DGNB and GLS Bank cooperate

Published 28 October 2021

"nWert", GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG's sustainability rating tool for real estate, has been recognised by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) as a sustainability rating. At the same time, GLS Bank recognises the DGNB certificate as proof when granting financing. This was announced by Dr. Christine Lemaitre of the DGNB and Dr. Matthias Morgenstern, GLS ImmoWert, on the occasion of Expo Real 2021 in Munich.

"The recognition of nValue by the DGNB is a nice confirmation of our way of thinking about sustainability in a really comprehensive way and developing a robust but also valid assessment system for it," says Dr Matthias Morgenstern from GLS ImmoWert GmbH. The net value of a building reflects sustainability at a high level of aggregation and contributes to the decision on financing. It also provides the bank's customers with an objective assessment of the building at a glance. They receive a report on the nValue with a presentation of the strengths and potentials of the building and thus have a roadmap to achieve even better sustainability. In total, the Bank's colleagues have already audited over 800 projects.

"As the largest social-ecological bank in Germany, we aim to value real estate not only in monetary terms. We also want to know what social and ecological impact the properties we lend to have," says Jan Köpper, Head of Impact Transparency at GLS Bank. That is why GLS Bank has developed the tool "nWert". With this tool, a transparent, measurable and comparable sustainability rating can be calculated specifically for real estate and the lending process.

"With the recognition of its sustainability rating by the DGNB, GLS Bank is building an important bridge towards greater uniformity in the assessment of sustainable building projects as a basis for their financing," says Dr Christine Lemaitre, Executive Director of the DGNB. "With almost 8000 award-winning building and neighbourhood projects, DGNB certification has established itself as the central sustainability standard in the construction sector in Germany and beyond in recent years. The recognition of GLS Bank's sustainability rating is a valuable building block here that ultimately benefits customers."

The recognition is reciprocal. If a customer approaches GLS Bank with a DGNB certificate and a request for financing, this certificate is equally proof for GLS Bank of the sustainable properties of the building.

For about four years now, GLS Bank has been determining the nValue for real estate in addition to the market value and the mortgage lending value. The degree to which the building complies with a sustainable model is determined by analysing documents, interviewing people with knowledge of the property and visiting the site. Around 50 indicators are collected and converted into a score from 0 to 100 %.

You can find more information on the GLS Bank's nWert audit here:
gls.co.uk/corporate-institutions/industries/housing/sustainable-property/

Source: PM from DGNB and GLS dated 28.10.2021

Keywords: DE-News, DGNB, Sustainable management

Published 28 September 2020

Previous action is not sufficient for the creation of affordable housing

Following the interim results of the Housing Summit and the Building Land Commission, demands are being voiced by the scientific community: The still tight housing markets require the use of additional instruments by the federal and state governments. Otherwise, the turnaround towards affordable housing cannot be achieved.

Berlin/Düsseldorf/Mannheim. In view of the continuing undersupply of affordable housing, researchers from the University of Mannheim, the Macroeconomic Policy Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation (IMK) and the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) are calling on the federal government to set up a participation fund for municipal housing companies and better framework conditions for the establishment of municipal land funds.

According to Sebastian Dullien, Scientific Director of the IMK, there is no sign that the housing situation in the metropolitan areas and their surrounding areas will ease as a result of the Corona crisis. "The declining capacity utilisation in the construction sector makes increased public housing construction also sensible in terms of economic policy. It is an opportunity that additional construction demand no longer inevitably leads to higher prices," says Dullien. "Public housing construction is not only an important pillar of the economy, it also has far-reaching social, economic and ecological effects in the long term. The housing shortage in metropolitan areas is forcing people with low and medium incomes out of attractive urban locations, thus leading to segregation that can endanger the cohesion of society," adds Ricarda Pätzold, housing market expert at Difu.

A participation fund of the federal government, which should be handled by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, should strengthen the equity base of municipal housing companies. "A higher equity ratio strengthens the refinancing and investment capacity for the new construction of affordable housing, for those enterprises where this is currently a restriction. One advantage of this instrument is that the equity fund - in contrast to earlier programmes - can focus its support specifically on those housing companies that create affordable housing in tight markets," says Tom Krebs, Professor of Economics at the University of Mannheim.

