10 candidates are running for the Non Hazardous City Building Award

12 March 2025  the World Future Council announced the 10 shortlisted nominations for the Non Hazardous City Building Award, the first policy award dedicated to non-hazardous construction in the Baltic Sea Region.  

 The award recognises national, regional, and local policies that protect people and the environment from hazardous chemicals in buildings while promoting circularity and climate neutrality. By highlighting these innovative policies, the award aims to inspire citizens, policymakers, and businesses to embrace forward-thinking solutions. The shortlisted initiatives exemplify bold leadership and ingenuity in shaping a healthier, more sustainable built environment for future generations. 

 10 nominations for the award are presented here:  

Sustainable Construction guidelines from 📍Latvia (2023):
The guidelines set the requirements for procurement contracts of the Latvia State company SJSC “State Real Estate” for construction, including specific chemical, climate, and circularity provisions.  

Learn more on their website (English). 

 Guidelines for the Circular Management of Construction Waste from 📍Latvia (2024):
The guideline advises on how construction waste contaminated with hazardous substances (e.g., asbestos, paints, and varnishes), must be identified, separated, and managed in a way that safeguards health and environment. 

View the guidelines here (Latvian, Summary in English). 

 Procurement Tenders Database and Green Public Procurement from 📍Lithuania (2023):
Lithuania made green public procurement mandatory across all sectors by 2023. For the building sector this mandates the use of ecolabels or minimum requirements. It has created a public database with a dashboard that includes all public procurement projects and allows to search for construction projects and their sustainability criteria.  

Find the dashboard here (Lithuanian).  

 Chemical Plan and Chemical Action Plans from📍Järfälla, Sweden (2016/2019):
Järfälla has made non-toxic construction a priority with their Chemical Plan and related Chemical Action Plans on schools, construction and public procurement and inspired neighbouring municipalities. 

Find their plan and strategy on their website (Swedish). 

 Guidelines for Sustainable Building from 📍Greifswald, Germany  (2012):
Since 2012 the City of Greifswald mandates the use of the BNB or DGNB sustainable building certification systems, requiring a minimum of Silver (BNB) or Gold (DGNB) standards for all municipal construction projects.   

The DGNB (German Sustainable Building Council) is Germany’s leading private organisation for sustainable construction, evaluating buildings based on ecological, economic, and social criteria. The BNB (Bewertungssystem Nachhaltiges Bauen) is the federal government’s official rating system for evaluating the sustainability of publicly funded buildings.
Find more information on their website (German). 

 Developing Plan of📍Norrtälje, Sweden (2021):
Norrtälje has a comprehensive urban development guideline that has a strong sustainability focus and includes several paragraphs specifically advancing non-hazardous building. 

View the programme here (Swedish). 

Chemical Action Plan from📍Stockholm, Sweden  (2014/2020): 
Stockholm’s comprehensive chemical action plan includes 49 measures to lead the work towards reaching the goal of a toxic-free city, including a chapter specifically targeting building and construction materials. 

View the plan here (Swedish). 

 Chemical Plan from 📍Upplands Väsby, Sweden (2020): 
This chemical plan from Upplands Väsby has a specific focus on non-hazardous construction materials and good practices in chemical-free building. 

View the plan here (Swedish). 

Hafencity Ecolabel from📍Hamburg , Germany (2010):
This new district emerging in the centre of Hamburg developed its own certification label to be applied for all land allocation since 2010. It was recently merged with the DGNB label, to form the DGNB Special Award Ecolabel which also includes provisions regarding hazardous chemicals.  

Find more information on their website (German). 

Royal Sea Port / Programme for Sustainable Urban Development in 📍Stockholm, Sweden  (2011/2021): 
The Stockholm Royal Seaport is one of Europe’s largest urban development projects, transforming former industrial land into a vibrant, sustainable district. Every land allocation by the city must meet strict climate, circularity and chemical requirements to ensure a non-hazardous environment. 

Read more on the project website (English/Swedish). 

Practical Examples: 

We have received many great nominations of which not all fit the nomination criteria fully, some of them are highlighted below. 

•  In Helsinki (Finland) the Kindergarden Soittaja was fully built with Nordic Swan Certification and inspired many similar projects across the region. The Nordic Swan Certification ecolabel sets rigorous sustainability standards, minimizing hazardous chemicals in construction. 

• In Sweden the Byggåterbruksguiden (Building Recycling Guide) uses a traffic light system to assist homeowners with the identification of hazardous construction waste to enable non-hazardous circular building.  (View here) 

• In Berlin, large public construction projects require the DGNB certificate, similar to Hamburg and Greifswald (Germany). 

 The award winners will be selected by an international jury by summer 2025.  

 Contact:  Alexandra Wandel, Founding Director, World Future Council, Tel: +49 172 748 39 53 

 The Project NonHazCity3 is financed by the INTERREG Baltic Sea Region.   

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