Do we consider climate protection in construction?

The current figures of the Austrian Environmental Agency confirm that the building industry, particularly the construction and traffic sector, has the biggest potential for saving CO2. Representatives from science and industry discussed this issue on the KliNa-Day 2023. They provided papers, case studies and best practice examples on sustainability topics in civil engineering like for example decarbonization, circular economy or building certifications.
”The KliNa Day serves for an exchange of knowledge, networking and discussion. I think we all agree that we can only cope with the energy transition together”, said Hanno Töll, of the FCP.VCE KliNa initiative.

Bernadette Luger of the city of Vienna, municipal board for construction and technology, reported in her lecture “Zirkuläres Wien“ (Circular Vienna) how the city of Vienna will manage the way towards the circular economy. Teresa Liberto and Agathe Robisson of the Vienna University of Technology / Institute of Material Technology, Building Physics and Building Ecology, investigated the question in their lecture how to save CO2 with alternative building materials. Anita Reiter of Austrian Standards reported on the necessity to create consistent regulations and national standards for sustainable building and to establish these “green building rules” in practice. Günter Steinbauer of Wiener Linien reported on public local traffic as active climate protection.
 

Rehabilitation concepts for existing buildings

FCP.VCE supports decarbonization of existing buildings with the project “Sanierungskonzepte+”. “There are 600,000 units equipped with fossil energy sources in Vienna alone. A major part of them is only partly or not at all renovated. These figures show the big potential for introducing ecology in rehabilitation”, said Dariusz Binkowski, building physicist with FCP.

After a first meeting with the client and an inspection of the property, FCP prepares a green flag report, in which the recommended actions including prioritized measures are summarized and discussed with the client. In a second step the property is inspected in detail in a study of alternatives (potential analysis) where the thermal and energetic quality of the building and the effects of the measures are checked with regard to climate protection, sustainability, lifetime as well as amortization, i.e., a building value of the property after the rehabilitation. In a subsequent prioritization talk the final rehabilitation alternative will be fixed and “Sanierungskonzept+“, is prepared as final phase based on a detailed survey, optionally based on a 3D model. The thermal and energetic calculations are performed according to building simulations if required and based on that an economic efficiency calculation is elaborated. The client finally receives a tailor-made rehabilitation concept for the existing property, which includes measures and their impacts as well as an optional pre-check for a building certification.