Short company profile: bauXund - build healthy!

"bauXund forschung und beratung", which translates "build healthy research and consulting" is a Vienna (Austria) based consulting company specializing in environmental and health issues in the construction sector. The fields of work of bauXund are the diverse aspects of sustainable construction in large-volume building construction. bauXund has the following main areas of work: Building certifications, life cycle assessment of building materials, climate risk analyses, building ecology support through chemical and product management, pollutant investigation of existing buildings and applied research. Founded in 2003, bauXund has over 20 years of experience in advising public and private clients and their planning teams. Approximately 1000 building projects with more than 3 mio. m² gross floor area have been successfully finished.

Building assessments (DGNB, OeGNB, klimaaktiv, EU taxonomy) are a central focus of our work. This begins with consulting during project development on the various aspects of sustainable buildings, integrates these into the tendering process for construction services, accompanies their implementation during the construction phase and concludes with auditing after completion of the building project. Important specialist planning services for building audits - but also without audits! - are the preparation and optimization of the life cycle costs and the life cycle assessment of the building. We also consider the preparation of a climate risk analysis and vulnerability assessment for the property and the building to be very important in order to safeguard the value of the investment. This enables climate risks such as flooding, hail and storm damage or summer overheating to be minimized.

Another focus of the work is in the area of material ecology and construction chemicals. bauXund developed a methodology for avoiding the use of substances that are harmful to health and / or the environment in large-volume building construction over 20 years ago with “Chemical and Product Management” and has continuously refined it since then. Relevant pollutants include VOC / organic solvents, plasticizers, HFCs, PVC, biocides, heavy metals and allergenic substances in building products such as adhesives, paints, varnishes, primers, insulating materials, wood-based materials and floor coverings. This service profile begins with the development of ecological goals during the planning phase and their anchoring through the definition of criteria in the invitation to tender. It continues in the construction phase with product testing and approval as well as on-site inspections and is concluded with indoor air measurements.

Over the last 20 years, bauXund has successfully implemented chemical and product management in more than 900 construction projects in large-volume building construction (residential and non-residential buildings; new builds and refurbishments) throughout Austria on more than three million m² of floor space. In the process, bauXund was able to show that it is possible to reduce the use of organic solvents / VOCs by around 90 percent and thus massively reduce indoor air pollution.

bauXund has received several awards for its work. These include the European Indoor Hygiene Prize and twice the Austrian State Prize for Architecture and Sustainability for building projects in Krems (Lower Austria) and Graz (Styria).

Another field of bauXund's work is the investigation of pollutants and contaminants in existing buildings. The current Austrian Recycling Building Materials Ordinance stipulates that all harmful substances contained in building materials from previous decades, such as asbestos, PCBs, PAHs, wood preservatives such as PCP and CFC insulation boards, must be professionally removed from the building and disposed of separately before demolition. The pollutant and contaminant investigation offered by bauXund is the central preliminary service for this. bauXund supports the client and the demolition company by providing additional deconstruction support in order to efficiently and comprehensively implement the deconstruction of pollutants. This means that the materials used, which are then free of pollutants, can be reused or recycled in the best possible way in line with the circular economy.

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