Finland accelerates Green Deal for emission-free work sites

The mid-term evaluation of the Green Deal on emission-free work sites shows that almost all of the interim targets of the agreement have been reached in Finland, according to the country's government. Electrification of machinery is a key tool to completely phase out fossil fuels.
According to an evaluation, 93% of respondents considered that the interim targets are being reached in full or partly.
All operators that have joined the agreement use the concept of emission-free work sites as part of their operations.
Monitoring systems are being used, and about half of the work sites of the operators are partly fossil-free.
To reduce harmful emissions, the work sites have started to use construction machinery that meets the Stage IV standard and trucks that comply with the Euro VI standard as a minimum requirement.
According to the evaluation, electrification of machinery would be the key tool for reaching the rest of the targets. The main challenges in this are the development of electric machinery and their availability within the time required for the agreement.
To accelerate electrification, more operators are needed that make the commitment to the agreement. New operators raise the level of ambition with new actions and by setting more ambitious targets. Concrete actions and development proposals and evaluation of the results and impacts are also needed to reach the targets.
Ambitious targets of the agreement maintained
According to the agreement on emission-free work sites, the work sites of the operators that are committed to the agreement should be free from fossil fuels by 2026.
Besides this, the aim is that by the end of 2030 50% of the machinery and transport operations of the work sites should be fuelled by electricity, biogas or hydrogen.
The targets set for the agreement encourage to develop the operations and build cooperation with research institutes and other companies in future as well.
The agreement on emission-free work sites was introduced to reduce emissions from the sites. The Ministry of the Environment, Senate Properties and the cities of Espoo, Helsinki, Turku and Vantaa concluded this voluntary agreement in 2020.
The Helsinki Region Environmental Services HSY, Metropolitan Area Transport Ltd and Helen Ltd joined the agreement later.
Finland's Ministry of the Environment said it is committed to carrying out mid-term evaluations of all voluntary agreements to monitor the impacts and results of the measures and estimate how the actions will proceed during the last years of the agreement.
The interim evaluation of the agreement on emission-free work sites was carried out as thesis research for the Bachelor of Construction Management degree at the Novia University of Applied Sciences, in cooperation with the KEINO Competence Centre.