Opportunity through action: Skanska

Skanska utilizes its proprietary 'Skanska Color Palette™' to set environmental targets, aiming for its Commercial Development units to produce only Green and Deep Green projects by 2020. The company implements 'Deep Green' standards to achieve near-zero environmental impact, resulting in energy-positive buildings and net-zero energy facilities. These initiatives have led to commercially-exploitable innovations, such as Deep Green Cooling (DGC) and road surface reuse, while attracting increased interest from banks and pension funds seeking green funding opportunities. Additionally, Skanska focuses on climate resilience, as demonstrated by the flood-resilient design of a medical center in New Orleans.

• Skanska uses a proprietary tool called the Skanska Color Palette™ to categorize projects; 'Green' projects exceed regulation, while 'Deep Green' projects aim for near-zero environmental impact during construction and operation based on criteria for energy, carbon, materials, and water.
• The company's Commercial Development units have a target to develop exclusively Green and Deep Green projects by 2020 to increase market share and future-proof the business against regulation.
• Skanska has implemented specific high-performance projects, including the Bentley Works facility in the UK, which uses 67% less energy than the UK code and is designed for net-zero energy, and the Solallén townhouse project, which is Sweden's first energy-positive residential neighborhood.
• Environmental leadership has enabled the development of global innovations, such as the Deep Green Cooling (DGC) solution using deep bore-holes and road surfacing techniques that reuse existing materials to reduce raw material consumption.
• Skanska's focus on climate resilience is exemplified by the University Medical Center in New Orleans, which was designed with sacrificial ground-floor functions and elevated emergency rooms and mechanicals to withstand future flooding.
• The company's sustainability leadership has increased its attractiveness to large investors and banks, facilitating access to green funding.

APA

Crowe, B. (2016). Opportunity through action: Skanska. We Mean Business Coalition. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/opportunity-through-action-skanska/

Chicago

Crowe, Bethany. Opportunity through action: Skanska. We Mean Business Coalition, 2016. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/opportunity-through-action-skanska/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Crowe |first1=Bethany |title=Opportunity through action: Skanska |publisher=We Mean Business Coalition |date=15 September 2016 |url=https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/opportunity-through-action-skanska/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{crowe2016opportunity, author = {Crowe, Bethany}, title = {{Opportunity through action: Skanska}}, institution = {We Mean Business Coalition}, year = {2016}, month = sep, url = {https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/opportunity-through-action-skanska/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }