Climate impact and greenhouse gas inventory

Nordstern's inventory

Nordstern calculates its greenhouse gas emissions in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e). The inventory is divided into Scopes 1, 2 and 3:

• Scope 1 covers direct emissions from fuels used by Nordstern. These include fuel for company cars, as well as heating oil and diesel used on construction sites.
• Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the electricity and district heating Nordstern purchases for its offices and construction sites, as well as electricity used to charge company cars.
• Scope 3 covers other indirect emissions in the categories included in Nordstern’s calculations. These include building materials; energy consumption and material replacements in completed buildings, as well as treatment at the end of the buildings’ lives (the buildings’ life cycle assessments, or LCAs); construction waste; employee commuting and business travel; and purchased services such as consultancy and legal advice.

Nordstern’s market-based Scope 1 and 2 emissions totalled 1,215 tonnes of CO₂e in 2025, compared with 4,120 tonnes of CO₂e in the 2021 reference year. This represents a 70.5% decrease.

The figures for each scope were:

• Scope 1: 712 tonnes of CO₂e in 2025, compared with 638 tonnes in 2021.
• Scope 2: 503 tonnes of CO₂e in 2025, compared with 3,482 tonnes in 2021.

Scope 1 emissions increased partly because more oil and diesel were used to produce heat at three construction sites in 2025.

Life cycle assessments

Nordstern draws on life cycle assessment (LCA) data from its projects in an internal database. By 2025, the database contained data from more than 60 projects. Project teams use it to compare materials and construction solutions across projects and apply lessons from previous projects to new ones.

The LCA calculations cover modules A1–A3, B4, B6, C3 and C4: the production of building materials, replacement of materials, energy consumption during the operational phase, and waste processing and disposal. The calculations are based on quantities of building materials taken from 3D models and, in some cases, on actual quantities calculated during construction, such as cast-in-place concrete and reinforcement. Climate impact data for materials comes from generic data, product-specific EPDs or industry EPDs. Operational energy consumption is taken from the project’s energy performance calculation.

Nordstern currently follows SBI Guideline 283, Calculation of the Climate Impact of Buildings. The calculations in the database were carried out using the methods and requirements that applied at the time. As a result, the assumptions may vary between projects.

The database does not yet include modules A4–A5, which cover the transport of materials to the construction site and the construction process itself.