Refugees could take the pressure off the shortage of skilled workers in skilled trade businesses. If it weren’t for the political paragraph chaos. Last week, politicians and more than 300 asylum helpers met in the Bavarian state parliament to discuss the refugee situation as part of the “Der Landtag im Gespräch” series. The helpers criticized current work bans as well as the immense bureaucracy involved in […]

Refugees could take the pressure off the shortage of skilled workers in skilled trade businesses. If it weren’t for the political paragraph chaos.

Last week, politicians and more than 300 asylum helpers met in the Bavarian state parliament to discuss the refugee situation as part of the “Der Landtag im Gespräch” series. The helpers criticized current work bans as well as the immense amount of bureaucracy, which causes both refugees and employers to quickly lose heart. And yet it would all be so simple: the skilled trades urgently need skilled workers, the refugees are looking for employment – but it’s not that simple after all.

The frustration about this was also evident at the last regulars’ table of the Munich Construction Forum, where the Munich Refugee Council was a guest speaker on the current employment situation of refugees. “I would like to integrate a refugee into my company. Is there an overview that shows me what I need to do to do this?” asked a member of the Bauforum. “We have so many loopholes, deviations and individual cases that I can’t just answer the question like that,” replied Rebecca Kilian-Mason, Managing Director of the Refugee Council. The legally complex system is difficult to understand and the scope for individual immigration authorities is very large.

Sandblasting company Bräuer from Gilching used a practical example to show the challenges that the integration of refugees into working life can bring. The company employs two permanent skilled workers from Eritrea and Afghanistan. Language barriers were quickly overcome through the activities in the company. The much greater challenges included the slow procedures of the authorities and the lack of and unreliable information from the offices.

Another challenge was finding accommodation for the two employees. After the two refugees were employed, they lost their right to stay in their old accommodation. “Both of them suddenly no longer had a roof over their heads. I found out by chance,” says Andreas Bräuer from the sandblasting company, “that they had been sleeping under a bridge for several days around Christmas because they couldn’t get an apartment. Then we immediately looked for a place to stay together. But it wasn’t that easy. If a landlord has the choice between a trainee teacher and a refugee, for example, he always decides against the refugee. It was only through personal contacts and the assurance that both would remain employed by me that we were able to find an apartment.”

Help in the maze of paragraphs

“Without the support of voluntary institutions, we wouldn’t have got anywhere,” says Bräuer. Free advice from the Refugee Council or the “StayWelcome” employment agency can help here. Companies can also find support from asylum support groups and in vocational schools, where there are so-called integration classes.

Of the 53 companies organized in Münchner Bauforum e. V., seven companies currently employ a total of eleven refugees. They are employed as interns, trainees and permanent skilled workers. Their exceptional friendliness, politeness and punctuality were expressly praised at the Bauforum’s regulars’ table evening – the companies see a need for action primarily in politics in order to successfully implement integration.

About the Münchner Bauforum

The Münchner Bauforum association has been bringing together experts from every sector of the construction industry for five years. The association acts as an intermediary for private individuals to find qualified tradesmen, planners and service providers for construction services. However, the Münchner Bauforum is not just a network of different companies. The members also deal with current issues and problems, such as the current integration of refugees.

The substance that permanently retains carbon dioxide in the soil: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Pietsch and Dr.-Ing. Heino Kamieth present a substrate made from compost and biochar in Hamburg that helps both allotment gardeners and the climate.

Slowing down the rise in_{CO2 in} the atmosphere is one of the most important goals in the fight against climate change. Ecosystem services can make a valuable contribution to this. Jürgen Pietsch, Professor Emeritus at Hamburg University of Technology and founder of the Ecosystems Cultivation Office, presented concrete ways to implement this at the traditional Hamburg Patriotic Society. Dr. Heino Kamieth, former Head of Forestry, Landscape and Nature Conservation for the City of Hanover, provided support.

Both have been working on urban ecology issues for several decades – Pietsch in a university context, Kamieth on the basis of urban green development. They are driven by the question of how_CO2 can be permanently stored, particularly in urban soils.
Their research focuses on ecosystem services, which are among the key concepts in the fight against global warming. Storing carbon in the soil (soil carbon sequestration) can remove carbon dioxide and other climate-damaging carbon compounds from the earth’s atmosphere – a significant contribution to climate protection.

Permanent carbon dioxide storage in the soil

It is well known that soils globally store around four times as much carbon as vegetation and more than twice as much as the atmosphere. Previous concepts have focused on the renaturation and rewetting of moors or agriculture. There are competing projects for many ecosystem elements with the exception of_{CO2 sequestration} in garden soils.

