Climate change is also a key challenge for the construction industry. We are aware of our responsibility as a company, which is why we have firmly anchored the topic of sustainability in our guidelines.
We understand sustainability holistically. That is why, beyond climate and environmental protection and economics, all the aspects that affect people are important to us - in our company and, with our socio-cultural commitment, beyond.
Sustainability report (german)
With the Sustainability Report 2021 we would like to explain how we proceed when constructing buildings in our own value chain. Starting with planning, production and construction right up to certification.
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DGNB Certificate
The German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen e.V.) has made it its mission to promote sustainability across the construction and real estate sectors and reinforce awareness of the need for sustainable building among the general public. It seeks to show how the built environment can be sustainably planned, designed, constructed and used. To that end, the DGNB makes its expertise available for investors, developers, architects, planners and contractors. It also seeks to highlight the benefits for society that result from the development of a sustainable, liveable built environment. Also: an international certification system with specifications defined in writing makes sustainability a measurable and assessable concept. The result is transparency and comparability.
To put this mission into practice, the DGNB applies the three pillar model of sustainability to the construction industry and adds three more criteria: technical quality, process quality and site quality.
The advantages, especially for developers and investors
1.
Construction of sustainable buildings for proactive environmental protection
2.
Faster and cheaper access to credit due to prospect of certification
3.
Clear design and construction specifications for quality assurance
4.
Sound basis for value retention
5.
Transparent quality for enhanced sale and lease opportunities
6.
Simpler verification procedures for all subsequently planned and constructed buildings
7.
Significantly reduced documentation requirements and swifter processing
8.
Faster certification
9.
Less pressure on project budget due to lower certification expenses
DGNB Multiple Certification
DGNB multiple certification was introduced to cater for structurally identical buildings that are constructed on different sites. Evaluation is performed on the basis of a set of construction and performance specifications that are common to all sites. Our logistics buildings have already been awarded a gold base certificate on this basis for DGNB multiple certification (NLO15).
That certification is based on six reference projects that permit a project-specific individual DGNB certificate in gold to be awarded for new buildings in the logistics centre category, provided that they conform to the reference project standards. This means that the buildings may differ in appearance and in the number of storeys but the basic framework of their internal structures and features is always similar.
DGNB Klimapositiv
Following DGNB certification, the building can subsequently be checked for the “DGNB Klimapositiv” label. This certification is carried out 1 year after the building is put into operation. The actual consumption of the building is taken into account and it is checked whether the building is operated in a climate-neutral manner from an energy perspective. By using heat pump technologies and PV systems, a climate-positive building can be created according to DGNB criteria.
MADASTER
The Madaster database is an online database aiming to provide similarly relevant information for building construction as cadastres do for real estate. Madaster acts as a library of materials in the built environment. It links the material identities to the location and records them in a Material Passport. This shows a circular and a financial value for property owners and managers.
The circular value provides information on the reusability of materials and their toxicity. For property owners, the Material Passport offers security, as the market value of the property can be calculated in detail at any time via the used resources and their values. Tax depreciation can be limited to a calculated residual value via the material value.
This allows us to support our clients not only in the design of environmentally sustainable buildings, but also in issues of EU taxonomy and ESG compliance. The aim of Madaster Fundation is to keep materials available in all economic cycles (urban mining). Buildings which are planned and constructed according to the circular principle from the beginning benefit from this. In the future, the resource passport of a building will be of similar relevance as the energy certificate, also in relation to current political goals.
We are glad to support MADASTER as an innovation partner.
ESG assessment
The abbreviation ESG stands for "Environmental, Social, Governance" and has its origins in the EU taxonomy. ESG is an EU-wide rating system for buildings of all kinds. It makes buildings more comparable, not only on a national, but also on an international level.
An ideal basis for this assessment is a simultaneous DGNB gold certification, as the ESG assessment is also checked via the German Sustainable Building Council.
Members of our team are currently being trained as ESG managers via the DGNB so that we can support our clients even more effectively in the future with an appropriate ESG assessment.
KFN & QNG
Some of our projects also receive funding in accordance with the "Climate-friendly new building" (KFN) guideline. For this, the building must achieve the energy quality of an efficiency building 40 and a life cycle analysis (LCA) has to be carried out too. Fossil energy generators must not be installed.
For a QNG certification, a simultaneous DGNB certification forms a solid basis, as many of the relevant topics are already assessed here. The responsible DGNB auditor also acts as a sustainability expert, who is required by the QNGS regulations.
Building Simulation
In the future, the importance of holistic building simulations will increase. The calculations use location-specific climate data sets, internal energetic loads can be taken into account and a detailed representation of the system technology is also possible. Building simulation can significantly increase the energy efficiency of the building.
At BREMER, building simulation is already used as part of DGNB certification. For this purpose, thermal comfort is assessed, and a corresponding daylight simulation is conducted.
