CO2 Neutral Hotel in Ludwigsburg
- Heide Wessely
In 2014 the city of Ludwigsburg received the National German Sustainability Award for their “integrated, systematic and dedicated sustainability management that also produces innovative stand-alone projects”, as stated by the jury. The Hotel Bergamo is one of these innovation projects. The homogeneous white exterior of this climate protection showcase project catches the eye. The city sold the property, located centrally, under the precondition that a climate-neutral timber construction should be built there. You have to look twice to recognise that the new construction with its fibre cement shingle facade is mostly built of wood. Merely the lower two storeys consist of reinforced concrete. They support 44 prefabricated modules made of cross-laminated timber that house 48 hotel rooms. According to calculations this compensates the carbon footprint of the climate-unfriendly reinforced concrete. This is how it works: Trees need sunlight and CO2 to grow. Wood incorporates that in the form of carbon. When wood is burned or decomposes, exactly the same amount of CO2 is set free. When wood is used for building, the carbon dioxide remains removed from the atmosphere. If a tree is planted anew to replace the one that was felled, it further captures carbon – the forest becomes a CO2 sink.
