Buggi 52, an eight-storey wooden residential and commercial building located in Freiburg, has become the first FSC-certified (FSC-P001833) building in Germany. With this certification, the building owner - IG Klösterle - will be able to reaffirm their commitment to responsible management practices with customers.
Erected in 2020, Buggi 52 is a multi-storey construction with a supermarket, day-care centre and 30 residential units. What makes it stand out is the use of wood from well-managed sources for the construction. The process also covered an audit carried out by Preferred by Nature that verified all processing suppliers according to the FSC (Forest Stewardship CouncilTM) rules in order to prove the use of responsible wood. The majority of wood that was used to build this nearly twenty-two-metre high structure comes from the Black Forest region, where the relevant suppliers are also based.
Buggi 52 is an amazing high-quality building with a high level of comfort. However, there is one more attribute that makes the house exceptional. Its wooden construction binds in the long term 517 tons of climate-damaging CO2 from the atmosphere. The amount of bound CO2 corresponds to 135 transatlantic flights from Munich to New York. This feature undoubtedly makes Buggi 52 a milestone in sustainable urban development.
Buggi 52 before the official opening; Photo courtesy of Bruno Kaiser
In September 2021, the FSC certificate was handed over to Stefan Kudermann from Holzbau Bruno Kaiser, general constructor, by FSC Germany board member Dietmar Hellmann and Lead Auditor Michael Kutschke from Preferred by Nature during an official ceremony, witnessed by over 200 experts from the construction and architecture sectors.
“Preferred by Nature was pleased to participate in this unique event, which was also a culmination of our efforts,” said Michael Kutschke.
“During the audit process, which lasted for more than one year, no major non-conformances were found, and we can now be proud to have the first building in Germany that met the FSC challenging criteria,” added Michael.
In Germany, around 1.44 million hectares of forest are FSC certified and around 3,750 companies have their product chain certified according to the FSC standards (as of March 2021). In German forests, the FSC stands, among other things, for forest management that does not overexploit the forest, promotes biological diversity and acts transparently towards interested citizens and organisations. Clear-cutting during regular timber harvesting is prohibited and pesticides may only be used if required by law.
“We hope that there will be many more projects and initiatives like Buggi 52, having a future-oriented effect on sustainable development and contributing to the implementation of the global development goals,” stated Michael.
Worldwide, over 221 million hectares of forest are certified according to the standards of the FSC. Over 55,000 companies in 129 countries use FSC to label and advertise products from responsible forest management or recycling.