The availability of land is currently proving to be the "bottleneck" in almost all fields of urban development - housing construction, commercial development, social infrastructure, etc. The availability of land is a key instrument of public welfare-oriented housing policy. Municipal land funds are central instruments of public welfare-oriented housing policy. Arno Bunzel, head of the research department Urban Development, Law and Social Affairs at Difu, clarifies: "Municipal land funds are central instruments of housing policy oriented towards the common good. We must therefore improve their effectiveness. The federal government and the Länder should contribute their land for which they have no own use to the respective municipal land funds. In this context, the provisions in the federal government's Land Subsidisation Directive must be further developed from an urban development perspective." The financial situation of the municipalities must be described as the main obstacle to the implementation of viable land funds. "The federal states should design the budgetary and municipal supervisory regulations for their municipalities in such a way that municipal land funds have adequate refinancing conditions that are based on economic criteria and not on traditional cameral budgetary law," says Carsten Kühl, Institute Director of Difu.

Details and download
Policy Paper "Participation Funds and Land Funds to Strengthen Public and Affordable Housing".
www.difu.de/15780

Authors of the policy paper:
Prof. Dr Sebastian Dullien, Macroeconomic Policy Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Prof. Dr Tom Krebs, University of Mannheim
Prof. Dr. Arno Bunzel, Prof. Dr. Carsten Kühl and Dipl.-Ing. Ricarda Pätzold from the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu)

Short info: German Institute of Urban Affairs
As the largest urban research institute in the German-speaking world, the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) is the research, training and information institution for cities, municipal associations and planning communities. Whether urban and regional development, municipal economy, urban planning, social issues, environment, transport, culture, law, administrative issues or municipal finance: Founded in 1973, the independent Berlin-based institute - with a further location in Cologne - deals with an extensive range of topics and, on a scientific level, deals in a practical way with all the tasks that municipalities have to deal with today and in the future. The Verein für Kommunalwissenschaften e.V. is the sole shareholder of the research institute, which is run as a non-profit limited company.

Keywords:
Soil & land consumption, DE-News, Communities, Affordable housing, Housing, Housing policy

Published 28 September 2019

For climate protection: Berlin builds with wood

From the meeting of the Berlin Senate on 24 September 2019:

At its meeting today, the Senate adopted the report to the House of Representatives on "Sustainability in Construction: Berlin Builds with Wood", following a presentation by the Senator for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, Regine Günther.

The Senate is consistently pursuing the goal of developing Berlin into a climate-neutral city by 2050. To achieve this ambitious goal, the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme (BEK) in the building sector also includes resource conservation and, in particular, the sustainable construction and refurbishment of buildings.

Through the use of wood as a renewable building material, relevant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved for the state of Berlin. For example, the use of one cubic metre of wood in a construction project binds around one tonne of CO2 over the entire useful life of the wood product. If a school for 1,000 pupils is built in timber construction, up to 750 cubic metres of wood are used. This corresponds to a saving of 750 tonnes of CO2.

Senator Günther: "The state of Berlin wants to build even more with wood in its own construction projects. In doing so, Berlin wants to live up to its role model function and motivate as many companies as possible to follow suit. More timber construction is an important element for climate protection."

The state of Berlin has already initiated extensive measures to promote timber construction. It is thanks to these measures, as well as the efforts of the timber trade, the crafts and the timber industry, that urban timber construction is now accepted in Berlin and is developing a high level of dynamism throughout the state.

Due to the importance of timber construction for climate and environmental policy and its great advantages, the Senate is placing even greater emphasis on timber construction, particularly in state-owned, but also in private construction projects. In this context, care must be taken to ensure that the wood used comes exclusively from sustainable forestry and that this is always verified by the submission of a FSC- or an equivalent certificate is documented.

