The Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development Receives the GreenBuilding Award of the European Commission

The extension and rehabilitation of the Institute's premises on Weberplatz in Dresden have been worthwhile: after the far-reaching rehabilitation works, the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) now not only saves a great deal of energy – the high degree of energy efficiency achieved has brought the Institute the European GreenBuilding Award for 2012.

The figures speak for themselves: after more than two years of construction and alterations, the IOER can save more than 587,000 kilowatt-hours per year in its “new” institute building. Energy demand has thus fallen since rehabilitation and extension by 84.5 per cent. This has brought the research establishment the GreenBuilding Award of the European Commission in the category “Refurbished Building”.

The IOER building has been comprehensively modernised and extended with the financial support of the Federal and Saxony governments. “We owed this to our name and our research mandate,” declared institute director Professor Bernhard Müller. “It was therefore particularly important for us that the building project was sustainable, ecological, and cost-efficient,” he explained. The new extension now meets up-to-date passive building standards, and in the refurbished old building, too, energy demand has been reduced by 25 per cent. A photovoltaic plant on the roof of the institute also contributes to the energy efficiency of the building. It covers the power requirements of the server technology and thus some one third of the electric power needed.

With the GreenBuilding Award, the Joint Research Centre of the EU Commission has since 2005 been honouring organisations and businesses that achieve major energy savings in non-residential buildings on a voluntary basis and make greater use of renewable energies. At present the programme has 364 with 616 buildings.