New book publication: "Building Sustainability Assessment and Benchmarking" Edited by UN-HABITAT

Published 8 March 2017

(2017)

Over the last 30 years, numerous tools have been developed to assess the ecological or sustainable aspects of buildings. This book discusses the role these tools can play in the implementation of the UN's 'New Urban Agenda'.

The 67-page book provides an up-to-date overview of the world's most important building assessment tools. It is available as a free download:
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/93577/factsheet/es

Keywords: New books and studies, News Blog Europe (without DE), Tools, Certification & Labels, Life cycle assessment

Published 10 December 2020

Lower Saxony passes climate protection law

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020, the Lower Saxony state parliament passed what Lower Saxony's Environment and Climate Protection Minister Olaf Lies called a "very important and groundbreaking" law: With the Lower Saxony Climate Act, the topic of climate protection is anchored in the state constitution, the state-wide energy demand is to be completely covered by renewable energies by 2040 and Lower Saxony commits to climate neutrality by 2050. Lies: "With this, we have a law that does justice to the importance of climate protection as the central social task for the coming years and decades. It sets an important course for the future. This is what this state government and the parliamentary groups that support it stand for - setting realistic goals that can also be implemented. We are setting standards and probably have the most ambitious climate law in the whole of Germany! We are consistently pursuing our goal of making Lower Saxony the No. 1 climate protection state. We are already the No. 1 energy state, and we will also achieve this in climate protection!"

The full speech by the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change:

19:26 min, 9/12/2020.

The goal is to cover 100 percent of the energy demand in Lower Saxony with renewable energies by 2040. "To achieve this, we need a massive acceleration in the expansion of wind energy and photovoltaics that exceeds the best expansion year of the last 20 years many times over - and we need to do this consistently and permanently until 2040. This is an enormous challenge, but it is urgently necessary. The Federal Government must now set the right course for this in the Renewable Energy Sources Act," said Lies.

In addition, Lower Saxony could become a driver of innovation in climate protection, the Minister emphasized: "Through strong, courageous companies, through motivated, well-trained employees, through a functioning and trusting social partnership - employers and trade unions will go hand in hand here - I am convinced of that - and last but not least through a state government that has its sights firmly set on the future of Lower Saxony and creates incentives." With the programme of measures for energy and climate protection alone, which was recently approved by the cabinet, the state government is investing more than one billion euros. Lies: "And it is doing so in order to invest well in the future - among other things in climate-friendly mobility, in the energy refurbishment of our buildings, in solar technology, in hydrogen or the transition to a greenhouse gas-neutral economy. This will create additional demand, which in turn will contribute to higher production and employment - in the skilled trades, in the construction industry or in manufacturing."

What is always needed is "a clever mix of different instruments", which has been achieved with the present programme. In future, the programme of measures will be integrated into a comprehensive climate protection strategy for Lower Saxony.

"State objective, climate law and climate protection strategy: this is Lower Saxony's climate path," said Lies, "our contribution to national and international climate protection targets and the engine for our business and industrial location. We are already the No. 1 energy state in Germany. Now we have the legal basis to also become the No. 1 climate protection country. We don't just want to be on the climate protection train, we want to be the locomotive. We owe that to future generations. They have just as much right as we do to a habitable planet - also in the future."

Links
Download the draft version
www.niedersachsen.de/download/116752
Information from the Climate and Energy Agency of Lower Saxony (KEAN)
www.klimaschutz-niedersachsen.de/themen/klimaschutz/klimaschutz-in-niedersachsen.php
Comment from 10. 12. 2020
https://taz.de/Niedersachsen-bekommt-Klimaschutzgesetz/!5730550/

Keywords:
Movies, Movies 11 to 45 Min, Climate protection, News Blog Lower Saxony, Environmental policy

Published 15. May 2013

Messages in 2013

10/2013: Europe's largest wooden house with straw insulation in Verden
The largest straw-insulated and directly plastered wooden house in Europe is being built in Verden from the oldest building materials known to man. The twenty-metre high natural building contains 38 tonnes of straw, 100 tonnes of clay and 200 tonnes of softwood.
www.weser-kurier.de/...artikel...

