12:56 min, from 11/5/2020
Keywords: Construction and operating costs, Building materials / Construction, DE-News, Movies, Movies 11 to 45 Min, Wood construction, NaWaRohs, Economics
12:56 min, from 11/5/2020
In its meeting on 26 May 2020, the Rhineland-Palatinate Council of Ministers approved in principle a draft bill to amend, among other things, the Rhineland-Palatinate Building Code. The amendment of the state building code is intended to implement changes to the so-called model building code that have already been adopted or are in preparation.
The amendments to the State Building Code relate in particular to facilitations for building with wood, which the construction ministers of the federal states agreed on at the last Construction Ministers' Conference, according to the official Press release. "I very much welcome the expansion of the possible applications for wood as a material. Wood is a particularly sustainable, environmentally friendly building material that plays an important role in achieving national and international climate protection goals. Moreover, wood is extremely versatile. Components can be produced for all areas of application, and there are particular advantages, for example, for serial construction as well as for conversion and extension measures. Last but not least, wood often enables cost-effective construction and promotes regional forestry, especially in Rhineland-Palatinate. In Rhineland-Palatinate there are many successful, exemplary projects in timber construction," explained Construction Minister Doris Ahnen.
With the amendment of the State Building Code, the use of timber components in taller buildings (especially multi-storey residential buildings) is now to be made possible under certain conditions. Accordingly, wood can be used as a building material for buildings up to a height of 22 metres; previously the limit was 13 metres.
The draft law now goes into the participation and consultation procedure.
Source: PM from Holzbau Deutschland dated 27.5.2020
Keywords:
DE-News, Wood construction, News Blog RLP, Settlements, Environmental policy, Housing, Housing policy
Half of the city of Berlin belongs to multimillionaires. This is the conclusion of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's current study entitled "Who owns the city? Analysis of owner groups and their business practices on the Berlin real estate market".
This is the first systematic evaluation of property ownership in Berlin and the various business models behind it. It opens the black box of large private property owners, about whom little has been known until now. The study describes hitherto unknown owners with more than 3,000 apartments as well as those who are below this threshold and about whom little is known so far.
"The study dispels the myth of the nice little private landlord as the main player in the real estate market, as well as the myth that selling condominiums to owner-occupants under current conditions contributes to social security and affordable housing," says study author Christoph Trautvetter, head of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's "Who owns the city?" project.
The uninterrupted price increases on the housing market bring the owners immense unearned returns of sometimes more than 20 percent a year. The study also compares business figures and practices of listed housing companies with their state-owned and cooperative counterparts.
"The sell-out of the city continues, although politically, especially by the Red-Red-Green Party, it is being resisted: for example, through the municipal right of first refusal, but also through the scandalisation of share deals and initiatives for more transparency. In the real estate market, both financial resources and access to information are very unevenly distributed. With its study on the disclosure of the ownership of real estate in Berlin, the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is doing important political education work and is thus providing actors with the tools they need to inform themselves and defend themselves against the sell-off of their city," says Daniela Trochowski, executive director of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.
The trial will be held on November 10, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. via Livestream will be presented. Participants: Christoph Trautvetter (author of the study, project leader "RLS-Cities - Who owns the city?"), Daniela Trochowski (executive director of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation), Carsten Schatz (co-chair of the parliamentary group DIE LINKE in the Berlin House of Representatives), Rouzbeh Taheri (representative of the IniForum Berlin and spokesperson for "Expropriating Deutsche Wohnen and Co"). Stefan Thimmel (Housing and Urban Policy Officer at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation) will moderate.
Tenants can also contact www.wemgehoertdiestadt.de can dive into the data of the research with just a few clicks. The website contains further data on the owners presented in the study and on more than two hundred other players in the Berlin real estate market. It thus makes it easier for tenants to search for further clues about the homeowners on the basis of their address or the company they know.
Source: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation PM of 10.11.2020
Keywords:
Stock, DE-News, Research, New books and studies, News Blog Berlin, Affordable housing, City, Housing, Housing policy
The nationwide Forest and Wood Competence and Information Centre started its work on 1 January 2019.
On behalf of the BMEL, the Competence Centre will support the FNR as project management agency for the funding programme Renewable Resources. In addition, the KIWUH is responsible for technical and consumer information on the topics of forests, sustainable forestry and wood use and their contribution to climate protection.
