Participation possible until 15 August
In the Eifel forest and timber region, timber construction has a distinctive tradition. After 2008, 2012 and 2016, the Eifel Timber Construction Prize will be awarded for the fourth time.
https://informationsdienst-holz.de/details/holzbaupreis-eifel-2020-ausgelobt
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
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 federal and state governments have jointly developed a new structure for urban development funding from 2020: A total of €790 million will be available in three (instead of the previous six) concentrated urban development funding programmes. In addition to the funding requirement of climate change/climate adaptation, including urban greening, the possibility of stronger inter-municipal cooperation has also been added.
A further 200 million euros are available in the "Social Integration in the Neighbourhood" investment pact. This will enable the municipalities to press ahead with the expansion and refurbishment of their social infrastructure.
Federal Minister of the Interior Seehofer signed the corresponding administrative agreements today. Federal funding for urban development and social integration will thus be stabilised at a high level.
Federal Minister of the Interior Seehofer: "We are streamlining our funding structure. This will make it easier for cities and municipalities to implement their projects. In addition, climate protection will become a funding requirement. Urban development funding without climate protection will no longer exist in the future."
The following federal-state urban development programs are available for the 2020 funding year:
The administrative agreements will enter into force as soon as all federal states have countersigned.
The urban development funding provided by the federal and state governments triggers considerable follow-up investments. For the year 2020, it is assumed that the total investment volume triggered by the funding will be around 12 billion euros, and the expected gross value added will be around 14 billion euros. The subsidies also support the small and medium-sized local economy to a large extent: approx. 36 percent of the expected construction volume remains in the municipality itself, another approx. 48 percent in the region with a radius of 50 km. The construction industry benefits from this with 71 percent of the implemented investment funds.
Source: PM of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for building and homeland (BMI) from 19.12.2019
Keywords:
DE-News, Funding, Quarters, Settlements, Housing policy
The city of Frankfurt is initiating the largest urban development project of recent decades: In the northwest, 550 hectares of current agricultural land between the Frankfurt districts of Niederursel and Praunheim and the neighboring towns of Steinbach and Oberursel are to be turned into a neighborhood with up to 11,400 apartments.
It will be interesting to see whether sustainability criteria will play a role in the new district. Frankfurt is well positioned in the energy sector, but in the other areas I see a need to catch up compared to other municipalities.
Further information on the construction site:
www.immobilien-zeitung.de/1000043938/frankfurt-will-neuen-stadtteil-auf-550-ha-bauen
Keywords:
News Blog Hesse, Quarters, Settlements, XXL settlements
