Every challenge comes with new possibilities
Nitrogen crisis
The year 2019 was marked by two statements made by the Council of State about the Nitrogen Approach Program, better known as PAS. Because of these judgments, this program could no longer be used for granting permits that would result in additional precipitation of nitrogen in Natura-2000 areas. As a result, many building permits could no longer be granted. The permit application for about 18,000 construction projects came to a halt and the Netherlands ended up in a true nitrogen crisis.
Construction- and agriculture sectors are lagging behind
The crisis shook the Netherlands awake, it’s time for a change! The energy sector is already making considerable progress in their transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. The car industry is also starting to give in to the inevitable transition to electric driving. Unfortunately, there are also sectors that are lagging behind, in particular the construction and agriculture sectors.
The construction process has hardly changed in the last century, which means that about 50% more building material is used than necessary. The construction sector generally feels no rush for change, the overarching idea is that construction does not emit much nitrogen at all. Which became clear when they requested for home builders to be exempted from the nitrogen rules.
For the farmers, the government’s order to switch to more environmentally-friendly business operations felt like a lack of appreciation and respect. This is the true pitfall. There is no set recipe for radical change; this can therefore feel uncomfortable or unfair. Few sectors have such a direct impact on our society as the construction and agriculture sector. That is precisely why it is important to support the pioneers in these sectors — make sure that the innovators in these sectors feel like they are on the right track.
In the aftermath of the nitrogen crisis, we need to give a stage to the pioneers who show us that there are plenty of opportunities in these sectors.
The Dutch mountains and building with wood
One of the core values of BLOC is Practice what you preach, and this is reflected in one of the most radical projects that we are working on: The Dutch Mountains. The project concerns the realization of two eye-catching towers on the Dommel — between the Central Station of Eindhoven and the TU/e. The towers are connected by a common space that will act as the “lobby of the city”. The main reason for bringing up this project is that this building will be the largest wooden building in the world.
Building with wood is one of the innovations that will shake the construction sector — and hopefully also the agricultural sector — to its core. In terms of nitrogen and CO2, the largest emissions take place in the transport to and from the construction site. In a new-build project, freight transport accounts for around 30% of CO2 and nitrogen emissions. However, wood is easier to process, dismantle and adjust and is therefore much more future-proof. In addition, there is the possibility of pre-fab methods, where parts of the building are delivered ready-made to the construction site, which means that less nitrogen ends up directly in nature reserves. Building with wood is also a solution for capturing CO2. For example, one house captures the carbon of a hundred conifers!
What do we need to make a change?
The crux at the moment is that there is not enough wood growing in the Netherlands to apply this method nationally — for this we need sustainable forestry. By converting (only) 20 percent of the agricultural area in the Netherlands into forest, enough trees can be produced to switch to timber construction nationally.
In order to achieve the sustainability objectives of the climate agreement, there is a good chance that farmers will need to reduce the size of livestock by half, with all its consequences. Fortunately, there is a way to make this less painful for the farmers — from a financial perspective — which is leasing the, now unused, land of the farmer to site managers like Staatsbosbeheer. Leasing the land is an additional source of income for the farmers that can compensate for the loss of livestock. At the same time, this is also beneficial for the site managers and society as a whole, with their knowledge the new forest areas on the outskirts of the city can play not only an economic role, but also a recreational one.
Here are two sectors that can help solve each other’s challenges whilst adding value to society as a byproduct. Both the construction and agricultural sectors must undergo a transformation to keep pace with the rapidly changing world. A lot can be gained by bringing these sectors together to clarify what they can do for each other.
This applies to all sectors: The energy transition is not only carried by innovation, communication plays an equally important role.
However, bringing sectors together is not enough. To convince the sectors of the opportunities that building with wood can offer, fantastic and inspiring projects are needed that show that a concept can be fruitful. Luckily there are already a number of solutions in which wood plays a central role, such as Trenezia (the world’s most sustainable canal city), HAUT Amsterdam (the highest wooden residential tower in the Netherlands), Sidewalk labs Toronto (the world’s most innovative city) and we hope to see many more in 2020.
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