German Society for Sustainable Building

German Sustainable Building Council ; (DGNB)
legal form	registered association (e.V.)
founding	June 25, 2007
Seat	Stuttgart
Action space	International
people	Presidium: Barbara Ettinger-Brinckmann (President), Dirk Funhoff, Martin Haas, Hermann Horster, Anett-Maud Joppien, Kunibert Lennerts, Peter Mösle, Matthias Rudolph, Alexander Rudolphi, Amandus Samsøe Sattler; Executive board: Christine Lemaitre, Johannes Kreißig
Volunteers	about 500
Members	1200 (2020)
Website	www.dgnb.de

The German Sustainable Building Council - DGNB eV, English German Sustainable Building Council , is a non-profit and non-governmental organization whose task it is to develop and promote ways and solutions for sustainable planning, construction and use of buildings.

The focus of their work is the establishment and expansion of a certification system for sustainable buildings and the award of a seal of quality for sustainable building in the quality levels of platinum, gold, silver and bronze (although bronze is not awarded to new buildings). In September 2015, the DGNB updated the labeling logic for the certification of buildings and city districts. The highest rating level has since been the platinum certificate. The company was founded in 2007 by 16 organizations from the construction and real estate industries. According to its own information, the society has more than 1200 members or member organizations in July 2020.

From 2008 to 2014, the association organized the international Consense congress with an attached trade fair, at which topics in the field of sustainable building were discussed. In August 2015 it became known that the congress and trade fair would no longer take place.

The DGNB is the market leader in Germany and its members include: architects, engineers, construction companies and contractors, manufacturers of building products, investors, builders, owners, project managers, operators, supply and disposal companies, members of the public sector and NGOs, representatives from science and Testing institutes. These include 4a Architekten , Allmann Sattler Wappner , Ardex (building materials manufacturer) , Audi , BASF , Behnisch Architekten , Deutsche Bank , Drees & Sommer , Hascher Jehle Architektur , Hochtief , kadawittfeldarchitektur , Rewe Group , Schüco , Sika AG , Sauerbruch Hutton , Werner Sobek .

organization

Roots and mission statement

Sustainable building designates an economic and ecological differentiation of the term previously understood in Germany under the designation of ecological building and was largely developed from these concepts. Sustainability and sustainable development are part of the guiding principles of today's society.

The construction and real estate industry sees itself partly as an obligation to make an important contribution to the sustainable development of our society, because buildings not only consume a high proportion of natural resources, they also cause almost 40% of global CO ₂ emissions. The aim of sustainable building is to conserve resources and relieve the environment, to secure the quality and value of buildings and to create structures with a high social benefit. Ecological, economic and social goals should be considered and implemented equally in sustainable building. For this purpose, the entire life cycle of the building, from planning to dismantling (demolition), is considered.

Work and goals

With the aim of promoting the planning, construction and operation of sustainable buildings, representatives from the construction and real estate industry founded this association in June 2007. The association promotes the exchange of information, knowledge and experience about sustainable architecture and trains auditors for its own certification systems.

In its statutes, the non-profit association undertakes to serve the general public and to support science and research in the field of sustainability. Together with its members, the company is continuously developing the DGNB certificate, which is awarded as a quality mark for sustainable buildings.

Knowledge transfer

With the support of around 30 member companies, the association's office in Stuttgart was expanded in 2014 into a living showroom for sustainable building, in which the principles of sustainable building are presented to visitors.

Members

The members come from all areas of the construction and real estate industry. Members and interested parties have the opportunity to participate in working groups in which the DGNB certification system is further developed. Currently, more than 500 volunteer DGNB members from different areas of sustainable building are busy expanding the certificate for various usage profiles.

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General meeting

The members come together at least once a year for the general assembly, in which they exercise their right of co-determination. These include a. the election of the presidium and the adoption of the budget or amendments to the statutes.

Bureau

The presidium is elected by the members. It represents the association externally and represents the opinions and interests of third parties. The members of the Presidium support and supervise various specialist topics within the DGNB. You chair the individual committees.

The Presidium is responsible for appointing and dismissing committees. It sets up advisory boards and names their members. With the support of the office, it prepares the general assembly and implements the resolutions passed there. Ultimately, it checks and arranges the budget and the business reports. It takes care of all tasks related to the appointment, dismissal and control of the management through to the conclusion of employment contracts for the management.

