint of the construction sector. In this paper, we use the concept of policy gap analysis to identified underlying challenges in the implementation of timber construction on three Nordic countries, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. We carried out a series of semi-structured interviews with experts from the countries of study. The interviews came from industry, government, and construction companies. The use of the gap analysis approach was useful not only to identify areas that are being targeted but also those areas that were not covered by any programme at the time of study. The results showed that the studied programmes have a large level of coverage and congruence with the identified challenges. Moreover, they also showed that challenges related to fire safety regulations and insurance policies for timber buildings still need to be addressed, whereas the challenges of high price variability and lack of promotion are being addressed by multiple programmes. With this work, we have seen how timber construction is gaining momentum and how the challenges have been addressed systematically.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su132111876