-        Official award ceremony on 6 June 2023

-        Rosenau II receives award in the "Production" category

-        Awarded by the German Institute for Service Quality in cooperation with the news channel ntv and the DUP Unternehmer

-        Under the patronage of Brigitte Zypries, former Federal Minister of Economics and Technology

Sievert SE, a leading European supplier of premium building materials, has received the German Award for Sustainability Projects in the "Production" category for its Rosenau II dry mortar plant, which went into operation at the beginning of 2022. Jens Günther, CEO of Sievert SE, and Dr Martin Kühn, Managing Director of Sievert Baustoffe SE & Co. KG, accepted the award at an official ceremony on 6 June. The award recognises the best sustainability projects in the DACH region that are highly effective and innovative.

"It makes us very proud to receive the German Award for Sustainability Projects. The award makes it clear that Rosenau II is a lighthouse project in terms of modernity and climate friendliness in building materials production that will change the production of dry mortar in the long term," Jens Günther is certain.

Rethinking as the key to efficiency

"With Rosenau II, we have completely rethought the production of dry mortar: from the construction of the plant to the machines, all details have been tested and optimised for efficiency and sustainability. This is how the vision of Europe's most modern and sustainable dry mortar plant became reality," explains Dr Martin Kühn. Thanks to optimised structural planning, it was possible to save up to 30 percent concrete and 10 percent steel during construction compared to conventional construction methods.

By far the most energy-intensive part of the entire production process, accounting for at least 80 per cent of CO2 emissions, is the drying of the sand fractions used in the production of dry mortar, adhesives and plasters. As a rule, dry mortar plants use fossil energy for this. Rosenau II has found a climate-friendly and innovative solution with its CO2-neutral sand drying plant: In the spirit of a circular economy, the heating energy is obtained from the combustion of waste wood, which is reused in this way. At the same time, Rosenau II relies on heat recovery by transporting the warm exhaust air generated during the drying process through a heat exchanger and utilising it further, for example to heat the office and hot storage areas. "With the completely CO2-neutral sand drying plant, Rosenau II has found the solution to the biggest challenge facing our industry in terms of sustainable building materials production," says Kühn. Even though raw materials such as cement and lime account for by far the largest share of CO2 emissions in the construction industry, building material manufacturers can only influence their recipes to a limited extent. "It is therefore all the more important to control your own influencing factors," says Kühn.

Thanks to the CO2-neutral sand drying plant and the photovoltaic system on the roof, the plant can also save more than 2,000 tonnes of CO2 (compared to the old plant at the same location) per year at full capacity. With a total of 14,000 square metres of production, storage and handling space, Rosenau II has an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes.

The issue of waste avoidance is highly relevant on construction sites. However, the production of building materials also generates waste. In order to maximise waste avoidance here, dry mortar dust, for example, is fed back into the production chain at the Rosenau II plant. The neighbouring gravel works not only supplies sand for the production of building materials by the shortest route, it also has a collection point for building rubble. In future, this is to be taken into account in the formulations so that recycled materials can also be used in the building materials.

Maintaining sustainable, proven partnerships and locations

Rosenau II can also be characterised as sustainable beyond the ecological aspect: In terms of a sustainable partnership with business partners and employees, with Rosenau II Sievert is relying locally on decades of project partnerships, existing expertise, the existing customer structure and loyal employees. "We have stayed in the region, built a new plant and expanded the local team," says Günther.

Sievert's strategy is to produce from the region for the region with a total of 18 dry mortar plants across Germany - this saves unnecessary transport routes and therefore CO2. Sievert had already been operating a dry mortar plant at the Mamming-Rosenau site near Dingolfing for decades, which either had to be extensively renovated or replaced due to the old facilities. Sievert took this opportunity to build a new, maximally efficient plant. "Our aim is not only to manufacture innovative building materials, but also to produce them in a climate-friendly way," says Kühn. With this in mind, the company recently launched the "Sievert Green Line" product range, which bundles ecologically advanced building materials and at the same time declares their properties transparently. Sievert is thus pursuing the goal of making a further contribution to sustainable construction through innovation and transparency. As part of the construction industry, which is responsible for around 40 per cent of all greenhouse gases in Germany through the construction and operation of buildings, Sievert believes it has a responsibility to make a contribution to greater sustainability.

Award aims to provide inspiration for sustainable projects

The German Award for Sustainability Projects focuses on the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the areas of social, economic and environmental sustainability. The aim of the award is to inspire companies to launch sustainable projects and make sustainable commitment visible at all levels. The patron is Brigitte Zypries, former Federal Minister of Economics, and the high-calibre jury from business, science and politics is chaired by Yvonne Zwick, Chairwoman of B.A.U.M. e.V.. The award is presented in a total of 28 categories by the German Institute for Service Quality in co-operation with the news channel ntv and the DUP Unternehmer.

Further information about the award and the results of the 2023 award ceremony can be found here: https://award-nachhaltigkeitsprojekte.de/#Preistraeger