Sustainable Building

Guidance for the building and construction industry

Tomorrow's built environment should be climate-neutral, resource- and energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and healthy. It should combine ecological concerns with social and cultural aspects as well as economic efficiency – in short, it should be sustainable.

This requires a new way of thinking by building owners, specifiers, designers, manufacturers, contractors and the authorities. But where do we start?

Some basic requirements pertaining to the environmental and health impacts of construction products and the built environment are set out in the Building Codes in conjunction with the Technical Building Rules. These include, in particular:

• Annex 8 'Requirements for construction works in relation to health protection (ABG)' of the Model Administrative Provisions – Technical Building Rules*
• Annex 10 'Requirements for construction works relating to impact on soil and water (ABuG)' of the Model Administrative Provisions – Technical Building Rules*

* Reference is made here generally to the Model Administrative Provisions – Technical Building Rules (MVV TB). Please note that the state-specific implementation is governed by the Administrative Provisions – Technical Building Rules of the relevant federal state (VV TB).

The construction of storage, filling and handling facilities for substances hazardous to water as well as wastewater treatment plants has to comply with building and water regulations. For further information about this area, please see our topic page Facility-based water protection.

Construction products containing mineral primary raw materials and residues may fall under the radiation protection regulations. A separate page provides information on Protection against radiation from construction products.

Energy requirements for residential and non-residential buildings as well as for air-conditioning and heating technology are laid down in the Building Energy Act and associated legislation. For further information, please visit the Energy efficiency portal of the BBSR. DIBt's tasks with respect to the Registration of energy performance certificates are explained on our website.

The Building Codes and regulations do not detail specific implementing provisions for sustainability and circular economy. Implementation is based on voluntary initiatives and approaches. Some of them are presented below. All approaches have in common that they are an important first step.

Construction industry associations now publish guides and guidelines for sustainable building (sources of information) to provide building professionals with what they consider to be helpful tools with which to design and build sustainably. As a service to the construction industry, DIBt has begun to collect such sources of information about sustainable building and compile them on this page. The choice of information sources made here does not imply endorsement of the content and does not claim to be exhaustive. Please feel free to send us your comments and suggestions.

Concrete structures

• DAfStb webpage Building Sustainably with Concrete (German), including design guideline of the same name

Walls, roofs, facades and outdoor facilities

• UBA webpage Decision Aids: Reducing the Use of Biocides in Facades (German) with instruction leaflets and information on the Blue Angel (Blauer Engel) for external thermal insulation composite systems
• Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing Berlin: Rainwater Management Concepts, Greening and Cooling Buildings – Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance Guidelines (PDF, German)
• Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection (editor):
  Guideline for Water-Protective Housing Development (German) 

Timber construction

• Wood Preservation for Structural Solid Timber (PDF, German)
  published by Holzabsatzfonds and the Verbund der deutschen Sägeindustrie and available at Informationsdienst Holz

Further design guidelines are available on the WECOBIS – Information system on ecological building materials (German).

Sustainable building begins with an environmentally and health-friendly, sustainable building design and the selection of appropriate products …

To begin with: What information do DIBt approvals, construction technique permits, ETAs and evaluations offer?

The national technical approvals, general construction technique permits and evaluations provided by DIBt consider all aspects for which regulatory requirements exist (see also section 'Legal requirements' above). For the construction products and construction techniques specified in the WasBauPVO Ordinance (PDF, German), the regulatory verifications and approvals granted under building law also serve as evidence of the fulfilment of water law requirements.

The contribution of construction products to sustainable building can also be assessed and declared by means of a European Technical Assessment (ETA). Pursuant to the Construction Products Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 305/2011), the assessment of product performance is possible in relation to the basic requirements 'Hygiene, health and environmental protection' (BWR 3), 'Energy economy and heat retention' (BWR 6) and 'Sustainable use of natural resources' (BWR 7). The CPR Acquis process currently underway and the revision of the Construction Products Regulation is expected to strengthen the reporting of product performance pertaining to environmental and health protection, circular economy and sustainability in general.

DIBt approvals, construction technique permits, evaluations and ETAs with an evaluation of environmental and health protection aspects or water protection aspects can be found on our Information portal for construction products and construction techniques, especially in the areas of

• Health protection (construction products with relevance for indoor air)
• Products in contact with soil and groundwater e.g. Soil injection products or Curtain injections
• Facility-based water protection

For those, who would like to go beyond what is required and use voluntary systems for selecting ecological construction materials, the Blue Angel (Blauer Engel) or the WECOBIS information system, among others, may prove helpful.

