CIO Bulletin

Promoting sustainability in the construction and real estate industry and support implementation to make sustainable construction a reality: German Sustainable Building Council

The Earth has finite resources, a growing population, and a need for sustainable construction. Sustainability is avoiding the depletion of natural resources to maintain the ecological balance, and that’s what most businesses and industries mean when they talk about sustainability. Where it gets tricky is in construction. The construction industry is not yet set up for sustainability. Many of the resources used in buildings today are hard or impossible to reuse in another, actual construction can reduce air quality, and there is a greater need for buildings with the growing population.

Sustainable buildings minimize energy and water consumption and are a vital part of sustainable urban development to combat climate change.

According to data from the United Nations (UN), in 2050, around 68% of humanity will live in cities. These represent only 3% of the planet’s surface but consume 78% of energy and produce 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. For this reason, in 2016, the UN itself improved the New Urban Agenda to advise countries on their urbanization processes and make cities more habitable, inclusive, healthy, resilient, and sustainable.

One of the world’s foremost organizations assisting with sustainable building practices is the German Sustainable Building Council. The German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). It is a non-profit organization based in Stuttgart, Germany. The DGNB has been committed to demonstrably good buildings, livable neighborhoods, and a sustainably built environment since it was founded in 2007.

The German Sustainable Building Council is a central knowledge platform for sustainable building. The DGNB has around 1,600 member companies from all areas of Germany’s construction and real estate industry. A network of partner organizations across many countries helps adapt and implement the certification system internationally.

In conversation with Dr. Christine Lemaitre, CEO of the German Sustainable Building Council

Elucidate the history and development of the company.

The German Sustainable Building Council was founded in 2007 as a non-profit organization to transform the construction and real estate industry. A handful of stakeholders from all areas of the construction industry were pursuing one goal: our built environment should be designed so that people feel comfortable in it and the environment is not harmed. The founders decided to develop an instrument that makes sustainability plannable, measurable, and deliverable to transfer knowledge from the heads to the hands. Only this way can the transformation to sustainability, climate protection, and resource conservation succeed. The result was a catalog of ecological, economic, and socio-cultural criteria that led to a certification system. Today, existing and new buildings and entire neighborhoods can be planned, built, operated, and deconstructed sustainably with the support of this instrument and trained experts.

Over 9,000 projects have already received a DGNB certificate, which provides quality-assured proof that they have paid attention to all dimensions of sustainability.

The DGNB started with a small number of pioneers, but today it has over 70 employees at its office. Additionally, about 1,600 member organizations voluntarily work to transform the industry. Through partnerships with various European Green Building Councils, the DGNB can call itself Europe’s largest network for sustainable building. Perhaps its greatest achievement is that many companies and municipalities that have since been skeptical about sustainability have become convinced sustainability advocates. In recent years, interest has grown enormously, with the result that the DGNB has seen record numbers in all business areas.

Q. Why did you think of starting a non-profit organization?

As an independent non-profit organization, we can drive forward the goal that moves us without a political mandate: transforming the construction and real estate industry toward sustainability as the new normal. We are entirely self-financed, supported by member organizations that want to make a difference. This self-motivation of members has an enormously high impact on the industry’s transformation. The DGNB thus sets benchmarks and standards in sustainable construction and enjoys enormous recognition worldwide.

Q. Why are climate protection, sustainable building, and biodiversity your central focus?

For decades, scientists have been telling us what needs to be done to curb climate change. The latest IPCC report clearly shows what needs to be done in the next ten years—first and foremost, the drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The construction industry is one of the largest CO2 emitters and resource consumers and has a great responsibility and great potential for optimization. We believe that change in the construction and real estate industry can succeed. But it has to happen faster. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to accelerate it.

The whole climate protection debate has so far neglected biodiversity. We need to understand that the transformation to a better, sustainable world—in other words, a world that is still worth living in for future generations—can only succeed with a holistic view. Climate protection, biodiversity, and resource conservation are interlinked and cannot be considered separately. All aspects must be taken into account when building. Hence we have written a catalog of criteria based on the principle of holistic sustainability that considers the entire life cycle of buildings—from the production of the materials to the potential deconstruction of a building. It is essential to pay attention to biodiversity and not harm the environment all along the way. The holistic view also clarifies that if we do not ensure the preservation and conservation of our ecosystems, humans will suffer in the end.

Share about the events you have conducted so far.

The DGNB is a participatory association that thrives on exchange within its network and beyond. That is why it regularly organizes major events.

Once a year, the general meeting takes place, which has expanded into a day full of impulses and networking opportunities as the “DGNB Sustainability Day.” In the wake of the corona pandemic, the DGNB has launched a digital DGNB Annual Congress to show where the industry stands in sustainable construction. In addition, DGNB speakers regularly meet at ongresses and discussion panels. For its members, the DGNB also offers on-site visits to DGNB-certified projects. As part of its initiatives “Phase Sustainability” for architects and planners and “Climate Positive Cities and Communities” for municipalities, the DGNB also organizes knowledge, exchange, and visit meetings that strengthen collaborative work.

Enabling the municipalities, builders, and the construction industry to adopt sustainable building practices

Dr. Christine Lemaitre is the CEO of the German Sustainable Building Council. Dr. Lemaitre was born in Gießen, Germany and studied structural engineering at the University of Stuttgart from 1995 to 2000. She completed her Ph.D. thesis on adaptive lightweight structures in 2008.

In January 2009, she took on the director certification system of the German Sustainable Building Council. Since February 2010, Dr. Christine Lemaitre has been the German Sustainable Building Council CEO.