Next generation of life cycle related benchmarks for low carbon residential buildings in Germany

Abstract

Germany’s national climate targets are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and set the ambitious goal of becoming net zero emissions by 2045. The construction and real estate sector play an important role for sustainable development. In a cross-sectoral approach operational and embodied emissions of buildings account for 40% of GHG emissions in Germany. In order to contribute to climate protection, it is necessary to both pursue a strategy for decarbonizing the national building stock and to develop benchmarks for assessing greenhouse gas emissions in the life cycle of individual buildings. In Germany, benchmarks are used in sustainability assessment systems for more than 10 years to assess primary energy non-renewable (PENRT) and global warming potential (GWP) in the life cycle of buildings. Therefore, these need to be regularly reviewed and further developed in order to (1) adapt them to more ambitious reduction targets, (2) consider the current database, (3) include the state of standardization, and (4) follow the state of scientific discussion on methodological issues. This paper identifies new benchmarks for PENRT and GWP and shows the scale of current levels of performance. These can form the basis for funding programs and contribute to the discussion on the introduction of binding legal requirements.