Building a sustainable future with lessons from the past 7 September 2020Arctic PeoplesRecommendationsCanadaFinlandSustainable Development Working GroupJapan Zero Arctic The Sustainable Development Working Group’s “Zero Arctic” project develops concepts for carbon neutral constructions in the Arctic. By drawing on both expertise from scientific assessments and traditional knowledge, the international project team works on solutions that can lessen the energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and resource use of future buildings. Globally, buildings and construction account for more than one third of all greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the sector consumes around half of all global raw materials that humans extract from nature, such as stones, sand, soil and wood. Especially in the Arctic, construction can lead to exceptionally high energy consumption as building materials are often transported over long distances and harsh environmental conditions increase heating demands while decreasing the service life of a building. Despite their significant impacts on the environment and climate, the built environment and construction methods in the Arctic have received very little attention from researchers. “So, we decided that this was something we wanted to take a closer look at”, says Dr. Matti Kuittinen from the Finnish Ministry of Environment. Dr. Kuittinen is one of the co-leads of “Zero Arctic: Concepts for carbon neutral Arctic construction based on tradition”, a project of the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group, which brings together an international consortium led by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs in Canada. The focus of Zero Arctic is to develop regional concepts for Arctic construction that can be carbon neutral over their full life cycle with the ambitious goal of integrating “the methodological novelty of uniting traditional architecture and life cycle assessment approaches to develop concepts that are sustainable and carbon neutral”, says Sarah Cox, Canada’s head of delegation to the Sustainable Development Working Group. “The building traditions of Indigenous peoples form a large warehouse of know-how. They offer millennia of successful and unsuccessful examples of how to build and use buildings efficiently and in a resource-wise manner.” 3D section of a Sámi goathi (Photo: Livady Architects)