Office

The office in Stuttgart organizes all operational activities of the DGNB such as u. a. the implementation of the certification processes and the training to become an auditor. In addition, she controls the entire certification process from the project registration to the awarding of the certificate and supports the Presidium in carrying out the general assembly as well as the committees in their activities.

Various

The certification committee, admission and examination committee and technical committee as well as various advisory boards are responsible for the content-related activities and quality assurance.

Certification system

The certificate is awarded to buildings that are environmentally friendly, resource-saving, functional and comfortable and that integrate into their socio-cultural environment.

methodology

When evaluating a building, the DGNB certificate does not only include ecological, economic and socio-cultural aspects. A total of six subject areas were defined that must be taken into account when planning and building a sustainable building:

Ecological quality
Economic quality
Socio-cultural quality
Technical quality
Process quality
Location quality (not included in the overall assessment of the building quality)

Each subject area contains special criteria which, depending on the usage profile (depending on the type of building, new or existing building), are weighted differently into the overall assessment. Basically, the certificate considers the entire life cycle of a building. The earlier these criteria are taken into account in the planning phase, the more consistently the quality of a building to be achieved can be influenced. Depending on the fulfillment of the defined requirements, the building receives an award in bronze (from a total degree of fulfillment of 35%, only with inventory certification), silver (from a total degree of fulfillment of 50%), gold (from a total degree of fulfillment of 65%) or platinum (from a Overall degree of fulfillment of 80%).

Usage profiles

The certification system is continuously developed for different structural uses (usage profiles) and variants. Certificates are currently available for (as of February 2016):

Existing buildings (office and administration buildings)
New buildings (new industrial, commercial and hotel buildings, educational and residential buildings (with more than six residential units)), office and administrative buildings (with modernization measures), laboratory buildings, tenant improvements, parking garages, small residential buildings (up to six residential units), meeting places and for mixed-use buildings.
Building in operation (office and administration building, shopping center)
Quarters (city quarters, industrial sites, commercial quarters)
There is also the option of receiving a so-called master plan certificate for identical buildings, for example for specialist markets or prefabricated houses.

Before a new usage profile is created, it goes through various development phases. First, the basis for a possible new usage profile is created in preparation groups if a need for this has been identified on the market. The responsible DGNB committees examine these bases. Once the requirements for a new usage profile have been met, the actual development of the new usage profile begins. In the working groups, consisting of around 20 volunteer members, a. examines which criteria can be adopted from the core system and which must be newly developed. Once a new usage profile is ready, it is checked for practicality in the pilot phase on specific projects.

International application

There are various certification systems around the world that can be used to assess the sustainability of a building, e.g. B. LEED in the USA, BREEAM in Great Britain, HQE in France or CASBEE in Japan. However, the widespread LEED and the other systems primarily assess the ecological sustainability of a building, i.e. In other words, they certify how environmentally friendly and resource-saving a building is. The DGNB certificate goes beyond this in the assessment and, in addition to the full life cycle of a building in terms of sustainability, also includes ecological, economic and socio-cultural factors and also takes technical, process and location quality into account.

The DGNB certificate can be adapted to changed technical and social developments and also includes country-specific differences such as climatic conditions or legal and structural requirements in the assessment.

In cooperation with non-profit and non-governmental organizations abroad, the DGNB certification system is adapted to the requirements in the various regions worldwide. This is done (as of February 2012) with partner organizations in Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Thailand, Austria, China and Switzerland. A large number of other countries have already expressed interest in the DGNB system. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with partner organizations in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Brazil, Russia, Slovenia and Spain.

The Austrian Society for Sustainable Real Estate Management (ÖGNI) was the first to use the option of system adaptation. The DGNB partner organization was founded in autumn 2009. After the German DGNB system was changed in accordance with the legal requirements and standards of Austria, the ÖGNI awarded the Austria House as the first building a DGNB pre-certificate in silver at the Olympic Games in Vancouver in January 2010 . The Swiss Society for Sustainable Real Estate Management SGNI was founded in 2010 and awarded its first DGNB certificates in January 2012.

In addition, the association provides an internationalized version of the DGNB system for all countries and thus enables certification worldwide without major adjustments. It is based on the current European norms and standards.