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Nordic issuers update their green bonds impact reporting guide

– We continue to work together, with the aim of harmonising and advancing impact reporting practices across the Nordic region. The updated version includes a number of improvements and clarifications over the previous version, as well as recommendations regarding the reporting of climate-related physical risk and the Sustainable Development Goals, says Björn Bergstrand, who leads the Nordic cooperation and is Head of Sustainability at Sweden’s Kommuninvest.

Developed with the primary aim of assisting Nordic public sector borrowers, the signatories hope that it will prove useful also for issuers from the private sector and from other countries as well as for the investor community.

– What characterises Nordic public sector issuers of green bonds is that we finance projects across a range of categories and sizes, and that we have a limited number of people available to work with environmental reporting. These guidelines make our reporting efforts easier, while at the same time hopefully making the different reports more harmonised and comparable to the reader, says Torunn Brånå, Head of Green Finance at Norway’s Kommunalbanken and chairperson of the cooperation’s technical/environmental working group.

The paper has been developed by a group comprising public sector green bond issuers from the four Nordic countries: Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They include the local government funding agencies Kommunalbanken (Norway), Kommuninvest (Sweden) and MuniFin (Finland); the Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK); and seven Swedish municipal or regional issuers including City of Gothenburg, the municipalities of Lund, Norrköping, Västerås and Örebro, Region Skåne and Region Stockholm.

With initiatives such as the EU Sustainable Finance Action Plan making headlines recently, the Nordic issuers expect even stronger interest in green bonds impact reporting. The group aims to contribute to develop the methodology in this field.

– Through this harmonisation initiative, we ensure transparency and consistency in reporting from the Nordic public sector green bond market. Developing sound and harmonised methodology for climate finance reporting is of importance to all stakeholders in the market, says Antti Kontio, Head of Funding and Corporate Responsibility at MuniFin and the Finnish spokesperson for the cooperation.

About the Nordic Public Sector Issuers: Position Paper on Green Bonds Impact Reporting

The paper proposes an outline for reporting environmental benefits of green bond investments.  It provides guidance on general matters such as to distinguish between reduced and avoided emissions and to report impact in relation to disbursed green bond allocations.

The paper also provides suggestions for metrics and indicators relevant to eight different project categories. This effort builds upon reporting approaches suggested by the Green Bond Principles and multilateral development banks.

The paper has benefited from input from CICERO Center for International Climate Research, the Nordic Investment Bank, SEB, and Crédit Agricole CIB as well as several investors throughout the process.

Comment from Harald Francke Lund, Chief Executive Officer, CICERO Shades of Green:

– Through this update, the Nordic Position Paper continues to set the benchmark for high-quality reporting in the green bond market. In particular, we appreciate that issuers are encouraged to report on physical climate risks. We see a growing demand for this type of information from investors, as they increasingly observe the consequences of a changing climate.

Comment from Fransesca Suarez, ESG Analyst, Mirova:

– Transparency and harmonization of data is vital to create a robust and reliable green bond market and to further promote sustainable finance. This initiative by the Nordic issuers will help investors and issuers better understand how we’re moving towards a 1.5°–2° world.

Comment from Christopher Flensborg, Head of Climate & Sustainable Finance, SEB:

– It is initiatives like this which will allow finance to proactively contribute to building sustainable societies. This updated Position Paper provides further guidance on crucial aspects of impact reporting and thereby facilitates harmonization, efficiency and sustainable growth of the green financing market.

Comment from Tanquy Claquin, Head of Sustainable Banking, Crédit Agricole CIB:

– Transparency, reliability and consistency of data are critical to further expand the green bond market and sustainable finance in general. In this respect, this Nordic public sector issuers’ initiative is tremendously helpful. It will serve issuers, well outside of the group signatories, and contribute to better practices and exemplarity in the market in general.

Further information:

MuniFin:
Antti Kontio, Head of Funding and Corporate Responsibility, + 358 9 6803 5634, antti.kontio(at)munifin.fi

Kommuninvest (Secretariat for Position Paper and main contact for questions & comments):
Björn Bergstrand, Head of Sustainability and Senior Investor Relations Manager, +46 708 86 94 76, bjorn.bergstrand(at)kommuninvest.se

Kommunalbanken:
Torunn Brånå, Head of Green Finance, +47 911 58 528, tob(at)kbn.org

Position Paper on Green Bonds Impact Reporting

Green bond

MuniFin wins Best Uridashi Bond Issuer Award

MuniFin has been a frequent issuer in the Japanese Uridashi market since the ’90s. Uridashi bonds are issued in a variety of structures and MuniFin is active in all major product groups, equity linked and FX linked structures being the most important. Uridashi market plays an important role in MuniFin’s funding strategy as it provides good geographical and maturity diversification. 

