This press release is a translation of the Swedish version and has been published at a later date than the original.

The real estate and construction sector accounts for one-fifth of Sweden’s GHG emissions, making it one the most carbon-intensive sectors. The latest report issued by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stressed the seriousness of the situation. To maintain the global average temperature increase below 1.5 °C, global GHG emissions must fall dramatically and fast. Today, K2A has decided to adopt a new climate target entailing that K2A’s entire value chain will be climate positive by as early as 2027.

Since the company’s inception in 2013, K2A has been building multi-family houses in certified Swedish timber – a material with a low environmental impact that stores carbon. 85% of K2A’s investment properties have been constructed over the past six years, which means that the buildings are energy-efficient with the latest technology for environmentally optimised operation. Sustainability has alway been an integral part of K2A’s entire value chain, which has resulted in K2A being the first company in the world to launch a green equity framework. K2A is therefore the first real estate company in Sweden to adopt such a robust climate target. The target means that K2A’s entire operations will be climate positive (K2A will reduce GHG gases by more than those that are released by the company’s activities), and thereby succeed in adapting their operations three years earlier than 2030, which is the year that the 55% reduction targets of the Paris Agreement and the Swedish government must be achieved.

“We’ve already come a long way with our sustainability initiatives, but by setting this robust target, we are now taking the next step in our efforts to confirm our position as the green real estate company. We want to be the first climate positive real estate company in Sweden, and intend to achieve our goal as early as 2027. The main reason why we can set this target is that the entire company already had a sustainability focus when it was founded in 2013, which means that we don’t have to restructure our operations, we just need to tweak our processes, says Johan Knaust, CEO of K2A.

The objective is that K2A’s entire value chain will already be climate positive by the end of 2027 – from production of the apartments to sustainable management of the properties. K2A’s long-term target for the company is zero GHG emissions, which will eliminate the need for climate compensation.

2013–2021

Since K2A was founded in 2013:

• All new apartments developed in-house, have been built with Swedish timber
• A sustainability perspective has permeated K2A’s operations
• The first company in Sweden to construct Nordic Swan Ecolabelled multi-family homes with a timber frame
• The first real estate company in Sweden to receive a green corporate loan
• The first company in the world with green equity
• First in Sweden to perform a climate-change risk assessment of its entire property portfolio
• One of four companies whose shares were first to obtain Nasdaq Green Equity Designation

2021–2027

K2A’s ongoing efforts to become the greenest real estate company in Sweden:

• Continued use of timber as a building material for new homes
• Continued efforts with a climate-optimised process for developing new homes
• Energy optimisation of the existing portfolio
• Additional investments in own generated renewable energy
• Fossil-free freight transport throughout the entire supply chain
• Strategic work with circularity in K2A’s buildings to avoid end-of-life emissions
• Collaboration with key actors to accelerate the sector’s rate of transition