Plus-energy and zero-emission house "ZebLab" in Trondheim

Published 6 May 2020

Length 1 min.
Time-lapse of the construction of the ZEB Lab in Trondheim (Norway) until April 2020

Completion: May 2020

Address
ZEB laboratory
Address: Att. SINTEF Community
Høyskoleringen 7B, 7034 Trondheim, NORWAY
www.sintef.no/community

Links
Project: https://zeblab.no/
Photos: https://zeblab.no/photos
https://blog.sintef.com/…thermal-batteries-with-biowax…

Keywords: CO2-neutral, Energy storage, Movies, Movies < 4 Min, Building, University, Wood construction, NaWaRohs, News Blog Europe (without DE), News Blog Norway, PV, PlusEnergy house/settlement

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

Published 15 May 2018

Successful urban development funding needs sufficient staff and simple procedures

Difu study provides recommendations for more effective use of funding in NRW

Staff shortages 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 an important finding of a study conducted by the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) on behalf of the then Ministry of Building, Housing, Urban Development and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia (now: Ministry of Home Affairs, Local Government, Building and Equality).

In the past ten years, about 83 percent of the municipalities in NRW used urban development funds. Due to a very high number of project applications - with a total volume of around 1.45 billion euros - four to five times more funds were applied for than were originally earmarked. This illustrates the high demand of the municipalities and at the same time the fundamental acceptance of the existing funding instruments.

However, more than 80 per cent of the cities and municipalities surveyed criticise the public procurement law, as the resulting administrative burden is a key obstacle for them in making smooth use of urban development funding. In addition, the municipalities surveyed believe that there are generally major staffing bottlenecks. Many municipalities also feel that the cost calculations for funding measures that have to be submitted with the application are too time-consuming and detailed. This is also due to the fact that multi-year forecasts are always subject to uncertainties regarding the actual time allocation by the funding agencies, price developments and possible unforeseeable developments.

Based on the results of its survey of North Rhine-Westphalian municipalities, Difu therefore recommends dispensing with new programmes in favour of merging and/or redesigning the existing federal-state programmes for urban development funding. In addition, the existing procedures should be made more flexible. This applies in particular to the application for and settlement of funding by the municipalities with the state. However, the municipalities must also make their contribution: urban development funding must be a "matter for the boss" and requires sufficient personnel resources and continuous cooperation between all the departments and treasuries involved in the cities and municipalities. However, the municipalities need support from the state to build up sufficient personnel capacities in the technical areas.

The study is available as a print version or pdf:
https://difu.de/publikationen/2018/staedtebaufoerderung-in-nrw

Keywords:
Renewable, Funding, Climate protection, News Blog NRW, Housing policy

Published 2 October 2020

UmweltBank develops sustainable urban quarter in Nuremberg

Joint venture of Pegasus Capital Partners and Art-Invest Real Estate sells former GfK property for ecological new building project

UmweltBank has acquired the former GfK site on Nuremberg's Nordwestring. The company is planning an ecologically and socially sustainable urban quarter with housing, a daycare center, commercial space and public green areas. The new headquarters of the green bank will also be part of the quarter. The previous owner, a joint venture of Pegasus Capital Partners and Art-Invest Real Estate, had already developed an urban development concept in recent years and coordinated it with the City of Nuremberg. UmweltBank would like to further develop this concept in line with its own requirements in close cooperation with the city.

Having already acquired part of the site at the corner of Nordwestring and Bielefelder Straße last year for the construction of its new headquarters, UmweltBank has now purchased the entire former GfK site in a second step. "We deliberately chose this location for our headquarters because it has excellent public transport links and, with the site already developed, we are avoiding further land consumption," explains UmweltBank Board Member Goran Bašić. "It is a real stroke of luck that we now get the opportunity to also design the area around our building as a green piece of Nuremberg."

Dr. Matthias Hubert, Managing Partner of Pegasus Capital Partners adds: "The Nuremberg metropolitan region is and remains one of the strongest economic areas in the entire Federal Republic. Through the urban development concept developed together with Art-Invest Real Estate at the former GfK site, we have created excellent foundations for the development of a modern ecological urban quarter."

Liveable living and working environments for the north of Nuremberg
The planning for the new quarter is still in its infancy: UmweltBank is currently reviewing and evaluating the status of the plans to date for opportunities for further development. The aim is to build a sustainable and liveable urban quarter in accordance with high ecological and social standards. Plans include social and affordable housing as well as housing for students, a daycare centre, commercial space and public play and green areas.

"We are looking forward to the future development of the quarter and are excited to see how UmweltBank will shape the district in the long term with its corporate philosophy and focus on innovation and sustainability," said Tobias Wilhelm, branch manager of Art-Invest Real Estate in Munich.

A Europe-wide architectural competition is currently underway for the new UmweltBank building. The results will be published at the beginning of October. Ecological aspects in particular play an important role in the awarding of prizes, such as the use of renewable raw materials and renewable energies as well as the recyclability of the building materials used. The best designs and the winning model will be on display in the UmweltBank foyer on Laufertorgraben from mid-October.

About Art-Invest Real Estate
Art-Invest Real Estate is a long-term oriented investor, asset manager and project developer of real estate in good locations with value creation potential. The focus is on metropolitan regions in Germany, Austria and Great Britain. Art-Invest Real Estate pursues a "Manage to Core" investment strategy with institutional investors, selected joint venture partners as well as with its own capital. The range of investments spans the entire return and risk spectrum in the office, city centre retail, hotel, residential and data centre sectors. In total, Art-Invest Real Estate currently manages real estate assets of around €6 billion.

About Pegasus Capital Partners GmbH
Pegasus Capital Partners is a real estate investment specialist based in Erlangen. In addition to providing equity or equity-replacing funds (mezzanine capital), Pegasus supports projects in new construction and portfolio development. To date, Pegasus has more than 40 project investments with a total volume of around two billion euros. The focus is on project and portfolio developments in the German metropolitan regions, economically prosperous B-regions, southern Germany and the Austrian capital Vienna.

About UmweltBank AG
UmweltBank is an independent private bank owned by around 12,000 shareholders. For more than 20 years, it has combined finance with ecological and social responsibility. It has committed itself to environmental protection not only with its name, but also in its articles of association. At no other bank can investors put their money to work in such a consistently environmentally friendly way. Germany's greenest bank has already financed over 23,500 environmental projects with low-interest development loans.

At UmweltBank, relieving the burden on nature and financial success are equally important goals. This is why it regularly publishes its results in an integrated sustainability and annual report. The company measures its success not only in terms of key economic figures, but also in terms of the CO2 emissions saved by financing innovative environmental projects.

Source: PM of UmweltBank Nuremberg from 22.9.2020

Keywords:
DE-News, News Blog Bavaria, Mix of uses, Quarters