10/2013: Films "City of the Future" and "How does the city get fed?"
The following two recommendable films can be seen in the Arte Mediathek until 15.10.2013: "City of the Future" (45 min; first broadcast: 10/2013):
www.arte.tv/guide/de/047869-000/stadt-der-zukunft-zukunft-der-stadt
"How does the city get fed?" (53 min.; first broadcast: 10/2013):
www.arte.tv/guide/de/047870-000/wie-wird-die-stadt-satt

The films are also available from FechnerMedia:
DVD "City of the Future - Future of the City
http://shop.fechnermedia.com/katalog/filme/stadt-der-zukunft-zukunft-der-stadt
DVD "How to feed the city - The struggle for the food markets of the future".
http://shop.fechnermedia.com/katalog/filme/wie-wird-die-stadt-satt

9/2013: IBA Berlin 2020 Preliminary Studies
the downloads of the IBA Berlin 2020 preliminary studies are available here:
www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/.../iba/de/studien.shtml

8/2013: DIN standards on earthen building come into force
Since August 2013, binding standards for earthen construction have come into force in Germany for the first time since 1971. They apply to clay blocks, clay masonry and clay plaster mortars. This means that earth as a building material has finally arrived in contemporary construction. For non-standardised and on-site produced earthen building materials, the earthen building rules first published in 1998 continue to apply. With the current revision of the interior plaster application standard DIN 18550-2, the course has been set towards Europe-wide recognition of the material.
www.claytec.de/...din-normen-lehm-2013.html

6/2013: New timber construction magazine
"We want to show you wood" says the editorial team of lignardo, the first German architecture magazine dedicated exclusively to wood as a building material. lignardo is in intensive exchange with renowned architects and industry experts: Prof. Herrmann Kaufmann, Prof. Ludger Dederich, Prof. Uwe Germerott, architect Frank Lattke and architect Florian Lichtblau support an experienced editorial team that has been active in the timber construction industry for many years. This is how the print premiere "Award-winning timber buildings" came into being at the beginning of June. With six printed issues per year, lignardo will in future concentrate monothematically on one building task each, because timber construction will play a very special role in this century.
www.lignardo.de

5/2013: Polystyrene thermal insulation - The madness continues: The consequences of insulating with polystyrene can be devastating: for the living climate and also in case of fire. Who benefits from the constantly tightened energy-saving regulations?

Styrofoam as a façade insulation material is often the material of choice when houses are to be thermally insulated. But this can have devastating consequences: for the indoor climate and also in case of fire. Already at the end of 2011, NDR dealt with the topic of thermal insulation and pointed out risks and problems. Above all, the fire test with the insulating material polystyrene caused a sensation throughout Germany. In the second part, in which further in-depth research was carried out, the question still arises: Who really benefits from constantly tightened energy-saving regulations and the boom in thermal insulation composite systems fuelled by them: the residents, the environment or the lobby?

Here is the film from the end of 2012: www.ndr.de/...minuten667
and supplementary NDR information: www.ndr.de/...waermedaemmung

4/2013: No health risks from electrosmog from photovoltaic systems:
www.wilabonn.de/...elektromagnetische-strahlung-durch-pv

3/2013: Model buildings searched for on gutebaustoffe.de:
www.gutebaustoffe.de/modellbauwerke.html

Largest Sustainable Settlement in Europe there are with 2,900 flats on an area of 170 ha in Holland: Stad van de Zon (City of the Sun) Heerhugowaard
www.heerhugowaardstadvandezon.nl

First German PlusEnergy School near Augsburg
http://informationsdienst-holz.de/…plusenergy school

Largest plus-energy building with 78 rental flats of the municipal housing association ABG in Frankfurt

