You can help save the environment by making your company and its products more eco-friendly – and at the same time score points with your customers and cut your energy and raw materials costs. And we’re the ones who can show you how to do it. For example with an environmental management system, the Blue Angel Eco Label, or the Umweltinnovationsprogramm (environmental innovation program), which offers subsidies to companies that institute environmental innovations. And if you’d like to become a UBA contractor or provider, then you should take a look at our invitations to tender.
A large amount of petroleum- and coal-based chemicals is used as intermediates. A research project recently launched by UBA is intended to clarify, whether intermediate product applications result in the transfer of constituents of concern in the value chain or their release into the environment.
The new award for sustainable buildings, neighbourhoods and ecological innovation will be awarded in 2020 for the first time and aims to distinguish projects that are exemplary role models of sustainability, not only in the classic areas of building stock and new build, but also in five further categories. All stakeholders in the building sector are eligible to enter.
December 11th is the designated International Mountain Day. The day was designated by the UN to show the important role of mountain regions for sustainable development. In line with this, UBA has published a background paper describing the Alpine region on its way to becoming a model region for green economy.
UBA recommends a reduction of VAT on resource-efficient goods and services
Winning projects include sustainable silk production, a modularly constructed smartphone, an electric retrofittable bicycle engine, and an initiative to dispense free tap water for people on the move.
Keeping materials in circulation and preventing them from becoming waste is only possible if the design of a product is adapted accordingly. The possibilities offered by ecodesign were the topic of the Circular Design Forum in Berlin. Here, the results of the project “EcoDesign Circle” were presented, in which the UBA plays the leading role. Documentation and additional materials are now online.
Designers can also contribute to solving the problem of marine litter – with the right choice of materials when designing products, for instance. This was the topic of a workshop that was initiated by the UBA in June 2018 with approximately 30 participants from the Baltic Sea Region. The results and specific recommendations for action have now been published.
Operators of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities can apply for funding under the Environmental Innovation Programme until 15 April 2019
Since the Paris Agreement invites parties to provide their low carbon development strategies by 2020, the European Union is currently preparing its respective mid-century long-term climate strategy. Within a public consultation the German Environment Agency (UBA) provided recently its submission on key priorities relevant for the new EU strategy.
Climate-ADAPT, an online knowledge platform provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission since 2012, has grown into the most important place for information when it comes to adaptation to climate change in Europe. A report of the EEA informs about the experiences and effectiveness of the platform and points to ways of further improving it.
