What is Eksergia?

Eksergia (Exergy) is an unbiased and non-profit project that gathers essential information about energy-efficient and low-carbon construction solutions into one multidisciplinary portal. The materials are directly suitable both for self-study and teaching. Accurate citations and links help the discovery of other useful literature, research, projects, experts, courses and other materials and entities inside Finland. The purpose of the website is to help update the essential expertise of the building sector to the level required by the carbon-neutrality targets and Paris agreement by ensuring that the necessary information exists and can be easily found just when it is needed. Users can update and comment on information like in Wikipedia.

What does Eksergia.fi contain?

Eksergia takes into account all stages of the building’s life cycle and the required technical solutions and processes, including architecture, structures, building services and renewable energy. Due the web-based platform the glossary and other materials is always at hand via smart phone and can also be projected on larger screens in a teaching situation or workshop. Slide-based presentations serve as base material of the portal. Slides provide a universal way of sharing information. Thanks to the wiki-feature, the information can be constantly updated and commented collectively. All neutral and reliable materials, such as research papers, theses, guides, standards or regulations are suitable sources of information and carefully referenced and linked. The presentations serve as inspiring introductions to various topics, and the links make it possible to delve deeper into the themes of interest.

Digitalisation enables the utilization of all modern forms of sharing knowledge, such as videos, virtual reality, 3D graphics, animations, interactive materials, etc. At the moment, in addition to the slide presentations, the website includes an open photo bank, educational videos, Case bank and energy calculator. Unfortunately most of the materials are pending on financing for the English translations.

Who can use the materials?

The content of Eksergia is intended to be utilized in the most versatile and effortless way possible through an open license. In short: Great if you remember to mention the data source! However, the details of the license may vary for different materials and you should always check the labels provided. Typically, you have a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, in which case everyone has the right to:

• access the materials
• re-use and edit them
• utilize materials in new contexts
• share them forward (embed, link, etc.).

Vision and mission

Towards carbon-neutral construction with open, collectively built top knowledge!

Number of climate friendly building solutions and research is constantly increasing, also construction regulations keep changing towards carbon neutrality. A climate and environmentally friendly building is the sum of the special expertise of all actors in the field. Eksergia’s mission is to keep up with the latest knowledge and know-how on how to get the entire Finnish building stock on the very track which is required by the 1.5 ° C target under the Paris Climate Agreement and the Finnish government’s 2035 carbon neutrality target. The aim for the materials is to have them constructed generically following the constantly evolving competence requirements, taking into account digitalisation, the circular economy and other key supertrends. The English translations also serves as a window of the Finnish high-level expertise to the abroad.

Background

The necessary technology and know-how for a carbon-neutral building stock already exists. The bottleneck is the insufficient speed in implementation of knowledge in all necessary areas of everyday construction and education. New skills are needed among future and current professionals as well as housing companies and other ordinary builders and renovators. In order to enhance transition to greener construction, the continuous, lifelong and just-in-time learning must be made as easy as possible. In 2015, Eksergia received a support package from the Ministry of the Environment’s Moisture and Mold -programme, which enabled bringing the idea of Eksergia-platform close to the current form. Eksergia has not yet a final status or form for its owner (foundation, association…) to run the economy and activities. At the moment, all paper work etc. is handled by a trade name called Eksergia, former Laukkanen Ecological Solutions.

Let’s co-operate!

Maaria Laukkanen
Independent Civil Engineer of Energy Efficient Buildings
Founder of Eksergia
Email: maaria.laukkanen @ eksergia.fi
Phone: +358 50 300 8486