Green buildings – a new building standard?

The trend toward sustainability is much more than a brief flare-up; it is a necessity to preserve our world for future generations. In addition to topics such as travel, food and driving, this also includes housing. And here there is great potential for improvement in the form of so-called green buildings.

Green buildings are less about color per se than about the many good qualities associated with the biophilic design. Various aspects play a role here, starting with the choice of environmentally friendly building materials in construction, through location decisions, to the topics of heating and electricity. In the meantime, there are at least many good approaches to the last two points. For example, every building that is newly constructed must now be energy efficient, which means it should not waste heat, be cheap to heat, and also have its own solar system on the roof to produce electricity. But that alone is not enough, environmental experts are sure.

Green buildings according to plan

Since 2000, around five million homeowners across Germany have completed energy-efficient building refurbishment. This is subsidized by the state and thus subject to strict guidelines. By 2050, these figures are set to rise significantly. According to the German government’s plans, only climate-neutral buildings will then be built throughout Germany. It remains to be seen whether this will work, but the first good approaches are there. The National Action Plan on Energy Efficiency (NAPE for short) is designed to implement these in a targeted manner. And because a plan alone is not enough, there is also the information sheet “Energy Efficiency Strategy for Buildings”. There, building owners, developers and architects can find all the information they need on the important topic of green buildings and learn how to implement them. The plans are mainly geared to the construction of new buildings, but a lot can also be made of existing buildings.

No green building without building materials

Of course, the implementation can not take place alone and it is strictly controlled. One important point is the Energy Saving Ordinance. Another is the possibility of climate-neutral construction and, if necessary, demolition. This requires certain building materials that do not contain environmentally harmful substances and come from sustainable sources. Currently, much of this revolves around wood, but stone can also be sustainable, especially if it has been recycled. The end and the beginning of any building chain. If you recycle as well as possible, you feed the old materials back into a new cycle.

However, there are still too few technical developments that make it possible to recycle really all materials cheaply and efficiently and make them ready for the next use in house construction. So before a real green building can take place, these paths must also be paved. And there is still a lack of innovations, plans and concrete approaches.

Decisions according recycled materials

It is therefore important to make decisions, such as these, dependent on what resources are available. Building experts have long since recognized this and have therefore worked out a kind of compromise. Green buildings cannot and do not have to be built and managed in a 100 percent climate-neutral way. There are significant deviations here. A building can be classified as green from as little as 30 percent, always depending on local conditions and technical progress. This will of course continue to progress in the coming years, as will the trend toward ever more climate-neutral construction.

The first buildings are already standing and serve as model projects. More are to follow soon on the basis of these examples, green buildings with environmentally friendly claim. Simple statistics show why this is so important, especially in the area of housing. According to these, housing is the strongest factor in terms of harmful effects on our environment. It is therefore particularly important to start right here and strive for change.

Image copyright: Archipoch

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