Min. 4:56; Video from 18.02.2020; Ed.: GBG Mannheim
Project Info: http://sdg21.eu/db/quartier-franklin-in-mannheim
"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.
Source: Holzbau Deutschland-PM from 5.3.2021
Keywords:
Building materials / Construction, Procurement, DE-News, Wood construction, Climate protection, NaWaRohs, Sustainable management, Quarters, Resource efficiency, Settlements, City, Housing
The Federal Cabinet today approved the draft of a timber construction initiative presented by Federal Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz and Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir. This strategy of the Federal Government is intended to strengthen the use of wood as a sustainable raw material in the construction sector and to ensure more climate protection, resource efficiency and faster construction. With eight fields of action, from the exemplary role of the federal government and the strengthening of research and innovation, to securing skilled labour and knowledge transfer, to securing the supply of raw materials, the use of wood is to be significantly improved and the timber construction quota increased by 2030.
Obstacles are removed and equal competitive opportunities for the use of a wide variety of building materials are ensured. The fields of action of the timber construction initiative describe priority topics and approaches to solutions that are implemented by the relevant federal ministries under their own responsibility and subject to the budget funds made available.
About seven per cent of the CO2-emissions in Germany come from the construction and modernisation of buildings. Since trees in the growth phase CO2 bind, the carbon is permanently stored with the wood used in the building. At the same time, wood is suitable for serial and modular building. With this construction method, shorter production and construction times are achieved by means of prefabrication, which means that affordable housing is created more quickly.
Klara Geywitz, Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Construction: To create more affordable and good housing in which people feel comfortable, we want to improve serial and modular construction. Wood is particularly suitable here. It is light, versatile, durable and reusable. The wooden roof trusses, half-timbered constructions and wooden houses of earlier generations demonstrate this. At the same time, local wood is on our doorstep. Using this saves transport costs, increases regional added value and improves the local economic cycle.
Furthermore, wood is popular. It creates a good indoor climate, people feel comfortable in buildings made of wood. Countries like Switzerland, Austria, Sweden or Finland show how well wood can be used in modern buildings. With the timber construction initiative, we show the great diversity of this raw material and want to strengthen the sustainable use of wood in our country.
Cem Özdemir, Federal Minister of Agriculture and Food: The forest is our natural ally in the fight against the climate crisis - it extracts the climate-damaging CO2 and binds carbon in the wood. Our goal is to use wood for as long as possible. Every new wooden building is a CO2-In comparison to other construction methods, up to 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions can be saved - a real win-win situation for the climate and our forest. We urgently need this, because the consequences of the climate crisis have already weakened and damaged our forest. The timber construction initiative also helps to ensure that the wood from the necessary forest conversion and from forest damage is utilised in a high-quality and sustainable manner. This helps the forest owners and the many businesses in the forestry and timber industry, especially in rural areas..
Worldwide, but also in Europe and Germany, the last few years have seen impressive buildings made of wood and in wood hybrid construction emerged. Nevertheless, the timber construction quota in Germany remains below the possible level. While a rate of 26 percent has already been achieved in single- and two-family house construction throughout Germany, it is still below five percent in multi-storey residential construction. One of the aims of the timber construction initiative is to tap this potential. At the same time, the timber construction initiative sends a strong signal for the necessary transformation and decarbonisation of the economy.
Various dialogue formats with the federal states and associations are planned to implement the timber construction initiative. An initial kick-off event will be held in Berlin on 10 October 2023 with the participation of the two Federal Ministers Klara Geywitz and Cem Özdemir.
A core element of this is the establishment of a regular "Federal Timber Construction Round Table" for the transfer of knowledge and exchange of experience with the Länder and municipal umbrella organisations.
