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PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
24. April 2013 || Page 1 | 3
Building sustainability and energy efficiency –
the “sb13 munich” conference gets underway
As part of the international series of “Sustainable Building Conferences”, the
“sb13 munich“ sustainability conference is taking place from April 24 to 26,
2013. Focusing on development trends toward establishing sustainability in
central Europe’s construction and real estate industry, sb13 will provide a
discussion platform for generating recommendations for politics, industry and
science, for initiating research collaborations, and for encouraging scientific
exchange particularly among young scientists. The conference will be officially
opened today, Wednesday April 24, by Ministerial Director Günther Hoffmann
from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban
Development (BMVBS). Around 500 participants from 33 countries will gather
for “sb13 munich“.
The transition to a new energy economy and the challenges this presents are a key
concern for politics, business and research – not to mention the construction and real
estate sector. Energy efficiency and sustainability have long since become watchwords;
current challenges range from the development of energy-saving buildings to planning
entire urban districts that are equipped for a green future. Alongside a wealth of
discussion, the last 15 years have witnessed serious efforts being undertaken – and
initial successes seen – in the areas of sustainable planning, construction and
management of buildings. Various European countries have also enjoyed success in
sustainable urban development. Looking to the future, Director of the Fraunhofer
Institute for Building Physics IBP and Chair of Building Physics at the Technische
Universität München (TUM) Prof. Dr. Gerd Hauser says, “It’s now time to look closely at
what still stands in the way of designing sustainable urban environments, to work up
new approaches to tackling these problems, and to identify the opportunities these
solutions offer to those who can implement them.”
Through a program of talks, workshops and excursions, as well as an exhibition,
participants in sb13 munich will have the chance to gain insight into the influence of
politics and industry on the energy transition, funding concepts for sustainable
IN CO OP ERA TIO N W ITH
Head of Press and Public Relations
Dipl.-Journ. Janis Eitner | Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP | Phone +49 8024 643-203 |
Fraunhoferstr. 10 | 83626 Valley | www.ibp.fraunhofer.de | [email protected]
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construction, sustainable regional and urban planning incorporating the latest trends in
planning and energy supply, as well as low-energy and energy-plus concepts for new
and existing buildings. Methods for planning and evaluating sustainable buildings from
the point of view of their life cycles will also be discussed, and there will be a
presentation of innovative materials and technologies of interest to the building sector.
On April 24 and 25, the city of Munich and the BMVBS are also organizing special
community workshops as part of sb13 munich. A separate one-day conference was
reserved for young scientists: held at the Oskar von Miller Forum on April 23, the
Young Researchers Session offered participants a chance to present research work and
projects dealing with sustainable building.
Topics & trends featured at sb13 munich
A look at the breadth of topics covered by the conference’s talks and poster displays
makes it clear what the current trends are. At the heart of the discussions, for example,
are economic issues such as how to integrate aspects of sustainability into property
valuations. Cost-effective solutions for low-energy buildings are also playing a larger
role in the debate, as is the idea of taking sustainability into account not just in the
planning phase, as today, but in all processes and decisions throughout a structure’s
life cycle. Additionally, there is a need to further develop the basis for evaluations and
expand the criteria used. This involves more in-depth discussion of the social and
cultural value of historic buildings and civic structures in an effort to better reconcile
this value with considerations of how to conserve resources and protect the
environment. Work is continuing apace on determining and applying various different
systems for evaluating these buildings’ sustainability; criteria and systems for evaluating
other types of structure, such as residential buildings, schools or laboratories, are
already being presented.
It is becoming clear across the board that current topics such as low-energy buildings,
resource efficiency, and the robustness of building and civic structures can be
integrated effortlessly into the definition, evaluation and shaping of sustainability.
“Using life cycle assessments to evaluate sustainability is a suitable way not only to
identify and resolve any conflicts of objective, but also to make sense of individual
issues within the wider context. From this perspective, sustainability remains of
constant relevance,” says Prof. Dr. Thomas Lützkendorf from the Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology (KIT). He and Hauser agree that the sb13 munich conference will
contribute to steering national and international discussions and activities in the right
direction.
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About sb13 munich
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24. April 2013 || Page 3 | 3
“sb13 munich“ belongs to a series of sb13 regional conferences taking place in
preparation for next year’s World Sustainable Building Conference to be held in
Barcelona. This builds on traditions dating back to 1998 that since then have led to
regional and world conferences which have proved both fascinating and capable of
achieving genuine results.
Both the sb13 conference series and the sb14 world conference are initiated and
organized by the International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE), the
International Council for Building (CIB), the International Federation of Consulting
Engineers (FIDIC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). These
organizations are international partners to sb13 munich, which itself is organized by
the Technische Universität München (TUM), the Fraunhofer Institute for Building
Physics IBP, and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology KIT. Support from the DBU
(German environmental foundation) and the BMVBS has been instrumental in
preparing and executing the event. The same can be said of main sponsor XELLA as
well as of further sponsors REHAU, PREUSS and sto AG. Represented among the
members of the organizing committee are important associations of architects and
engineers, the building industry, as well as individual communities. The German
Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) is also a partner. Media partnerships with
renowned journal “Building Research & Information”, the architectural portal Detail
and with the magazine “forum CSR international” help to ensure that scientific
findings reach a wide audience.
“sb13 munich“ is organized by Prof. Dr. Gerd Hauser, Director of Fraunhofer IBP and
Chair of Building Physics at TUM, Prof. Dr. Thomas Lützkendorf from KIT and Prof. Dr.
Natalie Eßig, University of Applied Sciences Munich and also of Fraunhofer IBP and of
TUM, Chair for Building Physics.
More information about the event is available online at
www.sb13-munich.com.
Building physics is one of the keys to a successful building project. The Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP focuses its work on
research, development, testing, demonstration and consulting in the various fields of building physics. These include noise control and sound
insulation in buildings, the optimization of auditoria acoustics and solutions for improving energy efficiency and optimizing lighting technology.
Fraunhofer IBP’s work also covers issues of climate control and the indoor environment, hygiene and health protection, building material emissions,
weatherproofing and protection against heat and moisture, preservation of building structures and the conservation of historic monuments.
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is a public corporation according to the legislation of the state of Baden-Württemberg. It fulfills the
mission of a university and the mission of a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT focuses on a knowledge triangle that links
the tasks of research, teaching, and innovation.
Technische Universität München (TUM) is one of Europe’s leading universities. It has roughly 480 professors, 9,000 academic and nonacademic staff, and 32,000 students. It focuses on the engineering sciences, natural sciences, life sciences, medicine, and economic sciences. After
winning numerous awards, it was selected as an “Excellence University” in 2006 and 2012 by the Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) and the
German Research Foundation (DFG). In both international and national rankings, TUM is rated as one of Germany’s top universities and is
dedicated to the ideal of a top-level research-oriented entrepreneurial university. The university's global presence includes offices in Beijing (China),
Brussels (Belgium), Cairo (Egypt), Mumbai (India) and São Paulo (Brazil). The German Institute of Science and Technology (GIST - TUM Asia),
founded in 2002 in Singapore, is the first research campus of a German university abroad.
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