Building Act brings new climate requirements for construction

In accordance with the current government programme, certain parts of the Building Act are still to be amended before the Act enters into force to ease the administrative burden and reduce bureaucracy. The draft government proposal was circulated for comments in early 2024, and the Government intends to submit the proposal for amending the Building Act to Parliament in September 2024. However, the Ministry of the Environment already notified the EU on the government proposal on amending the Building Act in June 2024.

This blog is the second part of our blog series focusing on the new Building Act. Here you can find the first part, in which we discussed changes in building permits. This part focuses on one of the key changes in the Building Act, i.e. incorporating climate change mitigation into building legislation.

New essential technical requirements concerning low carbon buildings and carbon footprint thresholds

In future, certain buildings will have to meet new essential technical requirements for low-carbon buildings and carbon footprint thresholds. In the already adopted Building Act, these essential technical requirements are grouped under the same section into a single essential technical requirement. However, if the planned amendments to the Building Act are adopted, there will be two separate, strongly interacting, essential technical requirements.

The essential technical requirement for a low-carbon building requires the developer to ensure that the new building is designed and constructed to be low-carbon in a manner required by its intended use. The carbon footprint and carbon handprint of the building and site must also be reported in a climate report with respect to certain new buildings. In addition, if the planned amendments to the Building Act are adopted, the essential technical requirement for low-carbon buildings will also require that a list of building products is drawn up for certain new buildings. The essential technical requirement on carbon footprint states that the carbon footprint of new buildings must not exceed the carbon footprint threshold set for each category of purpose of use.

According to the already adopted Building Act, the requirements are to enter into force on 1 January 2025, but if the Building Act is amended as planned, the requirements will not enter into force until 1 January 2026.

Climate report will be required for many new building projects

The purpose of the climate report is to provide information on the carbon footprint of the building, which is the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted during the lifecycle of the building, and the carbon handprint, which refers to such factors outside the lifecycle that affect the net climate benefits and that would not occur without the project.

If the planned amendments to the Building Act are adopted, the obligation to prepare a climate report will be reduced compared to the already adopted Building Act, so that a climate report should only be prepared for the following new buildings: 1) terraced house; 2) apartment building; 3) office building, health centre; 4) commercial building, department store, shopping centre, retail building, shopping hall, theatre, opera house, concert hall, congress hall, cinema, library, archive, museum, art gallery, exhibition hall; 5) accommodation building, hotel, dormitory, residential care home, retirement home, nursing home; 6) educational building and kindergarten; 7) sports hall; 8) hospital; and 9) storage building, transport building, swimming pool or ice rink with a net heated area of more than 1,000 square metres. The planned amendment would remove the obligation to prepare a climate report for a wide range of new buildings, including storage buildings of up to 1,000 square meters, transport buildings, swimming pools and ice rinks, and buildings undergoing major renovation. In addition, it would be clarified that extensions and additions to the floor area are excluded from the scope of the legislation.

In accordance with the already adopted Building Act, a climate report must be submitted when applying for a building permit, but in order to streamline the permit procedure, it has been proposed to amend the Building Act so that the climate report should only be submitted in connection with the final inspection.

Provisions on the preparation and content of the climate report and the method for assessing low carbon buildings will be given by a new Decree of the Ministry of the Environment.

List of materials to be replaced by a list of building products

In connection with the amendment to the Building Act, the obligation to draw up a list of materials included in the essential technical requirement for the life cycle characteristics of a building in the already adopted Building Act is to be replaced by a list of building products with a reduced scope and content.

A list of building products at least on the level of the plan for building approval should be prepared at the building permit stage for those new buildings for which a climate report should also be prepared. The list of building products would be a prerequisite for the building permit, and it would also need to be updated with respect to essential changes for the final inspection of the building. Essential changes could be caused, for example, by changes in the quantities of building products at the procurement stage.

The list of building products should contain information on the building products used in the building and on site, included in the site elements, components and internal space elements. At the final inspection stage, the updated list of building products should also include quantitative data on reused construction products, surplus construction products from elsewhere and recycled materials used to produce the construction elements included in the construction product list.

Provisions on the building product list are to be given in more detail in the same Decree of the Ministry of the Environment that provides for the climate assessment of a building.

Carbon footprint threshold also to be taken into account in many new building projects

If the Building Act is amended as planned, the requirement to comply with the carbon footprint threshold will be reduced compared to the already adopted Building Act, so that the threshold only needs be complied with in case of new buildings for which a climate report must be prepared. A climate report is prepared for the final inspection, and it is up to the building control authority to check that the threshold value calculated for the building is not exceeded.

The carbon footprint thresholds will also be provided for in more detail in a new Ministry of the Environment Decree, which is expected to be submitted for consultation in early 2025.

Our experts in the Environment, Energy & Green Transition and Real Estate Investment and Transactions teams are happy to answer any questions about the Building Act and the impact of the new regulations on construction projects.