The detailed timber construction initiative and further information can be found here:
www.bmwsb.bund.de/holzbauinitiative
Source: PM 21 June 2023
Keywords:
Procurement, CO2-neutral, DE-News, Funding, Wood construction, Climate emergency, Climate protection, NaWaRohs, Sustainable management, Affordable housing, Quarters, Settlements, Environmental policy, Housing
Broadcast: 11.12.2016
Talk: KenFM
Running time: 1 h 37 min 31 s
Table of contents:
00:10:25 The secret of trees: the perfect cycle
00:27:13 Lunar wood: How the moon influences growth
00:37:52 Real energy transition
00:41:16 Energy self-sufficient houses and: Why wood does not burn
00:50:06 Common good, big corporations and tax avoidance
01:02:55 Modern Thermodynamics: The Red Forest Ant Model
01:14:27 Diversity, role model, forest: the perfect cooperation network
01:20:57 The notion of sustainability in action
01:32:34 Man: part of nature or its master
Keywords:
DE-News, Wood construction
North Rhine-Westphalia is the world's largest public issuer of sustainability bonds / Minister President Laschet: North Rhine-Westphalia is committed to a future in which ecology and economy are responsibly compatible
The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia has adopted an updated sustainability strategy that has been supplemented with important topics for the future. With a wide range of goals and measures, the strategy shows the way to sustainable living and economic activity in the most populous federal state. The strategy was developed in cooperation with all ministries of the state government under the leadership of the Ministry of the Environment. The state government will appoint a sustainability advisory board to accompany the implementation, evaluation and further development of the sustainability strategy.
Minister President Armin Laschet: "With the newly presented sustainability strategy based on the 17 UN goals, North Rhine-Westphalia is making concrete contributions to the integrity of creation and to sustainable economic activity. North Rhine-Westphalia is a pioneering state: we show how sustainability can succeed here in a highly developed and densely populated industrial state in the heart of Europe. In this way, we can set an example worldwide. North Rhine-Westphalia is committed to a future in which ecology and economy are responsibly compatible."
"By positioning ourselves sustainably as a society and economy, we are shaping the future and future markets. Each and every individual can make a contribution to this in this decade of sustainability," says Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser: "At the same time, the new strategy is also a central guard rail for the way out of the corona pandemic. This must be linked to tangible steps towards sustainability so that the economy can not only recover, but North Rhine-Westphalia can emerge from the crisis more climate-friendly, resource-efficient and sustainable."
The core of the new sustainability strategy is a set of 67 concrete goals and indicators. These are closely interlinked with the goals at federal level and are based on the global sustainability goals adopted by the United Nations on 25 September 2015 with the worldwide Agenda 2030. Ecology, economy and social coexistence are given equal consideration.
World's largest public issuer of sustainability bonds
Among other things, North Rhine-Westphalia plays a pioneering role in the issuance of sustainability bonds. In recent years, North Rhine-Westphalia has placed six sustainability bonds with a total volume of almost eleven billion euros on the financial markets. This makes North Rhine-Westphalia the largest public issuer of sustainability bonds worldwide and the first and so far only German state to issue bonds in this area. The multiple awards with industry prizes confirm the success of the state's sustainability bonds.
"The sustainability principle is particularly important to us - economically and politically," affirms Lutz Lienenkämper, Minister of Finance. "We achieve high demand on the market and at the same time enable important investments for the future of our country."
Wide range of targets and indicators
The spectrum of goals and indicators ranges from an increase in organic farming to 20 percent of agricultural land, to strengthening the environmental economy as an important future segment, to a minimum investment of 3.5 percent of GDP in innovations and solutions for the future. Other indicators describe the expansion of all-day care at primary school age and the increase in raw material productivity by 2030. In addition, the strategy includes important future topics such as digitalisation, the circular economy and electromobility.
Further information on the sustainability bonds
With the sustainability bond, the country is addressing investors who value a financial investment that supports social and ecological concepts. The investors' money flows into sustainable projects of the state from a total of seven project categories. These include, for example, exemption from contributions for the last year of kindergarten and the expansion of cycle paths and broadband infrastructure. The pension fund of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is also managed 100 percent sustainably. The state pursues the goals of security, profitability and sustainability in its investment decisions.
The requirements for sustainable capital investments include both general ESG criteria (Environment, Social, Governance - ESG) and targeted criteria for the exclusion of ethically or ecologically particularly problematic business practices. This is how sustainable management with improved environmental standards succeeds in the industrial and energy state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The state invests exclusively in companies that are among the best rated in the areas of ecology, social affairs and corporate governance on the basis of numerous key figures. In particular, international norms and standards for the protection of the environment as well as ethical and social criteria formulated by the UN apply.
Keywords:
News Blog NRW, SDG 2030, Environmental policy
