Ten years have passed since the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) awarded its first certificates at the BAU, the world's leading trade fair for architecture, materials and systems in Munich.
The German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB for “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen”) has developed a certification system for urban districts and published a first market version in 2012.
Cities are very sensitive to shifts in the climate, while their transformation cycles are usually very slow. In order to design new cities fit for the future or to adapt existing cities to the expected consequences of climate change, planners and decision makers need to consider effective measures already today.
China is urbanizing at a rapid pace. In 2000, only one in three Chinese lived in urban areas. By 2015, this number had grown to more than 56 percent and is estimated to reach 60 percent and 70 percent by 2020 and 2030, respectively. This trend has been accompanied by vast urban construction, as the building sector is trying to keep up with the 300 million new urban residents expected to arrive in the next 15 years.
One important requirement for the development of a CO2 neutral energy system that forms a base for achieving the climate protection goals is the integration of the electricity, heat and mobility sectors on an urban level.
China’s economic growth, industrial development as well as its rapid urbanization process during the past years has led to a surge in energy demand.
Germany’s building sector produces a third of the country’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contributes 40 percent to the total national energy consumption.