There is a range of assessment and certification systems available to evaluate a building's or construction project's performance from a sustainability perspective. At the national level, these include the Federal Assessment System for Sustainable Building (BNB) or the DGNB certification system for sustainable buildings and districts. Internationally others may be mentioned, such as BREEAM and LEED.

Green Deal

Many publications on sustainability currently refer to the EU's Green Deal. But what are the approaches, impulses and ideas that it holds for the construction industry? An overview:

The European Green Deal is a cross-sector initiative presented by the European Commission in December 2019 with the core objectives of

• making Europe climate neutral by 2050 and
• establishing a circular economy in which economic growth is decoupled from resource use.

In the construction sector, efforts in this direction date back to mid-2012, when the European Commission presented a 'Strategy for the sustainable competitiveness of the construction sector and its enterprises', the so-called 'Construction 2020' action plan. This plan envisaged, among other things, the creation of a European framework for assessing the sustainability performance of buildings (see Level(s)) and an improvement in waste management (see Circular Economy Action Plan).

Further information:
Green Deal website of the European Commission

In March 2020, the European Commission presented a new action plan for a forward-looking circular economy, which is one of the key building blocks of the Green Deal and continues the work of the first action plan from 2015. The aim is to move towards a circular economy where production and services result in the resources used remaining in the EU economy for as long as possible. The action plan includes an overview and a time schedule and announces measures along the entire life cycle of buildings.

Further information:
Communication from the European Commission 'A new circular economy action plan – For a cleaner and more competitive Europe' (PDF) with Annex (PDF)

In 2017 the Commission launched Level(s) and thereby created an EU framework for assessing and reporting the sustainability performance of buildings throughout their life cycle – from design and construction to use and end-of-life. Level(s) thereby builds up on the goals of the Green Deal and the EU's Circular Economy Action Plan and supports the construction sector's efforts to reduce the consumption of resources and energy.

Level(s) is not about creating a new certification system for buildings. Rather, the voluntary assessment and reporting framework is intended to provide a 'common European language' to report the sustainability performance of buildings and make it comparable, as well as to identify opportunities for improvement from design to the end of the life cycle. Level(s) is based on six macro-objectives for sustainability:

• Greenhouse gas emissions along a building's life cycle
• Resource efficient and circular material life cycles
• Efficient use of water resources
• Healthy and comfortable spaces
• Adaptation and resilience to climate change
• Optimised life cycle cost and value

and tracks these through 16 indicators.

Level(s) is a voluntary instrument which, after a two-year test phase, was published in its final version in October 2020 and can thus be rolled out.

Further information:

• Level(s) website of the European Commission
• Joint Research Centre manuals and guidance on Levels

The renovation wave is an initiative based on the Green Deal published by the European Commission in October 2020 to increase the energy efficiency of the building stock. The aim is to double the annual Europe-wide renovation rate by 2030 and to ensure that renovations lead to higher energy and resource efficiency. Buildings account for about 40 % of energy consumption in the EU and 36 % of greenhouse gas emissions. Only 1 % of the building stock is renovated for energy efficiency every year.

Further information:
Renovation Wave website of the European Commission

The EU Taxonomy is a measure set out in the EU Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth and codified in Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation). The aim of the action plan is to channel capital flows into sustainable activities. To achieve this, a common understanding and a clear definition of what is 'sustainable' is needed, as well as the creation of verifiable criteria that enable the classification of an economic activity as 'sustainable'. The details necessary for this are specified in Commission delegated acts.

The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139 of 4 June 2021 specifies the first two of the six environmental goals addressed in the Taxonomy Regulation.

1. Climate change mitigation
2. Climate change adaptation
3. Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
4. Transition to a circular economy
5. Pollution prevention and control
6. Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems

For example, one requirement related to climate change mitigation set out in Annex I point 7 'Construction and real estate activities' of the afore-mentioned Delegated Regulation requires for new buildings that the primary energy demand (PED) defining the energy performance of the building resulting from the construction is at least 10 % lower than the threshold set for the nearly zero-energy building (NZEB) requirements in national measures implementing Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings.

Further requirements set out in Annex I point 7 include a minimum quota of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste to be reused, recycled or otherwise recovered and limit emission values for building components and materials that may come into contact with occupiers.

Further information:
EU taxonomy for sustainable activities website of the European Commission

One major goal of the revision of the Construction Products Regulation is to strengthen circular economy and sustainability in the construction sector. The revision is still ongoing. The final Regulation text is expected to be available in the summer of 2024. DIBt informs the German-speaking audience regularly about the state of play in its newsletter (German).