Harnessing the strength of co-operation: Fyra partners with Materialisting
Advancements in interior material carbon footprint assessment have reached new heights with Materialisting.
With a recent EUR 300,000 growth investment, Materialisting is set to expand its presence in the sustainable construction market in Europe. The platform offers an innovative tool for evaluating environmental impact of real estate and indoor construction projects, allowing users to compare building materials and make environmentally conscious choices.
As the demand for such a platform is pressing, Fyra is stepping in as one of the investors together with Business Joensuu Oy, Redstone Nordics and two private investors. We are thrilled to be a part of this ambitious endeavour – addressing the challenges posed by climate change that the entire construction industry must confront collectively.
Materialisting utilizes product-specific environmental profiles, drawing on comprehensive lifecycle data to reveal a material’s carbon emissions, ecological impacts, and suitability for a circular economy in an easily understandable way. This pioneering service integrates environmental data and technology to support responsible construction practices and contributes to the green transition.
Beyond construction materials, Materialisting also addresses interior surfaces and furnishings, a crucial but often underestimated aspect of the (sustainable) built environment. As a forward-thinking pilot phase participant and currently also an investor, Fyra emphasizes the importance of considering interior spaces’ environmental impact. Becoming part of Materialisting does not only align with Fyra’s strategic objectives but also actively contributes to the industry’s advancement.
“Emissions and environmental impacts linked to the interiors form a pivotal component of a building’s overall environmental impact over its lifecycle. Notably, as interior alterations occur approx. every 5 to 10 years, the environmental impact of these changes effectively multiplies. Designers have a crucial role in bringing these perspectives to the forefront of client awareness, ensuring that they are factored into decision-making processes.” Hanna Neuvo, CEO of Fyra, underscores the significance of meticulous planning and conscious choices.
“Materialisting empowers designers by providing easy access to essential environmental data about products and enables them to make informed decisions. This helps to dispel the misconception that eco-friendly choices are consistently costly or aesthetically unappealing.” Neuvo emphasizes. “As an addition to the ability to reduce carbon footprint, sustainable choices can also lead to innovative and beautiful design solutions.“
For more information please contact Hanna Neuvo, CEO, hanna.neuvo@fyra.fi, +358 (0)40 582 8961
The 9 R’s in Interior Architecture
While the new Finnish Building Act brings long awaited regulations and sustainability tools for the construction industry, interior design is still for the most parts left beyond their reach. In the long run, the governmental controlling means will likely cover the material-intense field of interior design, but there is a need to look for ecology means elsewhere while waiting.
In the spring of 2023, Circular Design training program of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment trained experts from various fields according to circular design principles. With the program’s emphasis on product design, service providers are still left with on their own. Delightfully, practical sustainability tools are being developed also for interior designers. Materialisting, for example, has developed an enabling tool based on Environmental Product Declarations to especially meet the needs of the interior designers.
While the common indicators for sustainability are being developed, offers circular economy the best models for doing the daily work of an interior designer more sustainably. The R-rule, named after the re-prefixes, is a clear framework for circular economy and is based on the idea of roughly ranking the variety of circularity actions. The primary rule is to refuse of anything unnecessary. In ideal situation, projects with low ambition on carbon reduction and circular economy targets should be refused. Accustomed patterns of thought and action should also be questioned. For example, different models of the sharing economy can be utilized in space planning, and the leasing model is taking the field by storm.
Artificial intelligence will also provide thrilling possibilities for the rethink-strategy. The depletion of natural resources can be reduced through resource efficiency. As interior architects, we can approach this rule by asking if the wanted result can be achieved by doing less in terms of weight, quality, and quantity. The digitalization, accelerated by the covid pandemic, also opens opportunities for resource efficiency from multiple points of views, although it must be remembered that the digital technologies are not matter- nor energy-free solutions.
The final R strategies related to the utilization of the material often require industrial processes. From an interior architect’s perspective, these strategies are strongly emphasized in common discussion and when choosing materials. Repurposed and recycled materials are, for example, self-evident options for textiles. What is concerning, is that the emphasis lies heavily on these last in order strategies, which flips the order of the R-rule around. This must quickly be switched to match the ideal order of the model. The value of many commonly used interior materials decrease during the recycling processes, and in the absence of practical models and processes, the “100% recyclable”-labelled materials are often actually being recovered into energy through burning. How the EU directive on Green Claims takes the recyclability claims into account remains to be seen.
Interior architects and designers play a key role in the circular economy transition. The most influential change starts between the ears and is transformed into smarter ways of production and use of materials through the designers’ work. The circular economy of the built environment can be further improved by enhancing the flow of information between the different stakeholders and within the field by the practitioners. Circular economy requires services, training, innovations, change of attitude and seamless co-operation across industry boundaries.
For sustainability issues, please contact our sustainability coordinator Sisko Anttalainen: sisko.anttalainen@fyra.fi, tel. +358 40 7482554.