More information:

Award winners on the CMD Portal > 

Joakim Holmström, Head of Capital Markets
Antti Kontio, Head of Funding and Corporate Responsibility

Funding

MuniFin’s Green Bond Framework updated with a revised Second Opinion

The purpose of the framework is to define eligible project categories for green finance. MuniFin’s framework promotes renewables, energy efficiency, sustainable buildings, sustainable transportation, waste management, water and waste water management, as well as environmental management.

MuniFin’s Green Bond Framework originates from February 2016 and has been updated once before, in August 2017. In the latest update MuniFin has adjusted the project category requirements related to sustainable buildings, due to the recent updates in the Finnish energy efficiency regulations.

The Second Opinion gives MuniFin’s governance structure a good overall assessment rating. Based on the overall assessment of the project types that will be financed by the green bond and governance and transparency considerations, MuniFin’s Green Bond Framework gets a Medium Green shading.

MuniFin’s Green Bond Framework and the Second Opinion can be found on MuniFin’s green bonds web page > 

More information:

Antti Kontio
Head of Funding and Corporate Responsibility
tel. +358 9 6803 5634

Green bond

MuniFin prints new solid 5-year EUR benchmark

MuniFin announced the mandate for a new March 2024 EUR benchmark in the London afternoon on Tuesday 8th January. With constructive market backdrop into Wednesday 9th January books opened officially in the London morning with the price guidance of MS-5 area.

Positive response from the international investor community contributed to a steady order book growth from high quality accounts and with books approaching the EUR1bn mark at 11:00 UKT, the final spread was confirmed at MS-5 bps to offer market participants definition.

Interest continued to grow and books closed in excess of EUR 1.25bn. The deal was priced with a reoffer price of 99.653%, an annual yield of 0.193% and pays a coupon of 0.125% annually.

The high quality orderbook was comprised of Bank treasuries (37%), Central Banks and Official institutions (36%), Fund managers (20%) as well as Corporates (7%). The majority of orders came from the EMEA region (79%) followed by good participation out of the Nordic region (18%) and the US (3%).

– A strong result for MuniFin, combining attractive pricing with high quality oversubscribed orderbook. MuniFin showed true leadership in deciding to be the first Nordic SSA to come to the EUR market so early in the year despite the volatile market opening and crowded market space. A true testament to MuniFin’s credit story and track record, says Kamal Grossard-Amin, Managing Director, Head of SSA DCM at Nordea, who acted as a joint lead manager in the transaction.

Issue Size:      EUR 1 billion
Payment Date:16 January 2019
Maturity Date: 7 March 2024
Coupon:   0.125% Fixed coupon
Re-offer Price: 99.653%
Re-offer Yield: 0.193%
Re-offer vs Mid Swaps:-5 bps
Lead Managers:   Citibank, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Nordea

More information:

Antti Kontio, Head of Funding
antti.kontio(at)munifin.fi
+358 50 3700 285

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Funding

MuniFin forecasts to issue EUR 7.1 billion in 2019

Focus on both EUR and USD benchmark markets will continue. The funding plan has been divided into two categories: strategic and tactical. The plan is to issue roughly 2/3 of the funding through strategic trades and the rest 1/3 through structured retail notes and private placements. This is also in line with 2018 allocation. 

MuniFin is also planning to issue a new benchmark sized Green bond, most probably in EUR or USD. Timing for this transaction will depend on the underlying asset portfolio but the aim is to issue in H1.

2018 has been successful in terms of new funding: EUR 7.2 billion has been issued year-to-date and the full-year estimate is EUR 7.5 billion. Out of this almost 70% has been issued in strategic public markets. MuniFin has issued two USD fixed rate benchmarks (3 and 5y), one USD FRN and one EUR benchmark in 15y. In addition, existing EUR benchmarks have been tapped few times in 2018. 

Top 5 currencies in 2018 have been USD (43%), EUR (25%), JPY (19%), GBP (8%) and NOK (3%).

Funding

MuniFin receives excellent feedback from international distributors

The survey covered the Nordic municipal agencies, namely MuniFin and its counterparties Kommuninvest of Sweden, KBN of Norway and KommuneKredit of Denmark. The Nordic agencies were also compared to other European issuers such as the German KfW, the Dutch BNG Bank, European Investment Bank and Nordic Investment Bank.

