Director of Sustainable Buildings in the VELUX Group, Lone Feifer, received the award together with Lars Petersson, CEO in the VELUX Group and Tina Mayn, Executive Vice President for Products in the VELUX Group.

About Living Places
In April 2023, the VELUX Group and its partners opened the doors to Living Places Copenhagen – a building project consisting of seven prototypes that show how we can build future homes with a significantly lower CO₂ footprint. Living Places Copenhagen is the first prototype under the overall concept – Living Places – which has been developed by the VELUX Group, EFFEKT architects and Artelia engineers. The vision is to lead the way within the construction industry and show how rethinking construction and buildings can help solve some of the global climate and health challenges. The concept is based on five key principles that can be applied to both new and older buildings and communities: housing must be healthy, simple, scalable, affordable and can be shared over time.

Women have a central role to play in driving climate actions to transform cities and communities into sustainable places for people to live. By sponsoring this challenge, The VELUX Group acknowledges the foresight of women in creating solutions for a sustainable future and the barriers they often face in bringing their ideas to the fore.

“In order to reach the 1.5- degree, cities must excel in all fields – and one thing is certain, we won’t make it if we don’t actively involve women entrepreneurs in the process of reinventing our cities,” adds Mayor Anna König Jerlmyr, Stockholm and C40 city member. “With their perspective, expertise and know-how, rest assured we can co-create climate solutions to bend the carbon emission curve. With the C40 Women4Climate Tech Challenge, we invite all participating cities to reach out to their start-up communities and step up their inclusive climate action.”

The call for applications to the second round of the Women4Climate Tech Challenge opens today and runs until January 31, 2020. Four C40 cities – Los Angeles, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Stockholm and Lisbon - have committed to pilot one of the winning solutions in their cities. An expert jury will pick 10 finalists in February 2020, and the finalists will present their solutions to the participating C40 mayors and The VELUX Group at a direct, live pitch event which will determine the 4 winners.
 

Three thematic Tech Challenge areas

The challenge is within three thematic areas focusing on:

• Adaptation and risk cities response
   
• Healthy public buildings and households
   
• Green and healthier streets
   

Overall aim of Tech Challenge

The Tech Challenge supports diversity in technology and innovation, where women are largely underrepresented. According to C40:

• Women only represent 17% of employees, 4% of software engineers and 1% of leadership positions in the combined science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector.
   
• Only 3% of venture capital partners are women.
   
• Just 14% of start-up investors (or 'Business Angels') are women.
   
• Research shows that start-ups led by men receive over 16 times more funding than those led by women, and survey data suggests that this disparity is gender-based.

According to C40, these inequalities represent a significant barrier to developing inclusive climate responses, which need to be addressed with tailored actions and tools to support female entrepreneurship and break down the barriers women meet in venture capital and start-up creation. The Women4Climate Tech Challenge is one of these tools.
 

The co-operation between the VELUX Group and EHF Marketing, which began in 2010, be-comes stronger every year. During the last nine years three million spectators have attended matches, of which 35,000 were VELUX Group guests, and more than 1.2 million people have watched live broadcasts.

Each year, the VELUX EHF FINAL4 becomes a melting pot for the world of handball at the LANXESS arena in Cologne, Germany. This year’s VELUX EHF FINAL4 saw the VELUX Group invite 850 guests, who joined 20,000 passionate fans and millions of TV viewers in more than 120 countries around the world.

Since the VELUX Group and EHF (European Handball Federation) Marketing started their cooperation in 2010, more than 31,000 VELUX guests have attended matches. The games have been watched by over three million spectators live and more than 1.2 billion TV viewers. The collaboration has developed positively and become closer over the past five years.

The theme of the 7th Daylight Symposium is “Healthy & Climate-Friendly Architecture – from knowledge to practice.” It will focus specifically on the use of daylight – to create buildings that promote human health and wellbeing, and minimize the negative impact of man-made structures and activities on climate change.

It is crucial that we rethink the way we design our homes, workplaces, schools and cities to address the challenges faced by our lifestyles in modern societies. 

