Sustainability Council: Sustainability standard for universities
Published
What makes a sustainable university? Sustainability Council and 50 university administrations, employees and students are developing a sustainability code for universities. The test phase of the beta version of the university code will start in autumn. In autumn 2014, the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) held a stakeholder conference on "From Pilot to Standard: Implementing Sustainability in Research, Teaching and Operations" to discuss the implications [...]
At the "Good Climate in Neighbourhoods" conference week, 250 experts from all over Germany discussed issues relating to sustainable and climate-friendly neighbourhood development. The seven conferences in September 2016 provided important insights, many new ideas and innovative concepts for transformation processes in neighbourhoods. This book presents the contributions and results on the topics of energy supply in times of energy transition, new construction, energy-efficient refurbishment, mobility and identity, supplemented by expert interviews, checklists and a glossary to create a compact reference work. Both planning and conservation aspects of sustainable and climate-friendly neighbourhood development are highlighted. There is a consensus that climate protection must begin in the neighbourhood.
6/2014 Swedish housing association awards major timber construction contractSwedish housing association Rikshem Ab has signed a major contract with the northern Swedish timber construction company Lindbäcks Bygg, Piteå, to build 2,000 rental flats across the country over the next five years. The volume of the order is estimated at SEK 2 billion (equivalent to around EUR 220 million). The contract includes an option for a further 500 units. The rental flats are to be built in the country's urban centres, primarily in the capital region and the Öresund region in the south, where there is a housing shortage. Lindbäcks Bygg is a family business that was founded in 1924 as a village sawmill and generated sales of SEK 600 million in 2013 with around 200 employees. Lindbäcks started building industrially prefabricated wooden apartment blocks 20 years ago.
(Source: Holzbau Deutschland-Institut e. V.)
3/2014 large sustainable construction areas in Germany:
Munich Freiham on 350 hectares with residential space for 20,000 and commercial space for 7,500 people. The aim is sustainable urban development that fulfils economic, ecological and social requirements in equal measure
Würzburg Hubland with 95 ha, CO2-neutral and for 4,500 inhabitants
2/2014 Fuel cells: The world's largest fuel cell park has gone into operation in South Korea. The plant was built by the American company Fuelcell Energy in Hwaseong City. With an output of 59 megawatts, the plant converts natural gas into electricity and heat and is said to be particularly efficient. (Bloomberg)
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Europe's largest ecological neighbourhood is being built in France
A sustainable neighbourhood is to be built on more than 200 hectares for 30,000 private individuals in Montreuil, France. The neighbourhood is part of a new development area covering a total of 892 hectares and is being funded with 3.5 million euros from the NQU initiative (Nouveaux Quartiers Urbains = New Urban Districts).
www.montreuil.fr/grands-projets/les-hauts-de-montreuil
"The raw material wood is precious. It is therefore important to use it responsibly and in a way that conserves resources," warns Peter Aicher, Chairman of Holzbau Deutschland. Even if wood is affected by environmental influences or the bark beetle, it does not represent an inferior raw material, but has almost identical properties to conventional construction timber. "If the so-called 'calamity wood' has the same structural quality in terms of load-bearing capacity as conventional sawn timber, it can be used without restrictions," explains Aicher. In addition, the wood retains its important function as a CO2 sink, regardless of external impairments.
"If the wood is used as a building material, the carbon bound in the wood remains stored there in the long term, thereby significantly reducing the burden on the environment."
The goal must be an economically and ecologically sensible and efficient use of the domestic resource. In the interests of sustainability and climate protection, regional wood resources should therefore be used optimally.
Calamity wood is of high quality and can be used without restrictions
In most cases, bark beetle infestation is irrelevant for the use of the wood as a building material. The bark beetle lays its burrows in the bast, i.e. the area between the bark (bark) and the trunk, but not in the load-bearing wood itself. In addition, the sawn timber is technically dried during further processing. During this process at the latest, any remaining populations of insect pests are reliably killed off, so that beetle-free timber processed into sawn timber is guaranteed to be beetle-free. Every piece of sawn timber - regardless of its origin - must meet the criteria of DIN standard 4074 in order to be used as load-bearing timber in a building. In some cases, the wood turns a slightly bluish colour after a bark beetle infestation. It can then be used in the non-visible area.
Environmental factors and the effects of climate change have further facilitated the mass spread of the bark beetle in the past year. In most cases, rapid felling of the affected trees is the only alternative to stop the further spread of the pest. The logs are immediately removed from the forest and stored. This results in an oversupply of so-called 'beetle wood'. The prompt further processing of the calamity wood into sawn timber is an active contribution to climate protection.
Holzbau Deutschland appeals to the public sector as well as to architects and builders to make greater use of regional calamity wood and to specify this in tenders. The use of domestic calamity wood not only supports regional value creation, but is also a sign of solidarity with regional forest owners.
Now that almost all of the 570 apartments in Germany's largest timber housing estate in Prinz-Eugen-Park have been occupied, the Munich planning committee has recommended the implementation of the follow-up timber construction project "Kreativquartier" with 370 units.
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