1:32 min., video from 15.01.2021
KfW is today publishing the results of the SDG mapping of new commitments throughout the Group in 2019. In order to clarify the individual contribution made by KfW's new commitments to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, KfW has developed a standardised procedure: 1,500 indicators are used each year to determine to which SDGs KfW's new commitments can be assigned. This makes the contribution transparent at both group and business sector level.
The mapping of individual new commitments from 2019 to the Sustainable Development Goals shows the following funding priorities:
"With more than EUR 28 billion for 'climate action', we are one of the most important supporters of the Paris climate goals worldwide," explains Dr Günther Bräunig, Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Sustainability Officer of KfW Bankengruppe. "The fact that we are also making substantial contributions to all other 16 SDGs at the same time shows how we combine the environmental with the economic and social dimensions of sustainability as part of our broad legal mandate."
The financial sector can and must make significant contributions to the efforts to achieve greater climate protection and sustainability. As a transformative promotional bank, KfW is assuming particular responsibility in this regard and already launched the "KfW Roadmap Sustainable Finance" project in summer 2018, the aim of which is to develop a stringent and multidimensional sustainability concept for the bank. One of the first results is the group-wide SDG mapping, which makes KfW's contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) transparent. With this volume-based and largely automated mapping approach, KfW is one of the pioneers worldwide in terms of recording and publishing SDG financing targets.
Since the initial publication of the SDG mapping of KfW's 2018 new commitments in September 2019, international interest in KfW's SDG mapping has been high. Many partners are currently planning similar publications and would therefore like to learn more about KfW's own mapping methodology. An exchange to this effect has now taken place with several European promotional banks and multilateral organisations, among others.
Detailed information on KfW SDG mapping:
www.kfw.de/sdgs
Source: KfW-PM dated 9.3.2020
Keywords:
DE-News, Renewable, Funding, Climate protection, Sustainable management, New books and studies, Quarters, SDG 2030, Settlements, City, Economics
Since September 2018, balcony PV modules may generally be connected in every apartment. Berlin has now greatly simplified the registration process. Berliners can thus become their own energy supplier with little effort and save cash.
Stromnetz Berlin GmbH has now greatly simplified the registration process. It now only requires an A4 sheet, which can be downloaded from the company's website. Various stakeholders from the ranks of Berlin's solar associations and companies collaborated on this simplification.
Balcony modules are already available for less than 300 euros and can recoup their initial costs through saved electricity costs after about four to six years. Due to manufacturer guarantees of up to 25 years for many of the devices, returns of up to 15 percent per year are possible. Before buying, it is essential to compare offers and prices.
market overviews, the DGS - German Society for Solar Energy offers the platform pvplug.com an. In addition, MachDeinenStrom.de is considered a reputable portal.
Keywords:
Stakeholders, Construction and operating costs, Stock, DE-News, Communities, Tenant electricity, News Blog Berlin, PV, Quarters, Environmental policy
Franklin Village", one of the first large-scale socially and ecologically developed residential projects in Germany, is to be built on the "Franklin" conversion site in Mannheim. The idea is to build a quarter in timber construction that claims to be ecologically and socially sustainable. The project developers will celebrate the groundbreaking ceremony in mid-September with an artistically designed parade of diversity.
It takes about ten trees (three cubic meters of wood) to build a single-family house from wood; the Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton need about 2,500 trees to build the exemplary residential quarter of Mannheim. Around 750 tons of CO 2 is bound up in this amount of wood, which, according to one calculation, grows again in Germany in less than six minutes. The architecture, social concept and affordability of the residential quarter for around 200 people in the centre of the Franklin conversion area in Mannheim are to be just as sustainable as the building material. At just under eight euros per square meter of living space, some of the 90 apartments will be available once the entire project is sold to a foundation.
Just a few years ago, "Franklin" was one of the largest residential areas of the US Army in Germany. The city of Mannheim wants to see the topics of "social mix", "inclusion", "open space & urbanity", "urban development & architecture" and "energy & mobility" solved in an exemplary manner in a newly emerging district here. A concept tender was held for a central building area measuring 100 by 68 metres at the heart of the site, which was won by the partnership Innovatio / Profund / Sauerbruch Hutton Architekten. The winners of the tender are taking on the task of implementing "urban development of the future". Profund, based in Gera, Thuringia, is responsible for the construction and Innovatio (Heidelberg/Essen) for the project development. Profund sees itself as a strong real estate specialist, while Innovatio claims to think and realise social space design and sustainable neighbourhood development for the post-industrial age of cities.
