Timber Construction Award Rhineland-Palatinate 2018 awarded
Published
Four winners selected from 58 entries
The Rhineland-Palatinate Timber Construction Award 2018 was presented on 12 June at the Centre for Building Culture in Mainz. There were four equal prizes as well as four recognitions. In addition, an honorable mention was given. Function, (construction) technology, aesthetics and climate protection were the selection criteria for the Rhineland-Palatinate Timber Construction Prize, now awarded for the eighth time:
Online tool simplifies calculation of resource efficiency
Photo: Factor X Agency, Inden
With funding from the federal support programme "Unternehmen Revier", the Factor X agency of the development company has developed an internet-based tool for the simple calculation of the resource efficiency of one's own building project. The tool has now undergone final testing and will be available online from September.
With the Factor X construction method, the entire life cycle of buildings is considered, resulting in many new opportunities for saving raw materials and thus for climate- and resource-saving construction. Until now, the resource efficiency of buildings has been calculated using a spreadsheet as part of the Factor X Agency's construction consultancy service. This is now to be made even easier by the new online tool, which will be accessible to the public via the Internet. The database-based tool was realised with funding from the federal support programme "Unternehmen Revier".
At the invitation of the Fakor X agency, the almost completed online tool was subjected to a final test. Fifteen testers from science, administration and building practice checked the user guidance and calculated test buildings. The concept was praised by all testers. A few suggestions for improvement are still being incorporated into the programming before the online tool is released in September and will then be available.
Initiator Klaus Dosch, head of the Factor X Agency of the indeland development company, is enthusiastic: "Here we are setting up a tool for climate- and resource-friendly construction that does not yet exist in Europe. Even non-specialists interested in construction are supported by our tool in such a way that they can very easily calculate the resource efficiency of their building project. We have created a link to the building materials database of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR). For the first time, we are making the construction life cycle understandable for laypeople."
Improving resource efficiency in the construction of housing estates is an essential part of the strategy of the indeland 2030 master plan of the development company indeland GmbH. A number of strategies lead to the achievement of these goals and have been tested in the Faktor X settlements in Eschweiler and Inden. With the development of strategies and projects for sustainable building and living, indeland has long since taken on a lighthouse function far beyond the region. Together with the exhibition already opened in May, the tool is intended to contribute to the illustration and dissemination of the Factor X strategies.
In the run-up to the UN World Human Settlements Summit Habitat III, the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) points to the major challenges posed by increasing urbanisation. In its report "The Relocation of Humanity: The Transformative Power of Cities", the WBGU emphasises that a brief window of opportunity will open up in the coming decades of urbanisation "to set the course towards sustainability" - see Printed matter 18/9590. In this context, the Council recommends shortening the Habitat conference cycle from 20 to four years. The upcoming Habitat conference will take place from 17 to 20 October in Ecuador. The topic of "urbanisation and transformation" should also become a permanent item on the G20 agenda.
"The report is impressive in view of its wealth of arguments and diverse examples of urbanisation phenomena and the description of their effects. The Association of German Cities feels - not least due to its contributions to the success of the HABITAT III conference in Quito in October 2016 - in complete agreement with the report regarding the central role of cities in mastering the upcoming transformation challenges and utilising their opportunities. The challenges to urban transformation are clearly expressed: the call for a sustainable, globally coded urban development policy is a mandate to the global community and national policies to make cities capable of taking action and to urban societies to utilise this capacity for the benefit of the urban population."
Lord Mayor Dr Eva Lohse President of the Association of German Cities
In its report, the WBGU presents a transformation strategy for the sustainable and "people-oriented design" of urbanisation. Cities play a particularly key role in this, as "the relocation of humanity could become the most powerful process of social change in the 21st century".
The force of the current urbanisation dynamic and its effects are so great that cities, urban societies, governments and international organisations worldwide must face up to this trend. A "business as usual" approach would lead to an unsustainable global urban society if urbanisation policy is not shaped. Only if cities and urban societies become sufficiently capable of acting can they realise their potential for sustainable development: It is in the cities that it will be decided whether the Great Transformation towards sustainability will succeed. This book discusses the conditions for success.
The report identifies five transformative, interlinked fields of action:
Decarbonisation, energy and climate protection,
Mobility and transport,
the structural and spatial design of cities,
Adaptation to climate change and
Poverty reduction and socio-economic disparities.
With regard to climate protection, for example, fossil CO₂ emission sources must be replaced by 2070, writes the WBGU. There would also have to be a "move away from a large part of the current infrastructure patterns" in order to reduce the temperature increase to significantly less than two degrees Celsius.
The city of Bonn has received the Blue Sky Award for its commitment to sustainable development, environmental and climate protection, also on an international level. Mayor Reinhard Limbach accepted the award on Thursday, 29 August 2019, in the Chinese special economic zone Shenzhen.
The award is presented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Blue Sky Awards Organizing Committee to cities and individuals that have made a special contribution to climate protection.
Internationally, Bonn is involved, among other things, in the city network for sustainability ICLEI, which has its headquarters in the federal city and whose president is Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan. In addition, the city - funded by Engagement Global - is working together with the cities of La Paz (Bolivia), Cape Coast (Ghana) and Linares (Chile) under the heading "Municipal Climate Protection Partnerships". Topics include strategies and measures for adapting to climate change, the use of renewable energies and education for sustainable development. In Chengdu (China), an exchange on climate protection issues was held together with civil society organisations.
With its own sustainability strategy, which was adopted at the beginning of the year, Bonn wants to contribute to the systematic implementation of the United Nations' Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. And in early summer, the city launched a new participatory campaign on climate protection under the motto "Think new. Simply act. Together for the climate." shows that climate-friendly action can be very simple and enrich one's own life.
Coalition of cities to promote a sustainable circular economy
Mayor Limbach also participated in the launch event of the Green Circular Cities Coalition of the international city network ICLEI. This is a coalition of cities for the promotion of a sustainable circular economy, in which the cities of Bonn, Turku (Finland), Shenzhen (PR China) as well as Yokohama and Nagano (Japan), among others, participate.
Limbach discussed the topic of urban transformation/circular economy with international city representatives. In doing so, he presented projects and approaches of the city of Bonn in waste avoidance and the recycling of valuable resources. Also on the agenda of the two-day visit was a presentation of the Shenzhen city bus transport system, which is entirely electric, and a modern combined heat and power plant powered by waste.
From January 2017, the state capital Munich will also pay up to 2,000 euros in purchase premiums for privately used eCargobikes.
On 1 April 2016, the Munich-based Electromobility funding guideline into force. It introduced purchase premiums for commercial e-vehicles from pedelecs to e-cars. Since then, there has been a subsidy of 25 percent of the purchase price up to a maximum of 1000 euros for commercially used eCargobikes. In the first five months 86 applications approved. In addition, there is a 1000 euro scrapping premium if a car with an internal combustion engine is demonstrably permanently withdrawn from circulation.
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