Photovoltaic systems are planned on the slightly sloping roof, on the windows and on the façade of the building. At the same time, heat is recovered from the waste water. All of this is enough to achieve a surplus of around ten percent after consumption in the entire house, says Junker. This surplus can be used for the electric car, for example. The ABG, which cooperates with the car-sharing provider Book 'n Drive, will provide five cars and an electricity charging station on the ground floor of the building, which does not have a basement. Unused electricity from the car can also be fed back into the storage system. It is "energy-autarkic", meaning it could completely disconnect from the general electricity grid.
www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/wohnungsbau-frankfurt-energie-im-ueberfluss,1472798,20352740.html

2/2013: Photovoltaics statistics updated: 32.4 GW connected to the grid in Germany
Whereas in 2000 there were just 400 megawatts of PV capacity installed in Germany, today there are 32,389 megawatts or around 32.4 gigawatts.
www.solarserver.de/...photovoltaik-statistik.html

Photovoltaics annual review 2012: Multi-layered markets in upheaval
As expected, 2012 was a difficult year for the global photovoltaic industry. Production capacities were consistently too high, and this caused price collapses along the value chain, negative margins and losses for photovoltaic manufacturers. Despite these difficulties, the global photovoltaic market grew by 10-17 % in 2012 to around 31-33 GW, even established markets like Germany continued to grow. The latest figures from the German Ministry of the Environment show that the photovoltaic market in Germany reached a volume of 7.6 GW by the end of the year, despite the cut in the solar power feed-in tariff. This is again a World record for annual installed PV capacity. The Chinese photovoltaic market probably doubled again in 2012. Final figures are not yet available, but if the estimate by IMS Research from last October is correct, China would be the second largest PV market in the world with 5 GW. The installed capacity includes not only the plants that have been approved for feed-in tariffs, but also those from the "Golden Sun" programme with a total of 1.7 GW.
www.solarserver.de/...photovoltaik-jahresrueckblick-2012

Terra Preta - The new grassroots revolution
Save the climate and defeat world hunger with kitchen waste, vegetable charcoal and earthworms? Science believes it has found the recipe: Terra Preta do Indio, the "black gold". Ute Scheub, Haiko Pieplow and Hans-Peter Schmidt have written in "Terra Preta. The Black Revolution from the Rainforest", Ute Scheub and Haiko Pieplow have compiled the knowledge about the most fertile soil in the world. "Black soil - produced by farmers and smallholders, hobby gardeners and slum dwellers - can trigger a literal grassroots revolution," says Scheub.
www.oekom.de/nc/buecher/buechersuche/buch/terra-preta-die-schwarze-revolution-aus-dem-regenwald.html

1/2013: New DBU brochure on resource-efficient building and living
www.dbu.de/...

Rolf Disch builds Plusenergiesiedlung in Grenzach near Basel with 74 flats
www.rolfdisch.de/...

Brave New World: Megacities in China
www.zeit.de/...density-2

Keywords:
DE-News

Published 27. August 2018

Flasbarth: "We need prosperity with less waste of resources".

Leading economies discuss raw material consumption

In Argentina today, the twenty largest industrialised and emerging countries are discussing ways and means to use natural resources such as raw materials, water and land more efficiently and sparingly. State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth is opening the conference in Puerto Iguazú today together with Argentina's Environment Minister Bergman. Argentina, which currently holds the presidency of the G20, is thus continuing a political initiative by Germany.

Flasbarth: "If we reduce our resource consumption in the industrialised countries, it will also be easier for us to make progress on climate protection. We need prosperity that makes do with fewer resources. The World Resources Council has shown that we can also benefit economically from this, because resource efficiency is an engine for innovation and new jobs."

According to calculations by the World Resources Council (International Resource Panel), annual raw material consumption of currently 85 billion tonnes by 2050 to 186 billion tonnes if no countermeasures are taken. Resource efficiency and climate protection, on the other hand, could reduce raw material consumption by 28% and greenhouse gas emissions by over 60%, while at the same time increasing global economic output by 1%.

