Being part of the multidisciplinary process allows us to meet both specific needs from the municipalities and combining them with locally existing potentials to set up an action plan to prepare a solid basis to implement new building typologies.
Read moreUpcoming EU Taxonomy, ESG-criteria and all related changes to CO2-emissions lead to rethink potentials of low-energy-standards of existing buildings. Expanding the lifecycle of buildings by activating it for food production leads to effective productive and resilient cities.
Read moreThe city of St. Pölten, in pursuit of its vision of becoming the fittest city of Austria, has aligned its strategic goals with the Smart City concept; urban food production asks for being the fourth column of it.
Read moreConsulting and research activities have been gaining exponentially in importance for several years - especially to enable the measurability of sustainability figures.
This is currently increasingly demanded at the international political level (ESG) - and also on the part of far-sighted, sustainability-oriented investors, there is a growing realization that the production of healthy food must once again increasingly move to the side of the consumer, not least in order to ensure food security with regard to new challenges in terms of the supply chain, which influences procurement and pricing. But also to provide access to healthy food for all, thereby strengthening local socio-economic networks (keyword COVID-19) and building resilience/resilience in our society. Urban agriculture is thus becoming increasingly important for urban planning and policy.
Research results from the vfi show potentials on how cities can incorporate urban agriculture into their policies and, for example, activate vacant land for food production. In addition, concepts for new building typologies - vertical farms - can open up new business areas and, at the same time, jobs for new occupational groups, thus making a positive contribution to moving closer to the Global Sustainable Development Goals.
Currently, the food value chain accounts for about one third of primary energy demand globally. Production, washing, processing, packaging, to name just a few elements, are linked via transport and supported by large-volume storage and cold storage facilities with all its fossil fuel consumptions.
Read moreToo often it seems that efforts of parts of our society to draw attention to current challenges related to maintaining a habitable zone for us are leading to nowhere.
Read moreWe are still part of nature. But with that the discussion about nature is closed once and for all. Here it’s about cultural achievements. About 11,500 years ago, we assumed - step by step - that it might be wiser to grow food ourselves. From the initial 50.000 m² that a person needed to feed himself sufficiently before the Neolithic, we now need 2.300 m² per caput.
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