Peab and the residential care home Tåsenhjemmet: Their most sustainable project yet

• A ‘BREAAM Excellent’ certification
• Building the entire facility using solid wood
• Modelling the project in FutureBuilt
• Making it a nearly zero energy building in terms of emissions

It has become the new normal for sustainability to be an integral part of a construction project. The BREAAM environmental certification is the most widespread in Norway, spanning different levels from the lowest, “pass”, to the highest: “Excellent” and “Outstanding”. And Tåsenhjemmet is aiming for the top. “Because of our contract with Oslobygg KF, and as the general contractor, we are committed to delivering BREEAM Excellent project, among other things. This is the first time I’ve been involved in a construction project where the client has such a massive focus on the sustainability. This is definitely not a greenwashing project – Oslobygg KF are really invested, and so are we,” Ib Christian Augestad shares – the BREEAM AP/KIS and Environmental Manager at Peab.

“Sustainability really is at the heart of this whole project. We have committed to designing the building in a way that ensures low energy consumption, and when purchasing materials, we have to take transportation into account. For Tåsenhjemmet, we’ve exclusively acquired solid wood from a factory in Åmot, avoiding suppliers from further away. To be honest, I’m not sure I would have given these things as much thought if it wasn’t for the requirements. Price point and availability usually comes first, but now we’re forced to rethink how to execute the project and be more environmentally conscious in all decisions.”

Image: White-winged primrose is highly endangered and protected, and will soon be found again on Tåsen where it flourished before.

 

Peab carefully takes the surrounding local area into account when building Tåsenhjemmet. “We have our own energy production here, with 28 energy wells connected to a heat pump and solar panels on the roof. If it rains, the water is managed right here on the plot. We have even committed to bringing the local heritage-listed flower, white-winged primrose, back to Tåsen, where it previously grew,” Augestad says.

Facing the requirements head-on with Interaxo Project

There’s no doubt that Peab is dreaming big when it comes to building for the future. But such ambitions also place high demands on project management and, not least, documentation to ensure that all requirements are met.

Prab went with Interaxo as their collaboration tool, ensuring steady progress in the Tåsenhjemmet project.

“In relation to the BREEAM standard, we knew we could rely on a system like Interaxo for documentation and quality assurance.”
– Ib Christian Augestad, BREEAM AP/KIS and Environmental Manager at Peab

“In my experience, planning and process requirements mean that everything has to be documented to a much greater extent than before. We use Interaxo Field for HSE and incident reporting to assure the safety and quality of our work,” Augestad says. “And with Interaxo Project as our CDE, we’ve seen an undeniable improvement compared to the systems I’ve tried previously. In Interaxo, we can actually communicate easily, whereas I used to work with less intuitive folder set-ups before. Interaxo has replaced all of the fragmented communication channels that were difficult to trace afterwards, and now, everything is where it should be; linked to the correct action point, document, design sketch or whatever it may be.”

 

Augestad describes sometimes receiving inspection reports with multiple deviations one night. Now, he can easily enter comments, pass information on to the right stakeholder and trust that everything is stored, easily accessible for everyone with reading rights. Clearly engaged during our conversation, Augestad reveals that he himself is an environmental activist – cleaning plastic waste from public areas since the 1970s. “It’s really  nice to be able to contribute at work, as well,” he concludes.