Region Syddanmark's new blood donation centre reached DGNB Gold

Reducing emissions from 11 to 8.20 kg CO₂e/m²/year with Rambøll engineering leveraging Real-Time LCA

Challenge

Region of Southern Denmark's new plasmapheresis and blood donation centre carried a DGNB Gold target from the first day of design, with whole-life carbon becoming a regulated requirement. Its starting point was 11 kg CO₂e/m²/year, above where it needed to land.

Solution

Working with Rambøll, Real-Time LCA connected live to the project's Revit model, recalculating the carbon account as the design evolved so the team could understand and reduce the emission drivers - such as structural steel, insulation, concrete - before they were locked in.

Result

Embodied carbon cut from 11 to 8.20 kg CO₂e/m²/year, roughly a quarter, with DGNB Gold pre-certification secured in December 2024.

Region of Southern Denmark builds and operates hospitals and health facilities across the south of the country - public infrastructure meant to serve for decades. At that scale, the materials a building is made from account for a large share of its climate impact,

and reducing that impact is part of the region's responsibility as a public builder rather than an optional extra. The new plasmapheresis and blood donation centre is one place that responsibility took concrete form.

A DGNB Gold target from the first day of design

A plasmapheresis and blood donation centre is a demanding building type: clinical requirements, a long service life, and a public client accountable for how it spends and builds. The ambition was in place before design work began - DGNB Gold, with embodied carbon treated as a design parameter rather than a report filed at the end. As the public client and owner, Region of Southern Denmark stood behind that target; the work of turning it into measurable design decisions sat with its engineering and sustainability partner, Rambøll.

“As a public builder, we carry a responsibility to build to a high standard, and for this centre DGNB Gold was the level we wanted to reach. What mattered to us was being able to see, all the way through the design, whether we were actually on track to get there.” - Region of Southern Denmark

The project's LCA starting point was 11 kg CO₂e/m²/year, above where it needed to land. Reaching DGNB Gold meant finding the reductions early, while material choices could still change.

Live insights throughout the design process

Rambøll connected Real-Time LCA directly to the project's Revit model. Rather than exporting quantities into a spreadsheet at set milestones, the team read the model data straight into Real-Time LCA, where the calculation ran and re-ran as the design changed. Around 20 targeted measures were identified early enough to change the outcome.

The analysis itself lived in Real-Time LCA, not in the modelling tool. Revit held the geometry, Real-Time LCA held the carbon datasets, the calculation and the full version history - so the LCA stayed traceable and defensible as the design iterated.

“Because the model fed straight into Real-Time LCA, we could see which materials were driving the footprint - the steel, the insulation, the concrete - while we still had room to choose differently. We found around twenty measures early enough to actually change the result.” - Frederik Askov Storm, Sustainability Lead, Rambøll

The centre reached handover at 8.20 kg CO₂e/m²/year, down from 11, a reduction of roughly a quarter - and secured DGNB Gold pre-certification in December 2024.

Key Outcomes

  • Embodied carbon reduced from 11 to 8.20 kg CO₂e/m²/year, a cut of roughly 25%.
  • DGNB Gold pre-certification secured in December 2024.
  • Around 20 targeted reduction measures identified early enough to change material choices.
  • Live connection between the Revit model and Real-Time LCA kept the carbon account current as the design evolved.
  • Emission drivers - structural steel, insulation, concrete - made visible before they were locked in.