– The distributors clearly feel these issuers have credit stories that are relatively similar and all these issuers receive great feedback. However, there are also differences in profiles, says Hanna Helgesson of Prospera.

Strong Finnish economy increase investor interest in MuniFin

The respondents of the survey felt that the insecurities related to other parts of Europe have increased investor interest in MuniFin. Investors have also noticed that the Finnish economy has been picking up pace in the past couple of years.  

MuniFin as a company is recognised by the distributors for its activity in the green bonds market. Some of the respondents also mentioned that social bonds would further increase their interest in the MuniFin securities. Also issuing more benchmark loans was on the distributor wish list.

– MuniFin has a diverse funding strategy which caters for a wide range of investors. They have been able to stay at the forefront of each market, constantly adapting to investor needs. Participation at various events helps them to stay close to their investors and maintain this flexibility in the funding. This is welcomed by the investors, commented one of the respondents.

Survey helps to improve MuniFin’s funding operations

The Prospera survey defines MuniFin as a company with a very professional operation model. MuniFin’s strengths are its funding strategy, clear and consistent way of acting, transparency, information and its perceptiveness to market demands. All these have had a central role in the development of the company’s funding operations in the past years.

– Each year we go through the feedback from the Prospera survey in great detail. Awards we have been given in the recent years are a good indicator we’re on the right path, but the Prospera survey offers us more concrete ideas on how to improve our way of working. It also gives our partners a chance to give constructive feedback, says Joakim Holmström, Executive Vice President and the Head of Capital Markets at MuniFin.

Facts about the survey

Prospera has surveyed North European issuers every year since 2011. The Swedish Kommuninvest was the first company to mandate the survey but MuniFin has for several years been the other assigner of the survey.

Prospera is part of a global research group Kantar Sifo and it specialises in the finance sector research. Its services range from tailored surveys like the one in question but also sector wide market research conducted at its own initiative.

This survey was conducted by 22 phone interviews with international distributors. The respondents were pre-determined as it is essential that the respondents are familiar with the agencies they were asked to review and rate.

MuniFin

Mitigating climate change is strongly on the agenda of the entire finance sector

The need for further cooperation and commitment became evident in the Sustainable Finance in Nordic–Baltic conference which was organised in Helsinki by Finance Finland and Finance Latvia Association in partnership with European Commission. The event took place on Friday 9 November, 2018. Around 140 public and private sector representatives from Nordic–Baltic region’s finance and investment community gathered to the event.

The discussion in the conference revolved mainly around the climate impacts of financing. However, some speakers also emphasized that financing can further also other sustainable development goals such as increased social wellbeing or gender equality.

As part of the conference programme, the conference participants will also visit MuniFin to demonstrate sustainable finance in action. MuniFin was Finland’s first green bond issuer with an inaugural green bond issue in 2016.

– There is an extremely strong and increasing investor demand for green bonds. Green loans have been very well received by the customers. With that said, we also offer a margin discount in our green lending to encourage our customers to make green investments and to compensate the extra work needed for impact reporting, said Joakim Holmström, Head of Capital Markets at MuniFin in one of the conference’s panel discussions.

Sustainability

Building bridges

Saara Vauramo is an Environmental Director who believes firmly in efficient public transport. Even so, she occasionally takes her own car to make her life a little easier. She advocates domestic holidays but occasionally flies to far-away sunny beaches. Recycling is also second nature to Vauramo. But she sometimes accidentally throws a banana skin in the normal bin instead of the biodegradable waste container. 

Some might say that she is a hypocrite. If you cannot live by your own standards, you cannot expect others to do so either.

But Vauramo is only human. As the Environmental Director of the City of Lahti, she puts a lot of emphasis on setting an example. For the same reason, she openly admits that she does not always do everything right herself. Sometimes she simply has to drive in order not to miss an appointment.

“Sanctimony and pedantry are not the way to sustainable solutions – being human is.”

On the whole, however, Vauramo leads a relatively eco-friendly lifestyle, and she is not alone: environmental friendliness is a natural part of the day-to-day life of many people in Lahti.

Vauramo explains that the city’s strategic goal is to be the most environmentally friendly city in Finland.

“The conditions for an ecological way of life are excellent in Lahti. The city has been promoting environmentalism for a long time, and we are now reaping tangible benefits from our efforts.”

