This includes, for example, building in existing buildings. The deliberate preservation of historic buildings in Werksviertel-Mitte has saved almost 73 million megajoules of gray energy. CO2 savings are also one of the goals behind the development of a dedicated urban farm near the Werksviertel-Mitte. The short transportation distances of just eight minutes by car create a hyperlocal cycle between production and consumption. The same applies to our local brewery, the WERKSVIERTEL BRÄU. The beer is produced directly at WERK3 and distributed in the district.
The hyperlocal cycle of food production is in turn closed in the so-called Rocket Center, our own composting plant. Food waste and green waste are converted into humus there, which is then spread on the green areas of the Werksviertel-Mitte or in agriculture, where it increases yield quality.
The decentralized energy supply of the neighbourhood by its own energy service provider, werkkraft, also contributes to saving resources. Thanks to the sector coupling of electricity, heating and cooling, energy is produced in the Werksviertel-Mitte with an efficiency of over 90 percent. Thanks to the decentralized energy supply, the Werksviertel-Mitte can also create its own attractive offers for electromobility. This includes its own eCarsharing fleet as well as the conversion of service vehicles in facility management to electric drives.
Making mobility more sustainable in Werksviertel-Mitte also means switching more than just individual modes of transport to environmentally friendly drives. Overall, the district is designed in such a way that all city functions such as work, living, leisure, culture, entertainment, retail and gastronomy are within walking distance of each other. Like hyperlocal agriculture, this also saves on transportation routes.
Since 2022, the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering has also been based at Werksviertel-Mitte with a project hub to develop new ideas for sustainable neighbourhood solutions at the interface between research and practice and to test them on site.
However, perhaps the most important driver of innovation at Werksviertel-Mitte is not so much in the numerous sustainability projects, but in an inconspicuous sentence:
We don't want our neighborhood to be finished one day. Of course, one day all the planned buildings in Werksviertel-Mitte will be built. But even then, there should still be spaces in our district that can change, where there is room for new ideas and projects that entertain, surprise and inspire people or that are urgently needed. Because we are firmly convinced: What is right today can be even better tomorrow.
