25 January 2011

Hotel sustainability in focus: DGNB Certificate now available for hotel

On 20 January 2011, at the BAU trade fair in Munich (the world's leading building industry trade fair), the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) for the first time was awarding its coveted DGNB Certificate to hotel buildings.
This heralds the addition of sustainable hotels as another important variant of the certification system.
Like other buildings, hotels will be assessed in six different areas of evaluation in accordance with the philosophy of the DGNB System.
These include the classic aspects of sustainability – ecology, economy, and society – but also go further to include the technical quality of the building as well as the quality of the planning and construction processes.
The quality of the site is also assessed; this result is presented separately however and is not included in the overall grade for the building.
Particular importance is attached to the life cycle assessment of a hotel building. The effort and expense associated with cleaning measures, for example, play a significant role, as do energy and drinking water consumption and general maintenance costs.
Careful use of resources is rewarded positively using a point system. Above all, guests want to feel comfortable in their hotel accommodations, and user comfort and convenience aspects are therefore given special consideration in the DGNB assessment, including such factors as sound insulation and thermal comfort.