Eresing - What role does timber construction play in climate protection?
How can the proportion of wooden structures be increased, and what are its limits?
How is economic forest use compatible with forests suitable for grandchildren, and which trees will thrive there best in the future?
As part of the first climate protection day of leading German timber construction associations, these and other questions were the subject of a panel discussion at the Nadler car dealership in Eresing.
Why do people talk about timber construction in a car dealership of all places?
In fact, the location could not have been more suitable, because the commercial building that opened this year was built using wood and is a prime example of “built climate protection”, as host Stefan Fichtl explained.
“Every cubic meter of wood binds around 0.9 tons of CO2.
Wooden buildings are therefore huge CO2 stores. "
In addition to the managing director of the Hechenwang company Holzbau Fichtl on the podium sat CSU member of the Bundestag Michael Kießling, the Green Bundestag candidate Martina Neubauer, the head of the Landsberg Forestry Office Michael Siller, Tobias Schmid from the Landsberger Energieagentur LENA eV and retired professor Gerd Wegener, who until 2010 held the chair for wood science and wood technology at the Technical University of Munich.
In view of the climate-friendliness of the building material, moderator Andreas Lerge from the Holzbau Netzwerk Deutschland quickly put his finger in the wound.
Why does the public sector no longer erect wooden buildings - from day care centers to fire stations - and stipulate wooden structures in development plans?
At Martina Neubauer, he ran open doors, but you need the appropriate majorities in the municipal committees.
Michael Kießling also wants the municipalities to "lead by example".
Then attitudes among the population will also change.
The proven expert Wegener confirmed that timber construction no longer has to be limited to single-family houses.
Wooden skyscrapers with up to eight storeys can be realized without any problems.
“Multi-storey apartment building in wood is solid and safe.” However, with regard to climate protection, it is not just about the building material, but also about sustainably structured quarters that form an “ecological overall package”.
District master craftsman Markus Wasserle from the audience asked how large the percentage of timber construction in a growth region like Landsberg could realistically be.
Siller spoke of 20 percent in residential construction and a slightly larger proportion in non-residential construction.
"Healthy, slow, steady growth is important."
Gerd Wegener also confirmed that growth will probably continue flat.
"We don't have the capacity for more."
In view of the concerns of the conventional construction industry, moderator Lerge pointed out that no timber structure is made entirely of wood, but is always a hybrid structure.
Concrete workers and bricklayers would continue to be needed.
"It's not against each other, but a win-win situation."
LENA representative Schmid and the Landsberg forestry office manager Siller agreed that wood should be based on regionality - and that it could not be that local wood is not used for reasons of public procurement law. "Germany is so richly forested that we can provide ourselves with wood," Siller emphasized. Nor is it necessary to export Käferholz “at junk prices” to China just because it has visual defects, added Stefan Fichtl.
When asked whether it was possible to take so much wood from the forest at all, the experts answered positively.
"With timber construction, the forest is not destroyed, it is rejuvenated," says Wegener.
Because forest conversion must continue parallel to use.
As a practitioner in particular, climate change shows itself “with vehemence” in his daily work, according to the head of the forestry department, Siller.
For forests that are suitable for grandchildren, you need as much diversity as possible.
The proportion of spruce has already fallen from almost 90 to 40 percent in the last few decades.
"We are no longer an established land," confirmed Wegener and reported on trial plantings with trees that are likely to cope better with climate change, for example cedars.
It is conceivable to "bring species from the Mediterranean region to the north". Of course, that cannot be done in one electoral term. "But I'm not pessimistic at all."