Motivation from visible progress

Environmentalism requires a hands-on approach.

Vauramo mentions the restoration of Lake Vesijärvi as a good example of a project that is now benefiting every resident in Lahti. Lake Vesijärvi has been one of the city’s most important environmental priorities since the 1960s. It is still among the most studied lakes in the world.

“In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, many local residents did not even think of the city as being by a lake, as Vesijärvi was just a smelly pool of sludge. Long-term ecological restoration efforts, active research and cooperation between local residents and businesses have given Lake Vesijärvi back to the community.”

At the moment, the number one priority in respect of water is urban runoff management, but the City of Lahti is also investing heavily in mobility. Vauramo explains excitedly how the city is pursuing better mobility solutions with the help of a unique, EU-funded experiment involving a citizens’ cap-and-trade scheme. The scheme allows local residents to trade their emissions from transport and convert their “savings” into cheaper bus tickets or bicycle repairs, for example.

“This is the first time anywhere in the world that citizens have been given such a tangible opportunity to contribute to greenhouse gas emissions trading, which many people see as something far removed from them personally”, she says.

Vauramo sees international relations and networking as crucial elements of modern environmentalism. With increasingly easy communication, it makes sense to share thoughts and ideas with people all over the planet. Extensive cooperation with both residents and businesses is important.

“We all need to be concerned about the environment. That is why we need to talk about our ideas and share them. Today’s pioneers need networks and also the ability to rejoice when others succeed”, she says.

Meaningful work in a place to call home

The main reason why environmental issues are so high on the agenda in Lahti can be traced back to the establishment of a satellite campus of the University of Helsinki in the city. The City of Lahti itself also has a long history as a pioneer in environmentalism.

Lahti first became a part of Vauramo’s life at the end of the 1990s, when she began to study ecology there. It was not love at first sight, and moving back to Helsinki felt like the right choice for Vauramo when she graduated. A few years later, however, she was back for a post-graduate degree.

“And now this is where I love to live. I grew up in a suburb of Vantaa, but I have finally found a place to call home”, she says.

After her time at university, Vauramo went to work for the City of Lahti, first as a Development Manager and then, as of two years ago, as Environmental Director. She sees her professional role as that of a motivator who encourages others to explore new ideas boldly and open-mindedly.

Vauramo is passionate about environmentalism. Global environmental challenges are what drives her and makes her work meaningful. She also finds her work stimulating enough to put her whole heart into it: there was a period some time ago when she finished her PhD, was involved in politics, worked as a Development Manager for the City of Lahti and led the Lahti Green City project, all in the space of a few years. Her toddler-age twins completed the challenging yet rewarding period of her life.

Despite the stress and the hectic lifestyle of those years, Vauramo would not change them for the world.

“Without my experience in politics, it would have been much more difficult for me to get to grips with the business logic of public administration and the decision-making process. I have, however, wondered afterwards how I survived those years”, she says.

Childhood memories of nature never forgotten

Vauramo fell in love with nature as a little girl. She has vivid memories of blueberry picking during visits to her father’s hometown in eastern Finland.

“It was just me, the forest, blueberries and my father. Those memories run deep.”

At some point during her adolescent years, she also became interested in environmentalism. Vauramo is thankful for her family’s modest and non-consumerist lifestyle and deep and meaningful dinner-table conversations that taught her to look beyond the individual and think globally.

She has also taught her environmental values to her own children. Her children know what waste goes in which bin and not to rely on their mother to drive them to school. They make their own way to school, on foot or on bicycles.

And Vauramo’s favourite place in the world – the forest – now also has a place in her children’s hearts. The forest is a place where anyone, regardless of age, can forget about stress and deadlines for a little while.

“I am hoping that the serenity of blueberry forests also infects my children with the same passion for nature that I learned through my father”, Vauramo says.

Independent expert assessments of green projects

Saara Vauramo chairs MuniFin’s Green Evaluation Team. She likes being part of the team, as her involvement gives her a good idea about the progress that different towns and municipalities around Finland are making in respect of environmental issues.

The Green Evaluation Team is an independent body comprised of experts from outside the MuniFin organisation. The team evaluates all projects that MuniFin has chosen as potential investments. The projects are graded and compared against the highest-scoring similar projects.

“With constant new developments and increasingly strict legal requirements, the Green Evaluation Team also needs to set the bar higher and higher all the time. Projects in the green portfolio are given points to determine a margin discount according to how environmentally friendly they are in the team’s opinion”, Vauramo explains.

