Can building also be sustainable?

Noise, dirt, permanent building sites - the cityscape in Stuttgart is no different. The city needs change, but does that also mean that the issues of sustainability and climate change must be pushed completely to the back? What happens if climate change demands alternatives, but these continue to be ignored because one does not want to question a system that is already in place?

The cement industry is responsible for eight percent of global greenhouse emissions. More than half of the total volume of waste produced in Germany (including private households and industry) is construction and demolition waste. The construction industry is lagging far behind in the area of digitalisation. But: the construction industry contributes 5.3% of the overall economic gross value added and in 2018 accounted for 5.6% of all employees in Germany (source: Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie e.V.). So something does not add up here. But how can this be solved and what has prevented the construction industry from changing so far? The reasons for this are complex: a great many regulations leave builders and planning architects with little creative freedom and far too much financial fear of using innovations to shake up an existing system that is basically "still running".

Exactly this starting point and its possible alternatives were discussed in detail at the event "Zukunft Bauen - Kann Bauen auch innovativ" on 22.10.2020. Thanks to numerous inputs from research and practice, we now know that there are alternatives and that a rethink is needed. Otherwise, not only the resources but also the climate-neutral future prospects will diminish. Be it a circular economy, innovative technologies or more citizen participation - the forms of change are tangible and close at hand. In the end, does it perhaps even mean climate-positive instead of just climate-neutral?

Experts discussed these issues in three different panels.

See the keynote directly here, more videos can be found on YouTube:

"Zukunft Bauen" was a joint event of the Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH (WRS), the HFT Stuttgart and IBA`27 GmbH within the framework of the "Innovative University".