How our first building Zero.One lowers your personal carbon footprint

In recent years we have witnessed a renaissance of one of the oldest and most sustainable building materials: timber. All asset classes have seen this rise, with timber being used more in retail, logistics, infrastructure and residential projects across the globe.

Using renewable timber in construction is a stepping stone in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry’s much-needed decarbonisation pathway. As John Schellnhuber, founder and director emeritus of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) puts it, the challenge lies in “reforesting the globe and retimbering the cities”. One cubic metre of timber locks away approximately 1 metric tonne of CO2. We need to recognise timber and timber-hybrid buildings as valuable carbon sinks that can play a major role in addressing global warming.

At GROPYUS , we use a timber-frame system to maximise resource efficiency and effectiveness. All our components are designed and manufactured in house, based on a timber frame, using only PEFC-certified timber. Aside from timber’s important role in carbon sequestration in buildings, there are many more upsides that make timber GROPYUS’s material of choice. One example is how timber allows modular elements to be manufactured with exceptionally high accuracy. This is a critical part of evolving away from individual construction projects and towards creating a scalable building product, assembled with ease and speed from discrete, prefabricated elements.

Scalability is vital to meet both our objectives: closing the affordable housing gap while reducing carbon compared to conventional construction methods and materials.

Zero.One, GROPYUS ’s first building, demonstrates that carbon-negative buildings are within reach and can be scaled in the medium term. Situated in Wei?enthurm near Koblenz, Zero.One is a nine-storey timber-frame high-rise with 54 apartments and a gross floor area of 4,200 m2. Embodied carbon in Zero.One has been reduced by 22% compared to the DGNB reference building. Fa?ade-integrated PV panels, part of a smart energy management system, generate sufficient solar energy over their expected 50-year lifetime to make the building energy positive (equivalent to carbon negative) in terms of operational carbon. Compared to the reference building’s 20.3 kg CO2/m2*a (meaning 20.3 kg of CO2 is released per square metre of floor space) the energy-positive GROPYUS building goes beyond net-zero operations, generating an energy surplus that translates into a negative value of -5.98 CO2/m2*a (meaning 5.98 kg of CO2 is saved per square metre of floor space).

Zero.One has a remarkable whole-life carbon result. This is thanks to the smart use of timber, which significantly reduces embodied carbon, and the clever integration of an on-site solar energy generation system. Taking operational energy use and embodied carbon together, the building performs 95% better than the reference building. This would allow a person with an otherwise average lifestyle living in a GROPYUS apartment in Germany to reduce their personal carbon footprint by 1 metric tonne or approximately 13%, down to 6.7 tonnes from an average of 7.7 tonnes of carbon per annum.

We are not a climate-tech company and aren’t pursuing a pure-play decarbonisation strategy. That’s why we look at these savings as a positive side-effect of our central mission to create sustainable living for everyone. It’s impressive all the same and shows the difference sustainable buildings can make.

Bernd Oswald , co-founder of GROPYUS

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