Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung von Gebäuden

Sustainable Building Certification in Germany.

Sustainable building involves specific requirements to be met by construction. Its introduction implements a strategy for building works which will gear the design, construction and use of buildings and landholdings to sustainability. The main emphasis is put on ecological, economic and social aspects.
In 2009, the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Development (BMVBS) introduced the German Sustainable Building Certification [1]. It started after two testing phases in cooperation with technical societies and trade associations. The system provides a set of rules to be used as a tool for the planning and evaluation of buildings in a comprehensive perspective on quality. Compared to other international systems like LEED (USA) and BREEAM (UK) the German certification considers both the ecological and economical aspects of the life cycle of buildings [2].
The German system considers actual German rules and construction codes and simplifies the design of a sustainable building. Sustainable planning according to the German system automatically follows both planning as usual and at the same time the sustainable criteria. To fulfill sustainable demands for a designed building sustainable criteria have to be regarded from the beginning of the project [3]. At the same time it is necessary to have the knowledge about the evaluation of sustainable buildings. The guide to good practice of the German Society for Concrete and Construction Technology (DBV) [5] gives a survey on usual and additional knowledge needed for sustainable building. It presents contents and methods to follow and evaluate sustainable criteria. The practice of the system is explained by means of an example: a successful awarded German administration building.