Watch live the keynote speakers here: 

The four keynote presentations are:

3 May, 9:20 AM CEST“Daylight as a qualitative aspect and driving element in developing architecture” by Stefan Behnisch

Watch the entire presentation here

Stefan Behnisch (Germany), Behnisch Architekten, is an award-winning architect and advocate of sustainable design. He studied philosophy, economics and architecture. Prior to establishing his own practice in 1989, he worked as an architect at Behnisch & Partner, the practice run by his father, Prof. Günter Behnisch. Since 2005, Stefan Behnisch’s firm, Behnisch Architekten, opened offices in Los Angeles (1999-2011), Boston and Munich. In 2007, he received a Global Award for Sustainable Architecture and in 2013 the “Energy Performance + Architecture Award.” He is a member of the BDA, the RIBA, the NCARB and the AIA. See more on The Daylight Site.

3 May, 2 PM CEST“Using natural light as a tool for creating a strong architectural narrative” by Omar Gandhi 

Watch the entire presentation here

Omar Gandhi (Canada), Omar Gandhi Architect, is recognized as one of the world’s top 20 young architects by Wallpaper* Magazine, one of Canada’s 20 most influential people by Monocle Magazine, and as one of 2016’s ‘Emerging Voices’ by The Architectural League of New York, the sessional instructor at his Alma Mater, Dalhousie University, is most definitely leaving his mark on the architecture community. See more on The Daylight Site.

4 May, 9:10 AM CEST“Freedom of use” by Anne Lacaton

Watch the entire presentation here

Anne Lacaton (France) is an award-winning architect and part of the duo Lacaton & Vassal, having made reuse of existing materials and integration of daylighting in standard construction their signature architecture and adding a social dimension to architectural design. See more on The Daylight Site.

4 May, 2:20 PM CEST“Happy people in healthy architecture” by Lone Wiggers

Watch the entire presentation here 

Lone Wiggers (Denmark) architect maa and partner in C.F. Møller (since 1997), at present with a staff of approx. 325 employees divided between six departments in Aarhus, Aalborg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and London. She has taken part in a large number of projects with a broadness ranging from housing, domiciles, schools, senior institutions, hospitals, museums to planning and design. The projects have been conducted as sketching, project supervisor and design responsible partner. Recent projects include, the brand new Technical Faculty Building in Odense (Southern University of Denmark), designed by C.F. Møller. See more on The Daylight Site. 

So what role is left for architects and planners when we are trailing out of sync with natural lighting cycles? How can we rethink buildings so they address challenges posed by modern societies?

These are some of the topics leading architects, researchers and experts from around the world will discuss at the Daylight Symposium, to be held for the 7^th time in Berlin.

Keynote speakers
For two days they will collaborate to launch and exchange knowledge, experience and viewpoints on how to bring architecture forward and ensure it nurtures all aspects of human living.

The keynote speakers are:

• Stefan Behnisch (Germany), Behnisch Architekten, an award-winning architect and advocate of sustainable design - has led the company over the last more than 25 years as a successful international practice with offices in Stuttgart, Munich and Boston.
• Omar Gandhi (Canada), Omar Gandhi Architects (Canada) is one of Canada’s leading young architecture studios with offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Toronto and most recently named one of The Architectural League of New York’s ’Emerging Voices’ of 2016.
• Anne Lacaton or Jean-Philippe Vassal (France), principals of an award-winning architect firm, Lacaton & Vassal, having made reuse of existing materials and integration of daylighting in standard construction their signature architecture and adding a social dimension to architectural design.
• Lone Wiggers (Denmark), architect maa and partner in C.F. Møller with offices in Aarhus, Aalborg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and London. Wiggers has taken part in a large number of projects with a broadness ranging from housing, domiciles, schools, hospitals, museums to planning and design.

View the programme in its entirety at http://thedaylightsite.com/symposium/2017-2/programme/

Daylighting in the Millennials by Christoph Reinhart from MIT
Building scientist and leader of MIT's Sustainable Design Lab (the US), Christoph Reinhart, will elaborate on the topic "Daylighting the Millennials" and how building and lighting concepts in today's societies need to be flexible as we now work anywhere anytime.

For more about the Daylight Symposium see: http://www.velux.com/article/2016/daylight-symposium-in-berlin

The VELUX EHF Champions League is an exemplary model for modern sports in terms of the level of skill, commitment and sportsmanship displayed by the players, teams and organisations involved. It is the VELUX Group’s ambition to further develop the VELUX EHF Champions League collaboration in the future, to provide an even more inspirational experience for the fans.

The VELUX Group extended the partnership with EHF in 2015, and the current agreement runs until 2020.

At the 2016 VELUX EHF FINAL4, the VELUX Group has invited 900 guests, who join 20,000 passionate fans at Cologne’s LANXESS Arena, and millions of TV viewers in more than 120 countries around the world.

