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Add to Preferred SourcesSustainability has many facets, one of which is building and construction. In Germany, the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) assesses buildings in six different areas of sustainability and certifies them according to how well these are fulfilled.
It recently awarded its gold rating to Campus Kottenforst, a building complex in Bonn-Röttgen owned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
To achieve the gold rating, a building must score higher than 65% in DGNB’s assessment system, which comprises 37 criteria. GIZ’s campus building achieved more than 74% overall, and in some areas such as economic efficiency, it scored almost 90%.
The centre generates 35% less CO2 than traditionally constructed buildings. Minimising energy consumption is also important: a heat pump used in the building enables geothermal energy to be used for heating. In the summer, the pump conveys heat back into the ground – this cools the building in a way that is better for people’s health, as the harmful coolants used in traditional air-conditioning systems are not required.
By building sustainably, GIZ is implementing climate change mitigation within the company itself, in keeping with its aim of becoming climate neutral by 2020. The Meander Building in Bonn, which opened in 2015, also received a gold rating from the DGNB. The new campus building in Bonn, which is scheduled to open at the end of this year, also complies with state-of-the-art standards for sustainable construction.
Original source: GIZ
Published on 07 August 2019