Looking back on a successful business year
At the IBU General Meeting on 20 May 2017, IBU Managing Director Dr Burkhart Lehmann presented the 2016 Annual Report, thereby officially bringing the fiscal year to a close and offering a positive retrospective on 2016 and the developments that took place at the IBU during the year.
Fiscal year 2016 was characterised by the continuing growth of IBU membership. A total of 23 new members joined the IBU, consisting of seventeen companies and six associations. This constitutes an 11 % increase in membership, with 193 full members. IBU’s standing as an international organisation was also solidified: For the first time, the majority of the newcomers – twelve new members – came from countries other than Germany. As of 31 December 2016, the IBU had published 1,414 EPDs.
Important areas of activity in 2016 included public relations work as well as providing support to members in the creation of EPDs. This was achieved in part by the creation of a Communications Manual, with a related communications workshop in Cologne at the beginning of the year, and also in part by a special IBU edition of greenBUILDING for BAU 2017 on the topic of EPDS, which involved the intensive participation of IBU members.
Dr Lehmann presented additional IBU highlights of 2016, including the relaunch of the IBU website and the first-ever IBU Members Day, along with the partnership with the German Sustainability Award in the area of the Special Prize for Resource Efficiency and the decisive support of the ECO Platform at the international event ‘EPD and ECO Platform – a successful story’ in October 2016 in Brussels.
With the revised 2016 version of the PCR Part A and the preparation of a fee structure reform, which took effect on 1 January 2017, two additional building blocks for the continuing success of the EPD programme and the IBU were laid.
A digital copy of the Annual Report will be sent to IBU members along with the minutes of the General Meeting.