Public sector (Govtech)

The public sector is a source of significant emissions in Sweden, Europe and globally, while the sector has a central role in the transition. The purchases and procurements carried out by municipalities, regions, state authorities and municipal property companies in 2019 generated consumption emissions of over 23 million tons of CO2E in Sweden, corresponding to 40% of Sweden's total territorial emissions that year. Over 9 million tons of these emissions, about 40%, occurred in the buildings, properties and land category.

The Swedish Parliament recently decided that the emissions caused by Swedish consumption both nationally and internationally should be included in Sweden's climate calculations. The Environmental Objectives Committee, whose proposals form the basis for the Riksdag's decision, emphasizes in its interim report Sweden's Global Climate Footprint that the public sector needs to take the lead in the climate transition, including by choosing more climate-smart alternatives in procurement - which also helps to create markets and promote innovation. They also propose that emissions from publicly procured goods and services should be reduced faster than emissions from society in general, and that national climate targets should be taken into account in public procurement.

Around 80 percent of the stock of public buildings in Sweden is owned by the state, municipality or county council, while the rest is owned by private actors. The European Commission has a target that all new public buildings in the EU should be "zero-emission" by 2027 - which means, among other things, that the buildings' energy consumption should be limited, that the building should not generate any emissions on site and that the buildings' potential for reducing global warming in a life cycle perspective should be reported.

The transition in the public sector is already underway but will become even more important in the future. Digitization and automation are key tools for actors in the sector to gain knowledge about where in the business climate impact occurs, what measures need to be taken to reduce it and what effects different measures have.

Example 6: Automated collection of emissions data provides an overview of the climate impact of public activities

Challenge: There are increasing demands for public sector actors to report on their climate impact and the actions they need to take to reduce it. There is a great need for society's actors to have detailed knowledge of where emissions occur. Access to accurate and up-to-date information on, for example, how much energy and heat is used to operate public sector buildings and facilities, and the resulting climate impact, is key to enabling stakeholders to take the right measures to reduce their impact. The collection and analysis of energy consumption and climate impact data is currently often done manually, which is a very time-consuming task that is also often only done annually or quarterly - which means fewer opportunities to take rapid and continuous action.

Solution: Digitization and automation of data collection have great potential to enable public sector actors to see in real time where emissions in different parts of the value chain occur, for example, how much energy in the form of electricity and heat buildings and office spaces consume and how much different measures can reduce climate impact.

Together with several actors in the Nordic region, including the city of Vaasa in Finland, TietoEVRY has developed digital solutions that automatically collect and visualize data on where emissions from electricity consumption, heating and transport occur and what climate impact different measures can have. The technology creates links between existing systems, such as electricity meters from an electricity supplier or various application programming interfaces, known as APIs. The automated data collection is then fed into a platform, where it can be visualized based on, for example, how much emissions current energy use leads to and what emission reductions different measures can lead to. The technology provides a holistic view of where emissions in an organization's value chain occur, the factors that influence emissions, and the potential positive climate impacts of different actions. Stakeholders using the tool can start managing climate action in real time, not in the rearview mirror as before. TietoEVRY's solutions help the City of Vaasa achieve its climate neutrality goal easier and faster.

Technology: Automation of data collection and analysis Partners: TietoEVRY, Vaasa, Vaasa Electric, Wärtsilä and Committed.