City of Cologne relies on wood with immediate effect
Published
By a large majority, the city council has instructed the administration to increase the use of wooden building materials in new municipal buildings such as schools and day-care centres. Complete wooden buildings are to be erected wherever possible.
21.01.2020 Everyone is talking about sustainability - including the construction industry. A prize that the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) have been organising since today provides the perfect talking point: With the new "Federal Environment and Building Prize", which will be awarded for the first time in 2020, the initiators want to recognise projects that are exemplary in terms of sustainability - not only in the classic areas of existing and new buildings, but also in five other categories. All players in the construction sector can apply. The closing date for entries is 15 April 2020 and the patron of the competition is the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Svenja Schulze.
The desire of more and more building owners and planners to combine high utility value and architectural quality with Climate - and environmental protection has resulted in many exciting projects. They demonstrate by practical example that sustainable construction offers many advantages over the life cycle - also in terms of costs.
Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze: "This is precisely where the Federal Environment and Building Award comes in. On the one hand, the prize is intended to illustrate the spectrum of what is already structurally and technically possible today. On the other hand, it is intended to raise awareness of the outstanding examples through the award and thus invite imitation."
Professor Dirk Messner, President of the Federal Environment Agency: "It's about holistic solutions that incorporate the technology, the design of the building and its surroundings. Individual 'greenfield' projects are expressly not supported. In no other competition is the interplay between the environment and building assessed in such a way as in the Federal Environment & Building Award."
About the Federal AwardIn order to show the breadth of sustainable building, the Federal Award comprises the categories "Residential buildings", "Non-residential buildings", "Neighbourhoods" and "Sustainability and innovations". The first two categories focus in particular on the energy-efficient refurbishment of existing buildings, as this is where the greatest need for action exists from a climate protection perspective.
In addition to these competition categories, the BMU and UBA also award three special prizes for particularly innovative approaches. Under the headings "Resilience" and "Sufficiency", the focus is on adaptation to climate change and strategies for reducing the use of resources. Building projects that take particular account of aspects of biodiversity and thus make a substantial contribution to the protection and implementation of "urban nature" are also to be honoured. The third field "Building envelope & building product" is intended for novel solutions with innovative materials and building constructions.
Conditions of participationDue to the thematic breadth, all players in the construction sector are invited to apply: from clients and property developers to architecture, building services, urban and landscape planning offices, manufacturers and research institutions. The competition is aimed at buildings or neighbourhoods completed in Germany that are at an advanced stage of planning; multiple applications in different categories are possible.
What awaits the winnersThe award winners can look forward to public recognition on several levels. The award ceremony will take place on 29 September at a congress on sustainable building at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Berlin, where the award-winning projects will be presented to experts and the media. The award-winning projects and their plus points will also be presented on the websites of the UBA and the Federal Ministry for the Environment - including in the form of videos: This is because the UBA is having films made about the award-winning sustainability examples, which the winners can then use for their own public relations work. In addition, all award-winning projects will be documented in a book.
Interested parties can find more information on the conditions of participation in the Federal Environment & Building Award and the selection procedure on the UBA website: www.umweltbundesamt.de/bundespreis-umwelt-bauen-start
The member states of the United Nations want to agree on a new urban agenda as part of the Habitat III conference in Quito. This "New Urban Agenda" is intended to serve as a political guideline for urban development over the next two decades. Federal Building Minister Barbara Hendricks takes part in the official opening of the Habitat III conference together with Friedrich Kitschelt, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Hendricks: "All over the world, people are moving to cities. Cities therefore hold the key to a sustainable and climate-friendly world. It is important to invest in the right infrastructure today. Cities need support for this. They must be put in a position to fulfil the demands of their inhabitants for decent housing, access to energy, clean water or sewage and waste disposal, but also for education and participation. This is what I will be campaigning for in Quito."
Half of the world's population already lives in cities today. By 2050, this figure is expected to rise to two thirds. Around 90 per cent of this growth is taking place in developing and emerging countries. At the same time, cities are responsible for around 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Habitat III is a UN process that addresses the development of cities around the world against the backdrop of urbanisation and places it in the context of the global sustainability goals of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement. The "New Urban Agenda", which is to be adopted in Quito, will provide governments, cities and local and regional actors with a globally applicable framework for action for the sustainable development of cities.
The Federal Government is committed to ensuring that cities are recognised as development actors in an integrated urban development policy. Only if cities and regions are strong and have a say in their urban development concerns can they offer a high quality of life for their citizens and enable democratic participation. In the negotiations at Habitat III, Germany will contribute its experience with the principle of subsidiarity, local self-government with the provision of adequate financial resources, urban development and housing promotion and the model of the compact European city.
The World Conference of Cities takes place every twenty years. Habitat III follows on thematically from the two previous conferences in Vancouver (1976) and Istanbul (1996). Around 30,000 participants from 180 countries are expected to attend the conference in Quito, including delegates from governments, academia and civil society organisations. On the third day, Federal Building Minister Hendricks will be travelling on to Costa Rica. State Secretary for Construction Gunther Ad-ler will accompany the German delegation together with State Secretary for Development Kitschelt until the end of the conference on 20 October.
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