The final report presents the measures already initiated by the Land of Berlin as well as the additional measures planned:

With the resolution of the House of Representatives on "Sustainability in construction: Berlin builds with wood", the political expression of will and the creation of political framework conditions took place.
The legal framework was created with the Senate resolution on sustainable building and on the preferred installation of wood as a building material within the framework of the update of the Administrative Regulation on Procurement and the Environment (VwVBU). In addition, Berlin's building regulations were amended accordingly.
For the implementation of the strategies and measures of the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme (BEK 2030), the state of Berlin has launched an extensive funding programme. In this context, pilot and innovation projects on timber construction can also be funded by means of a case-by-case assessment.
The aim is also to reduce or eliminate existing obstacles to timber construction and to improve the structures for timber construction. Recommendations for action have already been developed for this purpose. Now, in an in-depth dialogue with the relevant stakeholders, it is to be determined how these recommendations can be implemented in a timely manner and how a timber network can be established in the long term.
Furthermore, measures for further education and training were implemented: This year, the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, together with the German Timber Trade Association, held the 5th specialist dialogue on sustainable timber construction for planners, architects, builders, timber construction companies and the administrative authorities responsible for construction. This tried and tested specialist event is to be continued in the coming years.
In this context, the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection is also planning to specify corresponding binding quality requirements for the commissioning of planning services for public facilities with the next update of the Administrative Regulation on Procurement and the Environment (VwVBU).
The Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection is currently conducting research and development within the framework of a large timber school construction project with an investment volume of €25 million in Berlin-Marzahn. This building project is being used to investigate both the ecological and economic advantages of timber construction versus reinforced concrete construction, as well as any obstacles that may arise with timber construction. As part of this investigation, the grey energy, i.e. the amount of energy required for the production, transport, storage, sale and disposal of a product, will also be determined and evaluated for the building materials used.
On the one hand, the results of this study will be taken into account in the updating of the Administrative Regulation on Procurement and the Environment. On the other hand, it will also be examined whether and which additional incentives for timber construction should be applied in Berlin. This study is expected to provide further important insights into the use of wood as a building material.

Source: Press release from 24.09.2019

Keywords:
Building materials / Construction, Procurement, DE-News, Research, Wood construction, Climate protection, Communities, NaWaRohs, News Blog Berlin, Quarters, SDG 2030, Settlements, City, Environmental policy, Housing policy, Life cycle assessment, Ecology

Published 26 November 2018

EU Parliament gives boost to UN climate summit in Katowice and puts German government under pressure

Germanwatch welcomes MEPs' call for a higher EU climate target for 2030 and greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050 at the latest

Bonn (25 October 2018). The European Parliament is stepping up the pace on climate action. MEPs today gave the EU negotiating delegation for the UN climate summit in Katowice in December a mandate in which they call for the EU to raise its greenhouse gas reduction target from the current 40 per cent (below 1990 levels) to 55 per cent. The parliamentarians are aiming for greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050 at the latest, which would mean reducing emissions to almost zero. "We are pleased that the MPs are responding directly to the findings of the latest IPCC report on the 1.5-degree target," says Christoph Bals, Political Director of Germanwatch. "This is a wake-up call for the German government. The Grand Coalition should now finally support the European Parliament, the European Commission and the progressive member states in raising the EU climate targets for 2030 and 2050. The success of the upcoming climate summit in Poland will depend in part on whether the EU comes forward," said Bals.

The European Parliament supports the climate targets that the plaintiffs in the People's Climate Case are also calling for to protect their fundamental rights. The European legislator's response is eagerly awaited these days. Christoph Bals: "We hope that the forthcoming response by the European Parliament and the Council will also be characterised by this new departure in climate policy."

In the People's Climate Case, people affected by climate change are petitioning the EU to raise its climate targets.

Further information on the People's Climate Case can be found at: www.peoplesclimatecase.de

Keywords:
Stakeholders, Renewable, Climate protection, News Blog Europe (without DE), UN (United Nations), Environmental policy

Published 20 February 2020

France focuses on timber construction and eco-neighborhoods

From 2022, all new public buildings must consist of at least 50 percent wood or other sustainable building material. For buildings with more than eight storeys, the supporting structure must even be made entirely of wood.

It was also decided that 90 ecological neighbourhoods and 100 urban farms should be created in Paris.

Further information:
www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/new-french-public-buildings-must-be-made-50-wood

Keywords:
Procurement, Wood construction, Climate protection, Communities, NaWaRohs, Sustainable management, News Blog France, Quarters, Recycling, Resource efficiency, Settlements