The VELUX Group started its journey with sustainable living in buildings as early as 1999, when it took part in the first experiments to find ways to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. The ideas matured and the growing concern for global warming and climate change encouraged further development. By 2008, the VELUX Group had built several full-scale demo-houses designed for northern and southern climates.

Throughout the many experiments, the VELUX Group had one important priority: concerns for the environment must never precede concerns for the health and well-being of human beings. Sustainable living in buildings is never a question of either comfort or energy efficiency; it must always be a quest to find solutions that benefit both people and planet.

In 2009, the VELUX Group launched the Model Home 2020 programme, comprising six buildings in five European countries. VELUX has gathered many learnings from our Model Home programme, built on the active house principles integrating comfort, energy and environment. Families have been living in the Model Homes while scientists monitored their well-being and indoor climate, as well as energy consumption. With their large window areas of 30-50% of the living area, the elevated daylight levels improved the mood and productivity of the residents.

The VELUX Group is very happy that architects, contractors, politicians and manufacturers, as well as scientists and universities, were eager to participate in pioneering, forward-thinking solutions based on the Active House principles.

According to a recently published white paper by Fraunhofer Institut für Bauphysik 80 million Europeans live in unhealthy and damp buildings, with the risk of developing respiratory diseases such asthma. The white paper also concludes that children’s learning ability improves by 15% in a good indoor climate. At the same time, 90% of the building mass in Europe has already been built and is much in need of sustainable renovation.

When asked about the role of a healthy indoor climate, the answer from DI Dr Peter Holzer, an engineer, dedicated researcher, teacher and consultant in sustainable building design, was:

From the VELUX Group surveys it is safe to conclude that Europeans are not only aware of the importance of fresh air and daylight for their health and well-being, they are more than ready to invest in home improvements. So it is time for the VELUX Group to pave the way for sustainable renovation across Europe. Our next exciting project will be a social housing project in Belgium named RenovActive.

A recently published report by the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE), a non-profit think tank, analyses how indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort and daylight are regulated in the legislation of eight EU member states for new and existing residential buildings. It identifies loopholes in regulations that are intended to ensure that the European population live in highly efficient, healthy, comfortable and well lit buildings.

Join the discussion anytime at #HealthyBuildings

"By extending the contract, we are signalling our commitment to sponsoring as an important part of our marketing campaign. VELUX EHF Champions League is a very powerful platform, not only because of its thrilling nature but also because it reaches out to everybody, men and women, kids and grownups," says Michael Rasmussen, VELUX Group Director of Branding and Marketing.

He adds, "We are very happy with the concept of the competition. Our sponsorship is under continuous development and we think it has even more potential, which we will benefit from as we add activities and explore the concept in the coming years," says Michael Rasmussen.

Commenting on the deal, Tor Lian, EHF President, said: "The EHF, in particular through the hard work of EHF Marketing, has enjoyed a an extremely positive and rewarding cooperation with the VELUX Group, which has seen the continued development of the "Champion League" product on the international sports market. I am confident that this positive relationship will continue in the future.

"Peter Vargo, Managing Director of EHF Marketing GmbH, said: "I would like to thank the VELUX Group for their continued commitment to handball and to the VELUX EHF Champions League. The signing of a new three-year contract now, halfway through their second season as title sponsor, underlines both the success of our partnership and the strength of the brand we have developed.

"The VELUX Group's expectation of the sponsorship has been confirmed during the initial period of the contract. It has proved to be very attractive and easy for the sales companies in Europe to work with because of the geographical reach and frequency of matches. And VELUX employees have taken the sponsorship to heart.

"We have had only positive response, both internally and from the many guests who have shared an exciting and very entertaining afternoon with us in the handball arenas," says Michael Rasmussen.

During the first season 3,500 VELUX guests were invited to the matches. For the culmination in 2011, VELUX EHF FINAL4, the VELUX organisation invited no fewer than 650. For the end game in May in Cologne this year, even more VELUX guests will be present − about 800. Together with 20.000 fans in the Laxness Arena in Cologne, and over 300 million TV viewers throughout Europe, they are in for a thrilling handball weekend.

Photo: President of EHF, Tor Lian, and Michael Rasmussen, VELUX Group director, Branding and Marketing, signing the new sponsor contract.

Photo by: Christian Alsing.Photo: The exciting Last 16 Draw of VELUX EHF Champions League 2011-12 took place at the title sponsor's head office in Horsholm, Denmark. Photo by: Christian Alsing