SUSTAINORDIC Transformation Panel
Keeping momentum towards sustainable construction across the Nordics.
The SUSTAINORDIC Transformation Panel is an advisory board established to support the work of WP3 SUSTAINORDIC which is a component under the Nordic Sustainable Construction project. The purpose of the project is to create a sustainable and competitive construction sector in the Nordic countries by 2030. The goal is to make the Nordic region a leader in sustainable and competitive housing and construction with a lower environmental and climate impact.
The Transformation Panel is composed of members representing key stakeholders from various fields, including Architecture, Research, Economy, Education, Engineering, Procurement, Design, Culture Change, Construction, Materials, Sustainability, Biodiversity, Urban planning, and EU Taxonomy.
The board members:
Anna Denell, Head of Sustainability, Vasakronan
Susanne Rudenstam, Managing Director, Swedish Wood Building Council
Mark Hughes, Professor of Wood Technologies, Aalto University
Pasi Aalto, Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Hulda Hallgrimsdottir, Project Manager, Climate, City of Reykjavik
Bjarke Fjeldsted, Chief Product Officer, Molio
Benedicte Wildhagen, Chief Adviser Public Systems & Service Innovation, DOGA
The role of the Transformation Panel is to support the project and help SUSTAINORDIC secure a strong focus on identifying opportunities and strategies to overcome the barriers to the conversion of the Nordic housing and construction sector towards practices with minimal environmental and climate impacts. With their insight into market, research and governance around construction and architecture of each of the members, the panel works as a catalyst for the project's goals to create a cultural development in the construction industry by offering thought leadership into future practices by uncovering what is needed in the near and far future and help the project to gain understanding of the role of governance and architecture in adopting sustainable materials and practices in Nordic construction and retrofit.
The SUSTAINORDIC Transformation Panel is a vital component of the Nordic Sustainable Construction project, providing valuable support and guidance in realizing the project's goals of creating a sustainable and competitive construction sector in the Nordic countries by 2030. With its diverse representation of key stakeholders and its role in catalyzing change, the Transformation Panel will play a critical role in placing the Nordic region as a leader in sustainable and competitive housing and construction.
Quotes from the board members
-
![]()
“Let's drop our obsession with coming up with new tools, standards, legislation and innovations and instead start solving the problems we already understand. We know plenty of them and we know what it takes to solve them. We have run out of time to invent new perfect tools for everything”
– Pasi Aalto, Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
-
![]()
“Wood is the only renewable material which is available at scale. And it even sequesters carbon.”
– Anna Denell, Head of Sustainability, Vasakronan, Sweden
-
![]()
“The first step is to accept that there are in fact planetary boundaries and that we must live within these. It is not just about being efficient with the materials that we use, we must use only what is sufficient. We cannot keep building new as we are. It is as simple as that!”
– Mark Hughes, Professor in Wood Technology at Aalto University, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems
-
![]()
“Between the Nordic countries, we have used up our annual share of resources sometime between the end of March and the beginning of April. In other words, we use ¾ more than we have. The construction sector accounts for approximately 40% of this overspent. This means that the remaining 9 months of every year, we are expanding our resource debt to the planet and to the future generations. And we have no plan for how to pay back the debt. In essence, we are stealing from our children. And you don´t steal from children, so we need to learn how to build nothing new”
– Peter Ullstad, Architect and Founder at Codesign
-
![]()
“We need to keep up momentum and make sure that we succeed with all the big steps, we have already initiated towards sustainable construction”
– Bjarke Fjeldsted, Chief Product Officer, Molio
Images from the Transformation Panel's first physical meeting in Uppsala, Sweden.
