The DGNB participates in various research projects focusing on sustainable building — including urban planning, renovation, and real estate financing. Guidelines and recommendations for different stakeholders resulting from these projects are available for download on the respective project pages.
Urban Factory II - Resource-efficient city districts through urban production
In the past, the development of neighbourhoods and urban production sites were often considered separately. The project "Urban Factory II - Resource Efficient City Quarters through Urban Production" considers them as one system, the "city-factory-system". The aim of the project is to synergistically connect the two levels of the system - city and factory - in order to benefit from each other and to implement additional (resource) efficiency potentials for a sustainable factory-city system. Learn more
Duration: 1 July 2021 to 31 July 2025
Your contact: Svenja Dickmann, Sustainable Districts
CREATE
The joint research project CREATE deals with climate-neutral buildings and sustainable real estate financing. In particular, the objective is to develop and optimise finance and insurance products that conform to the EU taxonomy so that they can precisely address the refurbishment backlog of real estate in Germany and thus develop the highest possible decarbonisation potential. Learn more
Duration: October 2022 until September 2025
Your contacts: Dr. Anna Braune, Director Research and Development, Eva-Maria Stumpp
Build4People
Cambodia’s traditional architecture took lokal climate conditions into account. Today dynamic economic growth affects the way buildings are built and operated which is not energy-efficient nor tropical climate adapted. The Build4People project therefore aims to support Phnom Penh in its transformation into a sustainable city with a high quality of life. Special focus is placed on the construction and real estate sector. Learn more
Duration: 2021 until 2025 (Research and Development phase)
Your contacts: Dr Stephan Anders, Director Network and Consulting
NaiS - Sustainable smart renovation measures
The NaiS research project won the "GreenTech" innovation competition of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) in 2023 and will be funded by the BMWK in the period from May 2023 to April 2026. A consortium of nine project partners is involved in the project. In addition to the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), these include: CAALA, Concular, Hof University of Applied Sciences with a research group from the Institute for Information Systems iisys, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT with the Institute for Technology and Management in Construction (TMB), the Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics (IAI) and the Karlsruhe Service Research Institute (KSRI), as well as STRABAG and Züblin. Learn more
Duration: 1 May 2023 to 30 April 2026
Your contact: Janine Gölz, Manager Digitalisation
#BuildingLife
To support and implement the European Green Deal, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has brought together European Green Building Councils (GBCs) under the #BuildingLife campaign to drive climate action in the building sector through the development of national and regional decarbonisation roadmaps and their implementation. At the heart of the campaign is a call for national governments and the European Commission to support bold and ambitious policies that address life-cycle emissions from buildings. Learn more
Duration: December 2020 to November 2022 (#BuildingLife), June 2023 to May 2027 (#BuildingLife2)
Your contact: Dr. Anna Braune, Director Research and Development
More Life 2 Level(s)
The EU's voluntary Level(s) reporting framework aims to make the sustainability performance of buildings transparent across the EU over their entire life cycle. In the More Life 2 Level(s) research project, the Level(s) framework is now to be applied to ten selected buildings and construction projects. Case studies are to be developed from the application examples. The DGNB's task is to accompany three projects in the application of the Level(s) framework, to answer technical questions and to ensure quality assurance. Learn more
Duration: May 2023 until May 2027
Your contact: Dr. Anna Braune, Director Research and Development
TMon
The research project "TMon – Wissenschaftliche Evaluation von Leistungen zum Technischen Monitoring und Inbetriebnahmemanagement" (TMon – Scientific Evaluation of Services for Technical Monitoring and Commissioning Management) addresses the question of how quality management services (QMS) can close the gap between a sustainable concept for the operation of buildings and their actual performance. The background to this is that both the requirements of what a building should be able to achieve in terms of energy efficiency, comfort or flexibility, and the complexity of technical solutions are increasing. At the same time, actual sustainability in operation is becoming increasingly important - especially with regard to energy costs and regulations such as the EU taxonomy. The aim is to evaluate 100 buildings and the QMS applied. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action. More about the project (German only)
The DGNB is participating in the call for projects that would like to take part in the evaluation. Register buildings for the research project (German only)
Duration: November 2022 until October 2026
Your contacts: Seema Issar, Manager Buildings In Use / Sustainable Finance; Franziska Bockelmann, SIZ
LIFE Level(s)
Level(s) is the name of an EU approach to reporting on the sustainability performance of buildings over their entire life cycle. The Life for LCA LCC Level(s) project (LIFE Level(s) for short) aimed to mainstream sustainable buildings in Europe through greater awareness and use of the specific indicators of the Level(s) framework. The project focussed on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) indicators. Learn more
Duration: October 2019 until September 2022
Your contact: Dr. Anna Braune, Director Research and Development
Project: Awareness-raising and capacity-building for stakeholders in the building sector – implementing a system for assessing the sustainability of buildings for future-oriented development in Croatia
Funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation, this project sets out to develop a methodological framework for assessing the sustainability of buildings on the property market in Croatia. Assessments are based on the entire life cycles of buildings. In addition to offering its expertise, the DGNB has been providing access to its empirical know-how, literature and publications, all of which has been received by a variety of specialist committees and adapted to the requirements of the Croatian market.
Durationt: Dezember 2022 until 2024
Your contact: Levan Ekhvaia, Manager International Certification