Jürgen Pietsch’s concept is the first to focus on the potential of urban areas. This is because garden soils on which fruit and vegetables are grown store around five times more_CO2 than agricultural land due to their humus content.

However, Pietsch does not stop at just playing with numbers, but designs a bundle of networked mechanisms for how ecosystem services can be effective in urban areas by improving the soil: A well thought-out, sustainable cycle management.

An element in the urban mix of urban green spaces that has been neglected for a long time is being given new weight – allotment gardens. Pietsch calculated that up to 50,000 tons of_CO2 can be permanently stored in Hamburg’s allotment gardens alone. As a benchmark, he cites the 6,322 tons of_{CO2 equivalents} that the Hamburg savings bank Haspa has to offset annually in its sustainability report.

Allotment gardens benefit from the storage of greenhouse gases

Adding humus to garden soil alone is not enough. This would only bind_CO2 for a short time. Only by adding biochar and another available additive is permanent storage possible. Pietsch calls this balanced mixture “ECO Climate Protection Substrate S”. It was developed in collaboration with Hamburg R&D facilities using the project management tool Cultivation Thinking.

In addition to binding carbon dioxide, the substrate has other desirable effects: Soils become more fertile and higher yielding, biodiversity increases, the nutrient balance and the ability to store water improve.

The climate-friendly substrate can be used in a variety of ways – it is just as suitable for garden soil as it is for raised beds or sustainable green roofs. This was the result of initial tests in collaboration with the Technical University of Hamburg. But how can the production and distribution of the climate protection substrate be organized and financed? And why does the local economy also benefit from_{storing CO2} in allotment garden soil?

Closing the gap in the sustainable circular economy

The green waste from urban green spaces and residential areas could be used to produce the ECO climate protection substrate S, as it is already produced today in recycling centers and processed into compost or incinerated. In Hamburg, compost is already marketed by a subsidiary of the city’s waste management department. In future, the wood content of green waste could be used to produce municipal biochar, and the resulting waste heat could be fed into the city’s district heating system.

Jürgen Pietsch suggests setting up non-profit companies as a sustainable link in the value chain of existing municipal waste disposal companies. Monitoring the actual ecosystem performance of soils would also be a task that should be taken on by a specially founded non-profit limited company. Certification could thus be controlled and carried out on site. Taking Hamburg as an example, banks and insurance companies based in the Hanseatic city could acquire the certificates and thus offset their greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to fulfilling ESG requirements, this would also improve their image, as the effects would be felt locally.

Why are allotment gardens suitable for the project?

Why does Jürgen Pietsch focus his activities on allotment gardens? One reason is that, thanks to their association structure, they have a high level of organization and regularly consult specialist advisors who can provide information on the benefits of using the climate protection substrate. They are also legally obliged to use part of their garden areas “for the production of horticultural products for their own use”.

Certificates bear the costs

This inexpensive method of natural_{CO2 storage} is also economically attractive. The costs are covered by the payment from the certificate holders. About one third of the proceeds would be needed to cover the management costs, two thirds could flow into the coffers of the allotment gardeners.

Within the framework of the project, allotment gardens could gain further importance within the city. Their outdated image was already being dispelled by a boom at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Their promotion of climate protection has given them new relevance.

An agreement between the allotment garden associations and the city of Hamburg already states that the number of plots must not fall below 40,000. Allotment garden areas can increase the well-being of the entire metropolitan population, especially if they continuously contribute to_{binding CO2} in the soil. Pietsch suggests the Horner Marsch allotment garden site as a pilot project. It consists of many plots that are too large and is therefore to be restructured over the next few years.

As there is hardly any space for wind turbines in Hamburg, the method of using soils as natural reservoirs would be particularly suitable for achieving the city’s prescribed climate targets.

Bahn-Landwirtschaft, Karlsruhe, which owns allotment garden areas throughout Germany, is involved in the project. Managing Director Matthias Albrecht from the Hamburg district of the association emphasized his support for the project at the Patriotische Gesellschaft. As a next step, Jürgen Pietsch is currently drawing up a guideline for action with Bahn-Landwirtschaft. Basically, his aim is to “bring stakeholders together for the idea.”

If this succeeds, the sustainable improvement of urban soils with the climate protection substrate is likely to be talked about even more often in the future.

Also interesting: Architects for Future and Deutsche Umwelthilfe wrote an open letter on the construction turnaround on the occasion of the Construction Ministers’ Conference.