Leading economic countries discuss raw materials consumption In Argentina today, the twenty largest industrialised and emerging economies are discussing ways and means of using 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 [...]
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Heating village heating networks with sun and wood is becoming a model for success. In Germany, five such heating systems are being launched this year. While the heating sector is the problem child of the energy transition throughout Germany, numerous villages are showing how the conversion to renewable energies can be mastered in one fell swoop. More and more frequently [...]
Berlin, 9 July 2018: "We need to break new ground in housing construction" - this is what 18 mayors of the "Sustainable City" dialogue call for in their resolution paper "More sustainability in building land and land policy". The mayors call for the causes of the housing shortage to be addressed and for sustainable long-term solutions to be developed. Simply the near-natural [...]
Immovielien contra Staats- und Marktversagen in der Bodenpolitik Almost 50 members from all over Germany founded the association Netzwerk Immovielien e. V. at the ufaFabrik in Berlin-Tempelhof on 18 June 2018. Since 2017, actors from civil society, the public sector, business, welfare, and academia have been working closely together in the network and are jointly [...]
Four award winners selected from 58 submissions The Rhineland-Palatinate Timber Construction Award 2018 was presented on 12 June at the Centre for Building Culture in Mainz. There were four equal prizes as well as four recognitions. In addition, an honorable mention was given. Function, (construction) technology, aesthetics and climate protection were the selection criteria for the award, now in its eighth [...]
Colourful, lively, largely car-free - the people of Tübingen jokingly refer to the French Quarter as the "green hell". However, the residents appreciate the "ideal world feeling".
Commenting on the agreement between the EU Commission, the Council and the Parliament on the further expansion of renewable energies in Europe, Julia Verlinden, spokesperson for energy policy for Alliance 90/The Greens in the German Bundestag, said: "The German government has not been successful in putting the brakes on citizen energy. Europe is now ensuring that the hurdles and fees [...]
In Troisdorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, the largest tenant electricity project in Germany is currently running with subsidised funding from the so-called tenant electricity surcharge under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). The project, which was supported by EnergyAgency.NRW following an initial consultation, supplies 24 social housing apartments in three multi-storey buildings with a total of 75 residents with electricity.
The car-free settlement and the mobility concept is presented from about minute 2 to 7 in the kika media library: www.kika.de/erde-an-zukunft/sendungen/sendung106156.html
Difu study gives recommendations for more effective use of funding in NRW Lack of staff and high administrative demands are two of the reasons that prevent cities, districts and municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) from drawing down available urban development funding on time. This is a key finding of a study conducted by the German Institute for [...]
Online tool provides information on funding programmes Düsseldorf. With Förder.Navi, an online tool from EnergyAgency.NRW, it is now even quicker to find one's way through the funding jungle. The tool (www.energieagentur.nrw/foerder-navi) helps private individuals, companies and local authorities to find funding opportunities, for example when it comes to energy-efficient refurbishment.
The BDA Prize for Architectural Criticism 2018 is awarded to the managing editor of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and book author Gerhard Matzig. The BDA Prize for Architectural Criticism looks back on a history of over 50 years. The prize winners have included Julius Posener, Manfred Sack, Wolfgang Pehnt and Peter Sloterdijk. The prize is awarded to "an outstanding [...]
Deutsche Umwelthilfe calls for immediate proposal for tax incentives for energy-efficient building refurbishment - Building sector makes decisive contribution to achieving climate protection targets - Increase refurbishment rate to 2 percent per year In the draft budget presented by Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on 2 May 2018, the tax incentive [...]
Building products play an important role in the sustainability certification of buildings. After all, a large number of the criteria to be considered relate to their quality characteristics. To reduce the complexity of the necessary information, product labels can be helpful as independent proof of quality. With the new 2018 version of its certification system, the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) is introducing a procedure for the recognition of such product labels for the first time. For this, label providers must meet a number of requirements. Recognition can be based on three criteria within the DGNB system: responsible resource extraction, the avoidance of harmful and risky substances, and deconstruction and recycling friendliness. The first standards recognised by the DGNB are CSC, FSC, WOOD FROM HERE, Indoor Air Comfort Gold, PEFC and WiN=WiN Fair Stone.
The Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH) has presented a free tool for the individual design and holistic evaluation of tenant electricity concepts. These offer tenants in apartment buildings the opportunity to benefit from cheap renewable electricity generated on site. However, the economic viability depends on a large number of factors, which is why tenant electricity providers can hardly estimate whether [...]
Berlin: On 4 May 2018, BUND presented a shutdown plan for nuclear power plants (NPPs) and coal-fired power plants. This analysis shows that the decommissioning of the most climate-damaging coal-fired power plants by 2020 and a significant acceleration of the nuclear phase-out in Germany are possible without jeopardising security of supply. "The shutdown plan is a call to the political [...]
Since 1 May 2018, the amendments to the Hamburg Building Code (HBauO) have come into force. The resolution on this was passed in June 2017. In the future, wood can be used for construction projects with a height of up to 22 metres - i.e. approximately 6 to 7 storeys. Also in the area of [...]
The exhibition marking the halfway point of the IBA Heidelberg has opened: A rich accompanying programme attracted almost 1000 visitors from Thursday to Saturday, many of whom were visiting the exhibition venue, the Mark Twain Center in Heidelberg's Südstadt, for the first time.
