55 new projects have been added to the web directory in autumn 2016.
The sortable table provides an overview:
By default, projects are sorted by zip code.
In 2018, Deutsche Bahn fed 57 percent green electricity into the grid. This is an increase of 13 percent in electricity from renewable energies compared to the previous year. DB is thus already the largest consumer of green electricity in Germany.
More info:
www.deutschebahn.com/...medienpaket_klimaschutzziel-1201550
Keywords:
Stakeholders, DE-News, Renewable, Climate protection, Mobility, eMobility, Life cycle assessment, Ecology
The Peace City of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony pursues an impact-based, strategic control approach in its sustainable development and uses the specially developed "KOSMOS" catalogue of indicators for this purpose, which enables both the administration and the citizens to review the implementation of strategic goals in detail. The municipality's participatory approach is also evident in the urban development master plan for the inner city, in which the citizens of Osnabrück were able to contribute their ideas for sustainable urban development. The master plan focuses, among other things, on redensification of the settlement structure, less space for motorised private transport and more green spaces with a high quality of stay. Extensive measures such as ecological standards in urban land-use planning, Germany's first solar roof register and sustainable "Economic Development 4.0" ensure more climate and resource protection.
Germany's most sustainable major cities 2020
Keywords:
News Blog Lower Saxony
The Schweighofer Prize rewards innovative ideas, technologies, products and services along the entire value chain with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of the European forestry and timber industry.
The Schweighofer Prize has been awarded every two years since 2003 and is endowed with a total amount of € 300,000 before taxes. The Schweighofer Prize is divided into a main prize and several innovation prizes.
All natural persons and groups of persons, irrespective of their age, level of education or employment status, who have performed a service in accordance with the tender conditions are eligible to participate. Organisations may also submit entries. However, the main focus should be on people who have already achieved great things for the European forestry and timber industry or who are currently developing innovative solutions.
More info:
www.schweighofer-prize.org
Keywords:
DE-News, Wood construction, Contests & Prizes
Dr. Kirsten David, a researcher at HafenCity University (HCU) Hamburg, has developed an innovative method for determining rent increases after energy efficiency measures: By means of functional cost splitting, rent increases become appropriate and comprehensible. The planning of the energetic measures is also ecologically optimized. For her dissertation entitled "Functional Cost Splitting for the Determination of Rent Increases after Energy Efficiency Measures", the scientist today receives the "BUND Research Award 2020". With the research award, the Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz (BUND) honors scientific work on sustainable development.
Rent increases due to energy-efficient building modernisation are legally permissible and politically desired as an investment incentive. After all, according to the German Energy Agency (dena), around 35% of Germany's total energy consumption is attributable to the building sector. An increase in the renovation rate is therefore necessary from a climate policy perspective.
However, while the legislators assume that such measures can be implemented economically and without affecting the rent, the experience of many tenants is different: Often the rent increases exceed the saved heating and energy costs many times over. In extreme cases, tenants can no longer afford their apartments. "To this day, energy-efficient building refurbishment has a reputation as a gentrification tool," says David. With the method she developed to determine appropriate rent increases, the 45-year-old scientist also wants to contribute to an increased social acceptance of corresponding measures.
"The basis of the politically expected increase amounts is the so-called coupling principle," explains the architect. "Like the Energy Saving Ordinance, it assumes that energy efficiency measures will always be implemented when a comprehensive refurbishment is due anyway. The sticking point: only the modernization costs entitle landlords* to rent increases, but not the costs for the renovation. The latter must be deducted from the total investment sum as "anyway costs". Eight percent of the remaining costs can be passed on to the tenants as a modernisation charge.
"The current regulation is insufficient. In practice, there are manifold demarcation problems between modernisation costs relevant to rent increases and maintenance costs not relevant to rent increases," says David. The method she developed, on the other hand, focuses on the climate-relevant improvement of each individual building component compared to its condition before the construction measure. "Functional cost splitting thus corresponds to the actual basic idea of the legislators, is practicable and enables an appropriate and comprehensible allocation to modernisation or refurbishment costs," says David.
According to the scientist, her approach leads to the omission of measures that are nonsensical from a structural engineering point of view and do not bring about any climate-relevant improvement of the building components: "With my method, such measures are not relevant for rent increases and are therefore uneconomical for landlords. In addition, your calculation method ensures that the modernization levy actually approaches the level of the ancillary cost savings as a rule. The award winner is therefore particularly pleased that the sustainability aspect of her work has been recognised with the BUND Research Award: "Rental housing stock can only be developed sustainably if ecological, economic and social aspects are given equal consideration. Functional cost splitting makes a significant contribution to this."
This year, the BUND Research Award will be presented at a virtual conference. Among other things, keynote speaker and environmental scientist Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker will discuss with the three award winners how science can develop more relevance and effectiveness for sustainability goals. The transfer into practice is also an important concern for David. Her next goal is to further develop functional cost splitting into an instrument that can also be understood by laypersons - preferably as an online tool.
Personal details:
Kirsten David is a guest researcher at HCU in the subject areas "Design and Analysis of Structures" with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Bögle and "Construction Economics" with Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Reinhold Johrendt as well as a lecturer in the interdisciplinary study programmes. Her doctoral thesis was supervised by Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Reinhold Johrendt and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Krüger, (subject area "Project Management and Project Development in Urban Planning") and is freely available:
https://edoc.sub.uni-hamburg.de//hcu/volltexte/2019/508/.
David runs the homepage
www.funktionales-kostensplitting.de
and tweets on topics such as rents, housing and sustainability.
https://twitter.com/DrKirstenDavid1
Keywords:
Construction and operating costs, Stock, DE-News, Research, Climate protection, New books and studies, Contests & Prizes