A second important funding pillar, which will be newly established in the KIWUH, is the project sponsorship of the FNR for the Forest Climate Fund, which is jointly managed by the BMEL and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). This fund, established in 2013, is dedicated to the specific promotion of measures to adapt forests to climate change and to maintain and expand CO2-reduction potential of forests and wood.
The Competence and Information Centre, with a total of 41 employees, is a department within the FNR based in Gülzow-Prüzen in Mecklenburg. The head of the department is Marcus Kühling, a graduate forest scientist.
"The World Climate Conference in December 2018 has once again brought home to us the urgent need for action to preserve forest ecosystems and for a sustainable forestry and timber industry for the benefit of climate and species protection," says Marcus Kühling. "The forestry and timber sector is one of the key industries on the way to an economically, ecologically and socially sustainable society. Stable and naturally managed forests are not only an indispensable supplier of raw materials with a view to conserving and replacing finite resources. They are habitats for many protected animal and plant species and the most important recreational space for people."
Background:
With the Competence and Information Centre for Forests and Wood (KIWUH), the Federal Government is responding to the growing public need for information on issues of sustainable forest management and intelligent wood use identified in the Forest Strategy 2020 and the Climate Protection Plan 2050.
With the transfer of the project sponsorship for the "Forest Climate Fund" to the FNR, the KIWUH takes over a total of over 150 ongoing research projects with a funding volume of around 50 million euros.
(Further information under www.waldklimafonds.de)
From the Promotion programme "Renewable raw materials currently supports more than 100 projects aimed at strengthening sustainable forestry and safeguarding forest functions, as well as more than 70 other projects on sustainable timber management, with a total funding volume of around 25 million euros. Research fields here include, for example, the breeding of forest seeds that meet new climate and usage requirements, the development of strategies for optimising "near-natural silviculture" for the supply of raw materials, the development of environmentally friendly insulation and building materials based on the renewable raw material wood, or the social dialogue on the bioeconomy and sustainability.
The Agency for Renewable Resources has been active for 25 years as the BMEL's project management agency for the "Renewable Resources" funding programme. The FNR has been supporting research topics in the fields of sustainable forestry and innovative wood use since its foundation. Since 2016, the FNR has also been entrusted with the operational tasks of implementing the German Forest Days and the Charter for Wood 2.0. It also provides specialist information and public relations work.
Source: PM of the FNR from 3.1.2019
Keywords:
Stakeholders, Wood construction, Climate protection, News Blog Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
The German Habitat Forum ended today with the "Berlin Recommendations". Thomas Silberhorn, Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Gunther Adler, State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, handed over the recommendations to the Secretary General of the Habitat III Conference, Joan Clos. The "Berlin Recommendations" are intended as a contribution to the new urban development agenda that the United Nations plans to adopt in October at the third World Summit on Human Settlements in Quito, Ecuador.
Thomas Silberhorn: "Decisions made by today's urban planners will shape the way we live together in cities for decades to come. That is why we have to set the right course now. Our meeting in Berlin has shown: Sustainable urban development is not possible without innovative ideas, partnership, networked thinking and action. The key role is played by local actors - a powerful municipal administration, non-governmental organisations, business and science, and citizens.
More than 1,000 urban development experts, municipal representatives and personalities from politics, business, science and civil society from all over the world had spent two days at the German Habitat Forum developing recommendations on how to shape a liveable future in cities. Sustainable urban development combines many aspects: urban climate and environmental protection, social balance, safety and quality of life for all citizens. For this, according to the recommendations, cities and municipalities must be even more strongly recognised, empowered and financially equipped as central development actors at national and international level.
A final preparatory conference for the Habitat Summit will take place in Surabaya, Indonesia, at the end of July. Based on the principles "Liveable cities - cities capable of action - integrated urban solutions", Germany will there support the negotiations of the New Urban Agenda push forward.
You can download the "Berlin Recommendations" from the following link: www.bmz.de/berlinerempfehlungen (PDF 135 KB, English)
Source: BMZ press release of 02.06.2016
Keywords:
Habitat, New books and studies, News Blog Europe (without DE), City, UN (United Nations), Environmental policy, Housing policy