In collaboration with VELUX and IDA, Roskilde Festival challenged students to build elements for a lounge area for festival guests using VELUX window frames. Since the start of the competition in March, 50 groups participated in the challenge. Of these, 11 groups were selected to present their furniture concepts to a jury of experts in innovation, design, and sustainability at Roskilde Festival.

Focus on circularity

The competition is about rethinking building methods. The construction industry is a significant CO2 emitter, therefore we need to change our mindset when building by reusing and selecting more sustainable materials. The Sustainability Challenge at Roskilde Festival aims to test the next generation's creativity and their ability to think in a more circular way.

Unlike previous years, where the focus was on building solutions from various recyclable materials, this year's participants were required to construct their furniture using window frames made out of scrap wood from VELUX window production. The materials were provided to the finalists two days before the finale.

FRAME wins Sustainability Challenge 2024

The project ‘FRAME’ won the competition. The four winners behind it are Maria Lykke, Emilie Funderud, Anders Nielsen, and Caroline Brarup Schäfer, all study Furniture Design at VIA Design & Business in Herning. They used plexiglass and nine VELUX window frames to create an installation at Roskilde Festival.  ‘FRAME’ focused on community and interaction by providing spaces to sit, relax, and share festival experiences by writing on the plexiglass panels. The project also emphasised sustainability, since the solution could be easily packed up, and reused after the festival. 

Impressed jury members

The projects were built and came to life in just 48 hours after being initially conceived and developed in March, when the competition began. The ideas were refined to the last minute detail and selected to be built and ready for the finale within two days and it was this level of dedication that impressed the jury.

The winning group received DKK 10,000, and their solution will be exhibited near the Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival so guests can use it for the rest of the festival. Selected projects will also have the opportunity to collaborate with the Circular Laboratory at Roskilde Festival to further develop their ideas.

Read more about this year's competition here.

In November 2022, the VELUX Group and BayWa r.e. announced a PPA to develop two large solar PV parks in southern Spain: one in Gerena, close to Seville, and the other in Alhendín, near Granada. The Alhendín park was recently completed and is now delivering electricity to the local power grid.

With Alhendín fully operational, VELUX has achieved its 100% renewable electricity goal, while enabling a new renewable energy plant in Europe. The park consists of more than 85,000 solar panels and produces 96.8 GWh of electricity annually, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 24,700 households.

Pioneering Agri-PV installation
The Alhendín solar park is a pioneering Agri-PV installation, combining renewable energy generation and agriculture: about 10% of the park is designed to allow farming machinery to pass between solar panels. This project is the first of its kind for BayWa r.e. in Spain.

Solar Plant Symbiosis
The Solar Plant Symbiosis includes a suite of measures to enhance biodiversity and foster community involvement. The project is currently being developed in partnership with the two Spanish universities Universidad de Córdoba and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

So far, the scope of the Solar Plant Symbiosis includes the following additional measures:

Baseline studies, digitalisation and monitoring of vegetation

• Agri-PV pilot and rainwater collection system
• Grass planting with natural seeds and wildflower species
• Wildlife refuges, ponds for amphibians, bird drinking tanks, nest boxes and posts
• Hatching area to protect the endangered Lesser Kestrel bird species
• Steppe habitat improvement
• Monitoring and assessment of measures to create a guide of best practices that can be replicated in other projects
• Social actions in the area, such as workshops with local interest groups and educational school visits

Looking ahead
These measures in the Alhendín park will be established step by step and are expected to be fully realised by Spring 2025. The Gerena solar park is awaiting regulatory approval locally and is scheduled to be completed in 2025. The capacity of the Gerena park is expected to be about 60 MWp.

When both solar plants are fully operational, they will generate 167 GWh of renewable electricity annually for VELUX, equivalent to the electricity consumption of approximately 45,000 European homes. About 80% of the electricity produced from the plants will be generated due to the PPA with VELUX. The PPA will reduce the carbon footprint of the VELUX Group by approximately 40,000 tonnes of CO₂e from the company’s European operations and activities on a yearly basis.  

Cranes and robots will help prepare, pack and send roof windows, roller shutters and other accessories to customers throughout the Nordic region. This will take place in the VELUX Group's first large high-tech warehouse, located in a 24,000 m² building in Kolding.

Lars Petersson, VELUX Group CEO, looks forward to taking another step towards improving the VELUX customer experience:

Solar energy powers technology
In 2024, around 80 percent of the power for the automated warehouse will come from an adjacent 6,000 m² solar park. Electricity generated by solar panels will power robots, cranes and a monorail that will move pallets around the warehouse, with robots then packing windows and other products on top of them. Then the pallets are transported to a truck for onwards delivery to customers.

Sending windows, roller shutters, blinds and accessories in one shipment to customers will also reduce the number of trucks used for distribution, thereby cutting CO₂ emissions from transportation.

VELUX has set ambitious 2030 targets to reduce CO₂ emissions: emissions from its own operations are to be reduced by 100% and emissions throughout the value chain are to be reduced by 50%.

More windows to customers
The high-tech warehouse can handle up to 50 percent more goods than a manual warehouse, and the robots are programmed to handle more complex tasks. At the same time, the use of cranes and robots improves ergonomics for warehouse employees.

Facts:

• Building prepared from November 2021 to June 2022 to be ready for installation of automation system.
• System installed from June 2022 to June 2023.
• First intake of products happened in August 2023.
• First outbound deliveries to customers occurred in September 2023.
• Kolding warehouse combines three smaller manual warehouses into one: Previously, spare parts were located in Østbirk, blinds and other accessories in Skjern and roof windows in Kolding.
• A roof window weighs on average 53 kg.
• The warehouse contains 12 robots - two 2 picking robots and 10 pallet cranes.
• A solar park provides 80 percent of the power - to be completed in Q3 of 2024.
• The high-tech warehouse can handle up to 50 percent more goods than a manual warehouse.
• VELUX has invested more than DKK 100 million in the highly automated warehouse.

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.