The practical ways we’re saving energy to benefit all

Saving energy is one of Joo Kodit’s most important objectives, and that has many practical effects on our operations and rental homes. Here are just some examples of how we’re already reducing our energy consumption today and what kind of action we have planned for the future.

We’re calculating our carbon footprint

We’ve commissioned a calculation of our operations’ carbon footprint for 2021, which will be ready in October 2022. The result will give us clear direction as we put together our new, even more comprehensive energy strategy.

We’re adopting a centralised energy monitoring system

Monitoring our energy consumption helps us take steps in the right direction. This year we’ve adopted a centralised energy monitoring system. It collects information about the hourly electricity and heating usage from our different properties into a single system. We’ve been testing remote monitoring of water usage in some of our properties, and over the coming winter we’ll roll it out to our entire property portfolio.

New developments always rated A for energy efficiency

The vast majority of our properties run on renewable energy, and all our new developments fulfil the criteria of the highest energy rating A. All our properties are being gradually transferred to our centralised renewable electricity purchasing system.

We’re gradually adding more solar power systems – purchases are underway for nine properties in Vantaa, Herttuankulma and Toppilansalmi, Oulu. Our aim is to install solar power systems to these locations during the spring and summer of 2023. We are maximising our rooftop production of solar energy so that we can sell it back to the grid – we don’t limit our production to the needs of our own properties.

We are revamping our properties’ heating systems

Our oldest property, Vaasan Sandviksbacken, which hosts 137 apartments, will be fitted with geothermal heating and an exhaust air heat recovery system. The implementation planning is currently underway, and our aim is to complete the refurbishment during the summer of 2023.

Remote heating management and optimisation will be piloted with four different companies. Our objective is to optimise all our properties within the next two years. This will enable us to reduce energy consumption, while monitoring and improving the living conditions of our apartments even more easily than before.

We’re also developing our apartment-specific monitoring of water consumption and consumption-based billing. Consumption-based billing is an important way of saving energy needed for heating water. By making the monitoring of water consumption more transparent for our residents, we’re also giving them the chance to follow and affect their own water consumption. The pace of transition to consumption-based billing depends on the remote readability of our properties’ current water meters.

Small steps make a big difference

Besides these big leaps forward, we’re taking several small yet important steps over this autumn and winter. The Joo team will inspect the de-icing systems of our properties’ drainpipes to ensure that they aren’t heated unnecessarily. We’ll also review the lighting settings of our communal spaces. • We continuously monitor and adjust the temperature of our communal spaces like stairwells with the help of Joo Fixer and our maintenance companies.
• Our newest apartment complexes’ communal spaces are equipped with LED lights.
• We’re offering our residents charging points for electric cars and the opportunity to use the Joo Kodit residents’ shared cars.
• We’re promoting communal living by opening meeting points for our residents, such as the Joo Olohuone lounge and the soon-to-open Joo Hetki café. (linkki joo magiin) • At the same time, we’re building digital services to make our residents’ life easier.

In our upcoming articles we’ll tell you more about these project and how they’ll affect our operations and make our residents’ lives even more carefree.

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