Skellefteå industrial area paves the way for climate-neutral construction

It has been described as one of the world’s most sustainable development projects

The preparation work for the Skellefteå Site East industrial area in northern Sweden has been recently concluded and the results are more than impressive in terms of environmental performance. Although to the non-expert eye the site may look simply like a large patch of forest clearing, in reality, a lot of work has gone into it.

Its completion has shown that it is possible to drastically reduce CO2 emissions during construction by using sustainable and circular methods.

Early on the Municipality requested contractors to be creative and bold in their proposals on how to make the preparation of the site as environmentally friendly as possible. The Skanska company, which is overseeing the project, reported that the development saved more than 5,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The construction industry is one of the biggest CO2 emitters

That means that the climate impact was 75% lower than if the project had been carried out in the traditional way. Thus, the site meets the climate goals set up by the Swedish government almost 20 years ahead of time.

Skellefteå Site East covers 45 hectares and is located in Hedensbyn just a few kilometres outside Skellefteå's city centre. Here, the new industrial site is ready for the setting up of enterprises at the beginning of 2022. The hope is that Skellefteå Site East will attract energy-intensive industries that value sustainability throughout the chain.

Skanska was contracted for the work in June 2019 and has completed the project's design phase and Phase 1. Phase 1 included deforestation, detailed planning and calculation as a basis for further work. Phase 2, started in the spring of 2020, and included land preparation, connecting streets, lighting, water and sewage as well as electricity and fibre optics to the area.

How did they make it so sustainable?

The partners’ shared sustainability objective is a key success factor for the project. Together, they have found new solutions that improve both economic and environmental sustainability. The basic principle is circularity and the aim is to reuse what the area has to offer.

The construction work was carried out with smart and sustainable materials management, enabling the contractor to control costs while caring for the climate. For example, tree stumps were regarded as a resource instead of waste, removed vegetation was reused as a building material, and sand and gravel were sorted and reused as backfill material. Moraine was used as filling material, and excavated rock is crushed and reused.

Another sustainability factor was that all workplace vehicles were powered by electricity or HVO (bio-diesel). One example is a new electrified stone-crushing machine, which was specifically designed to be powered by 100% green electricity from Skellefteå Kraft, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 440 tonnes.

Recognition of the achievement has not been late since the project was the winner of the Swedish Green Building Award for 2021 in the class Infrastructure Project of the Year. Smart City Sweden has called it “one of the world’s most sustainable development projects”.