She wants people to remember that green bonds are also good for the project coordinators’ public image.

Examples of projects in and around Lahti that have benefited from green bonds include Lahden Talot Oy’s almost-zero-energy housing developments. These were the first housing projects financed through the green bonds scheme. Vauramo disqualifies herself from evaluations that concern projects in the Lahti area.

WHO?
Saara Vauramo

  • PhD, Urban Ecosystem Ecology
  • Born in Turku, but raised in Vantaa
  • 38 years old
  • Leader of the Green League in Lahti City Council between 2009 and 2012
  • Development Manager of the City of Lahti from 2011 until 2016
  • Environmental Director of the City of Lahti since 2016
  • Engaged with a blended family, mother of 10-year-old twins

City of Lahti shortlisted for the European Green Capital Award

Lahti’s long-term environmental efforts have not gone unnoticed. The city has been shortlisted as one of the finalists in the European Green Capital competition two years in a row.

In the latest competition cycle, Lahti was top-rated in five indicator areas: air quality, noise, nature and biodiversity, water and governance.

Text: Jaana Kosunen
Photo: Annukka Pakarinen

Sustainability

MuniFin awarded for its transactions in the Japanese Uridashi market

MuniFin won one of the most respected categories of the awards as it was selected the Issuer of the Year. Additionally, MuniFin receives the Deal of the Year Award in the category of equity index-linked deals.

– MuniFin has had a long-term presence in the Uridashi market. We have always adapted to new trends and been a flexible issuer thereby sustaining stable issuance volumes. The Uridashi market is a strategic part of MuniFin’s funding. MuniFin issues 20–30% of its annual funding in the Uridashi market, says Karoliina Kajova, Manager at MuniFin’s funding.

The mtn-i Uridashi Awards Ceremony will be held in Tokyo on October 23, 2018.

Read more about the mtn-i Uridashi Awards > 

MuniFin

Green construction

It was all happening in Nepenmäki School in August, just before the start of the school year. The newly completed school building had to be kitted out before the big day. The school’s brand-new library was also a hive of activity, as staff scrambled to stack the shelves with books. The City of Joensuu’s Head of Facilities Management Timo Korhonen dealt out high-fives and cheered the staff on.

“The opening of the new school was an exhilarating moment for both teachers and pupils. It was also exciting for me personally, as my son goes to Nepenmäki School”, Korhonen says.

However, Korhonen knew that everything would go as it should. Nepenmäki School is an example of the City of Joensuu’s new ecological building policy in action. The teachers were invited to co-design the new school with the construction company.

The aim was to make the building as environmentally friendly as possible, and this meant, among other things, installing solar panels on the roof, using high-quality materials and equipping the school with dozens of sensors that monitor everything from indoor air quality to water consumption.

Ambitious ecological goals

Green construction is nothing new in Joensuu. The city, which is the capital of the heavily forested region of North Karelia, is known as the Forest Capital of Europe. As much as 80% of the area of the City of Joensuu is forest. Forestry research has been an integral part of the curriculum of the University of Joensuu – or the Joensuu campus of the University of Eastern Finland, as the institution is now known – since the beginning. Joensuu is also home to the headquarters of the European Forest Institute (EFI) and a wide range of forestry, wood and bioeconomy businesses.

“People in Joensuu have always had a close relationship with nature. The world is changing rapidly, and environmental issues are becoming more and more important to everyone. The City of Joensuu wants to stay on trend”, Korhonen says.

The city has adopted a new strategy that aims to incorporate environmentalism into every aspect of Joensuu’s development. The city’s ambitious goals include becoming the most carbon-neutral city in Europe and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from 2017 levels by 2025. The city is also planning to completely eradicate oil-based heating from public buildings by 2030.

“Ecological construction plays a big role in meeting these targets”, Korhonen says. Joensuu’s green approach has also received international recognition. The city was among the five finalists of the 2019 European Green Leaf Award competition. The award recognises cities that demonstrate a good record in mitigating climate change and promoting energy efficiency, waste management and circular economies.

“We did not win, but just being shortlisted for the award was an important boost to Joensuu’s image. I believe that a green image will help us to attract both new businesses and residents to the city”, Korhonen says.

Reining in the maintenance backlog

Korhonen has an MSc (Technology) degree and an MSc (Economics and Business Administration) degree from the University of Oulu, and his previous employers include Jaakko Pöyry and the Parliament of Finland. He took over as Head of the City of Joensuu’s Facilities Management a decade ago.