As the project developer, Innovatio provides the conceptual framework for the large-scale project, speaking of "inclusively functioning urban quarters that carry the multi-generational idea within them". Keywords here are: Home, identification, diversity, lively neighbourhood, caring community, participation and overall sustainability. You could also say a village in the city. In practice, this means: various communal areas, including a neighbourhood forum with a large multi-functional room and kitchen, a fireplace room and
a large community terrace. Professional neighbourhood management, a differentiated mix of apartments for singles (including senior citizens) and couples as well as for large families, workshops, co-working, a large playroom, a barbecue area on the roof garden, the shady neighbourhood square designed by Urban Gardening - much of it organised by a neighbourhood app. Cluster apartments for people with assistance needs, care services and volunteer concepts are just as much a part of it as car-sharing.
Architecturally, the entire residential quarter was developed exclusively in constructive timber construction. The "Franklin Village" project is the largest timber construction project in Mannheim and one of the largest in the country. It is intended to serve as a model for "timber construction in multi-storey housing".
This will be a lighthouse project, because the material "wood" in construction makes a significant contribution to the energy transition and to minimizing CO2 emissions. Through the use of e-mobility, car sharing and photovoltaics, Franklin Village will also make a lasting contribution to CO2 reduction. The awarding of the project for its model character and its innovative strength in timber construction by the European funding fund EFRE and the state ministry for rural areas, confirms the consistent efforts of the project developers. The inclusion in the exhibition "Urbainable - Positions on the European City for the 21st Century" by the Berlin Academy of Arts, which opened in September 2020, underlines the exemplary nature of the project.
The project's sustainability concept is reflected in the architecture, and not only in the timber construction. An exemplary landscape architecture characterizes the green inner courtyard, which, together with the open neighbourhood square, forms spaces for neighbourly encounters. Not only the timber construction, but also all other building materials are ecological. District heating and photovoltaics provide electricity for self-consumption, everything is managed by a digital energy controlling system. The "future of living" emerges as an interplay of responsibility, awareness and communication, proclaim the makers. "We are happy that we are not only allowed to develop and build something so trend-setting, but that we are also allowed and expected to implement the overall concept of Franklin Village, so that it can become good," says Innovatio, which, at least in the first few years, will also take over the neighborhood management including the founding of the neighborhood association. "Those who proclaim sustainability should act sustainably themselves," say the project developers.
Source: PM franklin-village.com (Mannheim) from 16.09.2020
Keywords:
Wood construction, News Blog Baden-Württemberg
Author of the book review: Roman Schaurhofer, Vienna
The construction volume "Commercial Buildings in Clay and Wood - Added Value through Material" was published in 2020 by Sabine Djahanschah of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (German Federal Foundation for the Environment) at Verlag Detail. The publication, which appeared in book form, deals with the use of the building materials wood and clay in the construction of commercially used buildings. To this end, six buildings with commercial use were analysed in terms of their architectural construction and technical quality features and evaluated with the help of measurements, surveys and life cycle assessments.
By way of introduction, the different techniques, construction and production methods as well as the advantages of wood and clay are discussed. After this presentation of the understanding of the different building materials as well as fossil and renewable raw materials, the authors go into more detail on the life cycle assessment or life cycle analysis. They explain the components of a life cycle assessment for buildings. Furthermore, the calculation steps and methods for the life cycle phases, the period under consideration and the final energy demand are defined. This is followed by a naming of the balances created and evaluations.
The concept, the design and the constructive aspects are examined in more detail for each of the objects examined (two office buildings, two warehouses and two workshops). In addition, the acoustics, the energy concept, the fire protection and the added value of the building are evaluated. Monitoring values for temperature, CO2-concentration or air humidity underpin the results. Finally, the life cycle assessment, the material balance, the life cycle phase comparison and the DGNB rating are explained.
Ultimately, the researchers make a case for the use of wood and clay in commercial buildings with their results and conclusions from their detailed investigations, as well as their presentation of the effects on quality of stay, indoor climate, changeability and expression.
The building examples studied also convince with impressive results when the materials are applied well. Due to the interdisciplinary approach and the wide-ranging investigations by the researchers, technically sound results and arguments that can be discussed were achieved.
At the same time, however, it must be noted that due to the different building use and material selection, the selected example projects can hardly be compared with each other. In addition, other aspects relevant to construction, such as economic possibilities or monetary aspects, are not taken into account.
They are to be understood as pilot projects, but serve as exemplary examples for increased use in commercial construction.
Nevertheless, the investigations of the buildings show the relevance of sustainable building materials in the construction of buildings.
In any case, the authors provide sound evidence why wood and/or clay should be increasingly used in the construction of buildings for commercial use and make a professionally relevant contribution to the promotion of sustainability.
First edition: 2020
Format: 167 pages, German, 21 x 27 cm, Swiss brochure
Publisher: Detail Business Information GmbH, Munich
Reading sample and ordering option:
https://shop.detail.de/de_de/dbu-bauband-3-gewerbebauten-in-lehm-und-holz
Keywords:
Building Biology, Building materials / Construction, DE-News, Business, Wood construction, Earth Building, NaWaRohs, Sustainable management, New books and studies, Resource efficiency, Urban production, Life cycle assessment
