““A church for the future – open & sustainable!

Annalena Meixner | Projectmanager P28

We are delighted! Our P28 project was awarded a recognition prize at the Austria-wide Church Environmental Awards for „Living together in sustainable church buildings“.  

 Among others, the Catholic Bishop of St. Pölten, Alois Schwarz, and the Lutheran Bishop Michael Chalupka spoke as congratulators. Bishop Schwarz, who is responsible for environmental issues in the Austrian Bishops‘ Conference, paid tribute to the exemplary projects that received the awards. He also emphasized the shared responsibility of all churches for creation: „The future of all of us is at stake.“ The award-winning projects are examples of „how it is possible to use our earth’s resources carefully based on faith.“ The bishop emphasized that far more is invested in environmental protection and climate-friendly technologies in parishes and church institutions than is generally perceived by the public. He cited refurbishments and photovoltaic projects as examples.  

 

Our project manager Annalena Meixner accepted the recognition award at the ceremony on 26 January in the summer refectory of the diocese of St. Pölten.

„It is a great joy and confirmation to see that other Catholic and Protestant communities are also taking the responsibility for creation seriously and are putting more money into building something ecologically and socially sustainable.“

A look back. „The ecologically sustainable renovation of the building at Praterstrasse 28 was one of the biggest challenges of the project,“ Annalena explains. „When it became clear during the planning phase that, contrary to expectations, we would not receive a district heating connection, we were advised by the city to heat the building with natural gas, as there were no feasible sustainable alternatives in the city center location. So we set out on our own search, had a thermodynamic simulation of the entire building carried out, commissioned expert reports on the building ground, discussed possible improvements to the historic building envelope with building physicists and had a new concept drawn up for the entire building services. As a result of this long and costly process, a problematic case has now become an excellent showpiece in terms of ecological sustainability.“

Ecological sustainability in the P28 project:

  • Heating of the entire building via underfloor heating; all hot water is provided by a water-to-water heat pump that uses the groundwater as an energy source (80 kW output); cooling in summer via the underfloor heating pipes and the groundwater.
  • Controlled living space ventilation with heat recovery throughout the building with the option of controlling the temperature of the supply air to avoid energy losses through window ventilation.
  • In addition to the efficient programming of heating and cooling, emphasis is placed on smart room automation that takes into account the utilization of the rooms and environmental influences.
  • Photovoltaic system on the roof to generate sustainable electricity.
  • Additional insulation of the historic building (insulating plaster, interior insulation, thicker exterior insulation, better U-values (heat transfer coefficient) of building components).

The “Ecumenical initiative”. The third all-Austrian church environmental award ceremony after 2024 and 2018 is an ecumenical initiative supported by the Catholic and Protestant environmental officers and supported by the religious orders, among others. The aim is to present projects to the church public as role models.

Conference of Religious Orders takes part

Sr. Anneliese Herzig gave a welcoming address on behalf of the religious orders. The Austrian Conference of Religious Orders is participating in the Church Environmental Award „because it addresses an important and long-standing concern of the religious orders. Good buildings follow what life demands. Religious have put this principle into practice when they have built small cells or large monasteries. They have always planned and built carefully.“ This includes adapting the buildings to new requirements to this day.