“Public buildings in Joensuu at the time were, to put it bluntly, in a deplorable condition. By 2010, the city’s maintenance backlog amounted to EUR 53 million. We had to do something. The city’s maintenance backlog currently stands at EUR 37 million, and we are hoping to reduce it to EUR 25 million by 2020”, Korhonen explains.

Korhonen spent his first years in Joensuu renovating old listed buildings. After a while, a new approach began to take shape. Korhonen realised that, instead of trying to fix many of the old buildings, such as schools and nurseries with indoor air quality issues, it would make a lot more sense financially, operationally and in terms of risks to replace them completely.

Korhonen believes that, in the choice between renovation and new development, a long-term perspective is crucial. Old buildings often have multiple issues, and fixing just one is rarely enough. In such cases, starting from scratch can be a much better option, as the new building can be designed to be both energy-efficient in terms of materials and ideal in terms of the use of space. The same cannot always be said for old buildings.

“The initial investment may be a little bigger, but the savings that can be achieved with green construction over the life-cycle of a building are considerable. The biggest beneficiaries are local residents, who ultimately pay for the buildings through tax”, Korhonen says.

Shorter life-cycles?

Korhonen does not want to entertain hindsight when it comes to the problems with Joensuu’s old buildings. He sees the city’s old buildings as products of their time and believes that they were built according to the best know-how available at the time. Our understanding of construction technology and materials has come a long way since then. Today, buildings are designed to last for between 30 and 35 years. That is the period that they should be able to serve their users without problems.

“The city sets the course for public-sector construction. I have actually wondered whether we should be designing buildings with a life-cycle of just 20 years, considering how fast the world is changing. What makes sense today might become redundant in the future. This can already be seen in office work, which is no longer tied to a specific workstation or room. Will we even need large offices in the future?” Korhonen ponders.

Adopting a more environmentally friendly construction policy has ultimately been easy in Joensuu, as the financial benefits are undeniable.

“The city’s administrators and decision-makers now understand that it makes sense to look at the entire life-cycle of an investment and not just how much it costs to build.

Expertly pitched and well-reasoned plans are obviously important. The City of Joensuu now recognises that new development is often the smartest option and that it is not worth renovating buildings dating back to the 1960s and 1970s. There is no going back to the old way of thinking”, Korhonen says.

Breaking boundaries

Modern schools no longer go by the dogma that teachers talk and the pupils listen. Today, the focus is on teamwork between teachers and on pupils working in groups and learning through their own curiosity. These principles are set out in the Finnish National Agency for Education’s new national core curriculum for basic education, which was introduced in 2014.

“Old school buildings are ill-suited to the new methods of teaching and learning. Schools today need flexible facilities. Our new building, which we have now been using for two years, was designed to meet the challenges of the new national curriculum”, explains Karhunmäki School’s Head Teacher Timo Nykänen.

Nykänen is visibly pleased with how well the new building serves its users.

“The teachers were involved in the design process from the start, which turned out to be a good solution”, Nykänen says.

The City of Joensuu built Karhunmäki School using the so-called turnkey contract model, which involves choosing the contractor on the basis of points awarded to each bidder’s proposal. Nykänen represented the users of the school in a project planning group charged with the planning process. According to Nykänen, the aim was not to follow the hottest pedagogical trends of the moment but to look for solutions that would also work in the future.

“That meant, for example, introducing what we call “learning hubs”, which are four separate teaching areas that can also be combined simply by moving partition walls to make one big space. It is important for the building not to dictate how we teach. For us, the building is an enabler.”, Nykänen explains.

Karhunmäki School is one of the City of Joensuu’s green bond investments in which environmental friendliness is key. The performance of the building is monitored by means of a multitude of sensors. The data are also used in teaching.

“Designing a user interface that is simple enough for teachers to be able to incorporate all the data into their lessons has been challenging. We still have a way to go in that respect. Most of the building’s technical systems are automated, which is another challenge. It is difficult to motivate teachers and pupils to make environmentally friendly choices if they cannot, for example, control the temperature in the classroom themselves and experiment with different options”, Nykänen says.

Nykänen feels that the design of Karhunmäki School is a triumph.

“Everyone agrees that our school is a calm and peaceful place to work and study. It is great that the building itself can contribute to a relaxed atmosphere and promote learning”, Nykänen says.

Text: Mika Remes
Photos: Miska Korpelainen

Green bond