Re:build the future! Focus less on demolition and more on future-proof renovation!

Munich, 29 March 2023 | The challenges facing the construction sector are immense. To meet the Paris Agreement targets, the sector will have to reduce its emissions to zero by 2045. The single-most effective tool in the fight against climate change is the revitalisation of Germany’s existing building stock. Architecture and consulting firm CSMM has built a reputation over the past two decades for its visionary office architecture and workplace designs in Germany and abroad, and now its Founder and Managing Partner Timo Brehme is calling on policymakers to provide a clearly-defined and realistic strategy for the upcoming energy transition. “Rather than defining goals in buzzwords, we need to provide stakeholders at every relevant level a set of concrete benchmarks and guidelines for future developments.”

In autumn 2022, CSMM was one of the first signatories to join 170 stakeholders from the construction and real estate sector in an open letter to the Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building Klara Geywitz (SPD) calling for a temporary halt to the demolition of existing buildings. One of the demands in the so-called “demolition moratorium” is the mandatory assessment of any demolition project that takes social as well as environmental impacts into account. Anyone looking to tear down a building would first have to provide evidence that the building is no longer salvageable. “The most important thing for us in this initiative,” Timo Brehme explains, “is that avoiding demolition is a binding provision of the ESG guidelines set out in the EU Taxonomy regulations.” When it comes to the standardised assessment of a commercial venture’s environmental impact, these regulations are a vital tool. And the mandates for sustainable financial investments also have a direct impact on the construction sector. According to Brehme, “Developers must provide evidence of a project’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact to make it taxonomy-compliant. But achieving our overall objectives is more complex. Climate action can only truly succeed if we limit a building’s environmental impact in its construction as well as its operation. Using natural building materials simply isn’t enough. After all, studies show that it is almost impossible to achieve meaningful results without optimising the building’s overall energy balance.”

No demolition without a lifecycle assessment

To make these assessments more comprehensive, they must factor in the entire lifecycle and identify the best ways to address the environmental, economic and social impacts. Architects for Future (A4F) and Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V., or DUH) expressed their support for the demolition moratorium in a December 2022 policy paper: "Any demolition project must be subject to approval on the basis of a full lifecycle assessment.” At least 14,000 buildings are currently being demolished every year – usually without evaluating whether there is any potential to reuse the building as a whole or its components. “In every new development, we should, on principle, determine whether the existing structures are worth preserving,” Timo Brehme believes. “Rehabilitation, redevelopment and energy-saving retrofitting are still the most effective means of combatting the energy and climate crisis.” In new builds, the structural shell alone accounts for about 40 percent of the total construction costs but up to 80 percent of the energy used during construction. CSMM believes authorities and developers should be placing more emphasis on conserving grey energy. “It really is worth our while to give existing buildings a new lease of life,” explains Brehme, with a nod to the 1970s-era, downtown Munich office building known as “Fritz”, which the firm renovated and relaunched in 2022. This widely acclaimed project has set the bar high for future revitalisation and sustainable development based on existing building stock.