Brochure: Shaping the heat transition – knowledge and ideas for local activists
‘Shaping the heating transition – knowledge and ideas for local activists’ is a new brochure from BUND and ifeu that helps citizens to gain a thorough understanding of the heating transition and actively shape it. It is aimed at committed individuals who want to promote climate-friendly, affordable and socially equitable heating – both in their own homes and at the local level.
Ready for a heat pump? Online tool gives homeowners an initial assessment
Is my house suitable for heating with a heat pump? The new ‘Heat Pump Building Check’ provides homeowners with a quick assessment. Using a simplified room-by-room heating load analysis, the online tool shows whether the building is ‘low-temperature-compatible’, i.e. which rooms can be heated sufficiently with a flow temperature of maximum 55 °C or where this can be achieved with minor measures. The ‘Heat Pump Building Check’ is a new, free online tool that is now available to homeowners to assess the technical suitability of existing buildings for the use of a heat pump. The application was developed on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency under the leadership of the ifeu Institute, together with the non-profit consulting company co2online and the engineering firm Heckmann.
Building Modernisation Act as an opportunity
Thinking about heat generation and efficiency together – for growth, jobs and acceptance: The announcement by the coalition committee that it will replace the current Building Energy Act with a ‘Building Modernisation Act’ next year offers, in the view of industry experts, an opportunity for a more integrated policy that addresses climate-neutral heat generation, efficient building technology and structural thermal insulation together.
Study on CO2-neutral state administration published
On behalf of the Hessian Ministry of HMLU, ifeu has investigated how the state administration can achieve its climate policy goals by 2030. To this end, ifeu has developed various scenarios that show which measures are necessary to significantly reduce the state administration's greenhouse gas emissions and achieve a net greenhouse gas-neutral administration in the long term. The analysis also provides important insights into costs, energy-saving potential, and the role of compensation strategies.
Current market analysis on energy services published
Since 2015, the Federal Agency for Energy Efficiency (BfEE) has been working with a consortium consisting of Prognos AG, the ifeu Institute and Verian to regularly examine the markets for energy consulting, energy management and energy contracting in Germany. The results of the analysis for 2024 were presented and discussed on 14 October 2025 in Berlin at an in-person event with selected experts. The presentation slides are available for download. You can watch the presentation on YouTube.
Transformation hub: Namibia as a hydrogen pioneer
ifeu welcomes experts to discuss opportunities, challenges, and sustainability For the third “Treffpunkt Transformation” event, we welcomed Dr. Ludger Eltrop and his doctoral student Tobias Schließ from the Institute for Energy Economics and Rational Energy Use (IER) at the University of Stuttgart as speakers. In their presentation on “Hydrogen Production in Namibia,” they introduced various projects in Namibia, focusing on the DAURES Green Hydrogen Village project, and placed it in the global context of a developing hydrogen economy.
HIBISCUS - Bio-based innovations for building envelopes
Twelve European partners from research and technology organisations, SMEs and industrial groups met for a successful kick-off meeting for the European research and development project HIBISCUS, which was officially launched in September 2025. The project goal: aims to develop new bio-based construction materials to reduce dependence on fossil resources and contribute to the objectives of the Green Deal and the bioeconomy strategy of the European Union. Koordiniert wird das Projekt von Soprema, einem französischen Baustoffkonzern. Das ifeu übernimmt die integrierte Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung und setzt den „Safe and Sustainable by Design“-Ansatz (SSbD) um, um die Sicherheit und Umweltverträglichkeit der HIBISCUS-Produkte über den gesamten Lebenszyklus zu gewährleisten.
Discussion paper ‘Future Standard for Old Buildings’ published – How we can accelerate building renovation and make it fairer
The energy-efficient renovation of existing buildings is a key component in achieving climate targets. However, the current federal subsidy programme for efficient buildings (BEG) is reaching its limits: high costs, complex requirements and social inequalities are slowing down energy-efficient renovations. How can the renovation rate be increased without losing sight of efficiency and social justice? The discussion paper published today by Martin Pehnt (ifeu) and Thomas Auer (TU Munich) provides concrete proposals on how BEG funding can be made leaner, fairer and more effective – without sacrificing the quality of the renovation.
A new emissions trading scheme for buildings and transport – TREFFPUNKT TRANSFORMATION with Dr. Jana Nysten
Yesterday evening, we welcomed Dr. Jana Nysten from the Environmental Energy Law Foundation to the ifeu Institute in Heidelberg for an exciting lecture as part of our lecture series ‘Meeting Point Transformation – Future Knowledge at ifeu’ on ‘Emissions Trading System 2’. The next event, ‘Meeting Point Transformation – Future Knowledge at ifeu’, will take place on Thursday, 4 December. We look forward to welcoming speaker Dr Ludger Eltrop from the Institute for Energy Economics and Rational Energy Use at the University of Stuttgart. Registration and further information: www.ifeu.de