MU faculty and alumni discuss sustainable building at SB13

Sabine Sedlacek and Hannes Hippacher, MU MSc 2012, and currently Project Manager in Environmental Services of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and Industry, attended the ÖGNI Gründertag 2013 at the Technical University in Graz. The event was integrated in this year’s Sustainable Building Conference SB13, part of a major international series of conferences that focus on sustainable building and construction.

Hannes Hippacher presented the results of the Wirtschaftskammerpreis 2012 study 'Non-state market driven governance in the building sector' where the research team analyzed ÖGNI, Österreichische Gesellschaft für Nachhaltige Immobilienwirtschaft, or the Austrian Society for Sustainable Real Estate, as a case study. The aim was to identify whether ÖGNI, as a non-profit organization, acts as a bridging actor between business, policy, and societal actors.

The lively exchange involved a number of ÖGNI board members who addressed practical questions, and in the course of the discussion both ÖGNI and the research team identified new challenging questions for further research collaboration. Altogether, this study contributes to recent scientific as well as practical knowledge, which is becoming more and more important in sustainability research.

Following this fruitful idea exchange, Dr. Sedlacek is involved in negotiations with ÖGNI to proceed with further research in this developing field.

Hannes Hippacher, Sabine Sedlacek, and ÖGNI President Philipp Kaufmann.