Press release

DGNB and IBA’27 cooperate for more sustainable building

The German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB e.V.) and Internationale Bauausstellung 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart GmbH (IBA’27) will work together closely in the future. Both organisations have signed a cooperation agreement to this effect. The aim of the collaboration is to put ambitious sustainability goals at the heart of the IBA’27 Projects. Furthermore, selected projects will be accompanied in order to examine and refine existing standards for sustainable building. The cooperation is intended to lead ultimately to a new and particularly ambitious certification system for construction projects, namely the »DGNB System IBA’27«.

IBA’27 plans to use experimental and sophisticated building projects in the Stuttgart Region to make the journey into the future visible and tangible. As a result, long-term sustainability is a basic prerequisite for the projects, with project initiators committing to high sustainability standards as soon as they are included in the IBA. »We are encouraging people in the Stuttgart City Region to think differently and to find new answers to the question of what our lives, homes and work will be like in the future«, explains Karin Lang, Chief Financial Officer of IBA’27 GmbH. »Economy, ecology and society: these three traditional dimensions of sustainability will of course play a central role. For this reason, we are delighted to have the DGNB at our side as a partner.«

The DGNB, a non-profit organisation based in Stuttgart is Europe’s largest network and the leading knowledge platform for sustainable building. »We have a lot of experience, and with our certification system we have a recognised framework for ensuring high sustainability standards in building projects and making these transparent«, says Dr. Christine Lemaitre, Chief Executive Officer of the DGNB. »We are happy to contribute this expertise to the IBA. After all, the requirement for IBA’27 Projects is that they will go a few steps further than regular projects. They will have an exceptional role as model projects. So it’s all the more important that they incorporate the holistic topics around sustainability from the early stages of the planning process.«

As part of the collaboration, selected IBA’27 Projects are to serve as models for a new type of sustainability certification. IBA’27 Artistic Director Andreas Hofer explains how this will work: »Together with the DGNB, we want to find out – and use specific project work to try out – which planning and building factors are especially relevant for ensuring long-term sustainability. We will focus on the long-term perspective for buildings with a life cycle of maybe one hundred or two hundred years. We are also interested in questions that go beyond individual buildings as well as in building culture: What role is played by the complex system of an entire neighbourhood with its residents? And what significance does architectural and urban planning quality have for long-term sustainability?«

»For us, ›DGNB System IBA’27‹ is more than a working title«, adds Lemaitre. »It is our ambition that we will pursue jointly: projects that break new ground and that provide answers. The new system will be reduced to a few key sustainability parameters, but it will be particularly ambitious for those parameters based on today’s standards. In a way, it will provide a sneak preview of the standards for sustainable building that we can expect to apply in ten years or more.«

The cooperation will take shape in a variety of ways over the coming months and years. The DGNB will assist the IBA’27 team in matters relating to sustainability. Selected IBA’27 Projects are to be closely monitored and certified under the new system once they have been completed. There are also plans for joint workshops on sustainability, the circular economy and new technologies for project initiators, investors, municipalities and local authorities. External experts from the IBA’27 and DGNB networks will also be involved, along with the working groups from the IBA’27 Forum.