At the G20 Summit in Hamburg in July 2017, the heads of state and government had decided, at Germany's suggestion, to hold an annual G20 Resources Dialogue. After a kick-off meeting in Berlin in November 2017, the conference in Puerto Iguazú is the second meeting of the new governance process. The Resource Dialogue will meet in Puerto Iguazú from 28-29 August, ahead of a G20 working group on climate change.

Back in 2012, Germany was one of the first countries in the world to adopt a national resource efficiency programme (ProgRess). The aim of the programme is to use fewer raw materials and promote the use of recycled materials throughout the entire economic cycle - from raw material extraction to product design and production processes, our consumption patterns and the circular economy.

You can find examples of resource-efficient settlements and urban quarters at
www.ressourceneffiziente.siedlungen.eu

Source: BMU-PM of 27.8.2018

Keywords:
Stakeholders, Renewable, News Blog Europe (without DE), Resource efficiency, Environmental policy

Published 28 October 2019

DAI Berlin Declaration on Housing Policy

24 October 2019

Strengthen energy refurbishment of buildings and demand responsibility from landlords.

Housing policy must create supportive framework conditions and thus contribute to the reduction of living space.

"For a necessary energy turnaround in the housing industry, conditions must be created that demonstrate noticeable incentives for owners and users to consume less energy in the future," says DAI President Dipl.-Ing. Architekt Arnold Ernst. On the occasion of the Federation Day of the German Associations of Architects and Engineers (DAI), a declaration on current topics of building and planning culture is published in annual succession. For previous DAI statements, see below.

In Germany, CO2 emissions from buildings are equivalent to the pollution caused by traffic. The intensity of the public discussion does not reflect this. This is all the more reason why architects and engineers are called upon to show responsibility in their field and to demonstrate ways in which they intend to make their contribution to sustainable climate protection.

The technical solutions are available, and we need to develop better methods, especially for the sustainable retrofitting of existing buildings. However, there is a lack of incentives for owners and users to implement and tolerate energy-efficient refurbishment. It is easier to demand climate protection than to pay for it. The environmental impact of CO2 emissions is (still) free, but avoiding it costs money, a lot of money in existing buildings. The landlord shies away from the investment because only a small part can be passed on to the rents. The tenant has an understandable insistence on not changing the size and location of his flat, especially as long as the parties keep deciding on new socially undifferentiated benefits in the competition for the cheapest rents. Both landlords and tenants must make their economic contribution in order to finance the comprehensive energy-efficient refurbishment of the housing stock.

The benchmark for all participants must be the Polluter pays principle be. Those who contribute to the release of CO2 must have an economic advantage if they actively participate in the reduction; those who refuse to participate must have an economic disadvantage as a result.

The DAI demands:

A CO2 levy for each sqm of heated floor space according to the information in the energy performance certificate from level B. This levy is covered by the Owner to pay.
A CO2 levy on the energy used according to consumption and specific CO2 emissions. This levy is determined by the Tenant to pay.

Both levies make it more expensive to live in buildings that are not optimised in terms of energy efficiency. Weighing up the direct financial burden on those affected and the long-term burden of climate change, the DAI considers the additional costs incurred to be justified. Support for economically weak households in line with the social market economy must ensure that the entitlement to adequate housing is met.

As appropriate in the sense of social indigence 30 sqm per person + 20 sqm for each additional person in a dwelling are considered. Appropriate transitional periods should on the one hand avoid social hardship and on the other hand continuously stimulate stronger incentives for the adaptation of housing conditions to economic performance. In order to also stimulate the corresponding adjustment processes above the level of social need, the regulation of the rent level should be waived, but in the case of existing tenancies with an appropriate limitation of the annual increase, also in order to facilitate the adjustment to economic performance.

DAI Presidium

Note sdg21: the statement presented here does not reflect the opinion of the sdg21 editorial team.

Keywords:
Stock, DE-News, Renewable, Climate protection, Affordable housing, Housing, Housing policy, Thermal insulation, Ecology