Resilient Cities Congress of the Cities Network ICLEI in Bonn The Paris Climate Agreement involves all levels of government in addressing climate change. At the local level, these are cities and municipalities. The ICLEI network of cities, which includes 22 German cities, will meet in Bonn from 26 to 28 April for the [...]
The Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Transport is funding new charging stations for more e-mobility in the state with up to 40 percent. Not only municipalities are eligible to apply, but also companies that want to set up publicly accessible charging stations. In Saxony-Anhalt, funding applications for the installation of public e-charging stations can be submitted with immediate effect. With their publication in the ministerial gazette, the [...]
The Clouth Quarter, a project of the Cologne urban development company moderne stadt GmbH, was awarded a "polis AWARD" in silver (2nd prize) in the category "Social Neighbourhood Development". Around 100 local authorities, development companies, architects, property developers and initiatives such as building groups entered the competition. The awards were given to current projects from Germany, grouped in the categories of urban land recycling, [...]
"Nearly two million affordable homes are lacking. The situation is likely to get worse. Social housing must be promoted more strongly."
The "Alternative Economic Policy Working Group" has published its MEMORANDUM 2018 report. Price of the "black zero": distribution deficits and gaps in supply Germany, with its senseless ideology of austerity and cuts, has not yet arrived economically in the 21st century. The small-minded hucksterism of the ruling politicians is also slowing down the recovery in the European Union and the Eurozone. The [...]
On Saturday 14.4.2018, around 13,000 to 15,000 people took to the streets in Berlin under the slogan "Resistance - together against displacement and rent madness". 254 initiatives and organizations (see mietenwahnsinn.info/initiativen) called for the protest march. Many Berliners fear for their existence due to high housing costs.
Renewable energy growth varies widely from country to country / Greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union rose slightly last year / Agora Energiewende and Sandbag present report on EU energy transition Brussels, 30 January 2018. In 2017, wind, solar and biomass in the European Union generated [...]
Since 1999, ABG Frankfurt Holding has built around 3,000 apartments in passive house standard for residents from 180 nations, ranging from subsidized apartments to condominiums. Due to the low ancillary costs and the high living comfort, there are hardly any vacancies. "We build cheaper than the competition, which either doesn't want or can't do Passive House," [...]
While two large providers are planning a merger, another company is entering the market in Munich with Oply. But it is still unclear when the city will be able to actively promote the rental system. http://sz.de/1.3921869
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE presented the fourth edition of their study on the cost price of electricity from renewable energies on March 20, 2018. In it, they analyze current costs and forecast further developments based on technology-specific learning rates and market scenarios up to the year 2035. "The cost forecasts of the previous studies [...]
As of now, the 192-page guide of the AKP - Fachzeitschrift für Alternative Kommunal Politik can be purchased for 15 euros nominal fee plus shipping costs. Climate protection has long been a topic in the councils, climate change adaptation in many places not yet.
PolRess is a project of Freie Universität Berlin, the Environmental Policy Research Centre, together with Ecologic Institute and Öko-Institut.The project accompanies the process of implementing and updating the German Resource Efficiency Programme ProgRess with scientific studies. The analyses examine relevant actors and their positions on various fields of action and starting points of resource policy, instruments [...]
Demand Paper of the Alliance of Young Cooperatives Berlin of March 9, 2018 In order to advance the construction of affordable housing, an Alliance of Young Cooperatives was founded in Berlin in 2017. "Housing cooperatives have been a cornerstone of the socially responsible and affordable housing market in Berlin for well over 100 years," notes the cooperative board of Bremer Höhe and [...]
The Federal Environment Agency's publication "Urban Mining" was published in July 2017 and explains the possibilities of extracting raw materials in urban areas, for example from buildings, infrastructures and durable consumer and fixed assets. While waste management is essentially concerned with waste generation, urban mining looks at the total stock of durable goods. The aim is [...]
The Ministry of the Environment in Rhineland-Palatinate has launched the "1,000 efficient stoves for Rhineland-Palatinate" funding programme. As part of this, the replacement of old fireplaces with modern wood-burning systems is financially supported if they received approval between 1 January 1985 and 1 January 1995. The subsidy amounts to up to €800. The [...]
The new website was implemented by the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) as part of the project "Resource Policy at Municipal and Regional Level" (kommRess) on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency. Resource protection is becoming increasingly important in environmental policy. Against this background, the Federal Environment Ministry wants to provide greater support to municipalities in matters of resource efficiency. The [...]
Funding guideline comes into force on 1 March 2018 With the so-called small series guideline, the Federal Environment Ministry is launching a new funding programme as part of the National Climate Initiative. Funding is available for products and processes for climate protection that are already ready for the market but have not yet made the breakthrough. The guideline will enter into force on 1 March 2018 [...].
The state chairwoman of the Sozialverband Deutschland (SoVD), Jutta Kühl, and her deputy Sven Picker, together with the state chair of the Deutscher Mieterbund (DMB) Jochen Kiersch and the managing director Carsten Wendt, gave the starting signal for a popular initiative for affordable housing in Schleswig-Holstein at a press conference in the state house on Friday, February 16. The aim [...]
