Sustainable Factories - Assessment and design of sustainable, resource-efficient factories

Against the backdrop of exponentially rising energy prices and an increasing number of legal requirements for the sustainable design of industrial buildings (especially with regard to resource efficiency), it is imperative to take a closer look at the topic both economically and ecologically. The aim of the research project is therefore to identify and evaluate ecological and economic potentials in industrial construction. The project focuses on the interactions of all system components within the entire factory system. The implementation of the research project therefore requires an integrated approach to the problem by an interdisciplinary team. It must be able to demonstrate all the skills necessary for the planning and construction of an industrial building. With regard to the fields of activity, the competencies for the areas of location and building can be provided by the applicant architects (RMA). Necessary knowledge in the field of building services engineering is provided by the technical plant planner (ENAKON), knowledge of the process and organisation by the factory planner (IFA).

In the course of the project, the existing possibilities for the economic and ecological design of sustainable factories will be assessed. Since the use of these possibilities depends essentially on the design of the existing objects in a factory (such as operating equipment or technical installations), these must be investigated additionally. In addition, in order to assess the sustainability of a factory, it must be possible to quantify the concrete design of the individual factory buildings. This is made possible by the definition of scale values and class intervals, which is also part of the research project. In order to enable a systematic analysis and evaluation of the ecological and economic sustainability of existing and planned industrial buildings in the future, the findings will be implemented in a software tool. The result of the project will enable a software-supported evaluation of the economic and ecological sustainability of industrial buildings in the future. Combined with the grouping of existing factories into so-called sustainability oriented efficiency classes, cross-discipline improvement measures can be derived.