“Energie und Umweltzentrum” – Centre for Energy and the Environment – is an independent and self-managed association that has been working on renewable energies, energy and water savings, green building and environmental education since 1981.

Its story begins this way: in order to give a practical realization to these topics, in the 1980s a group of young people engaged in the anti-nuclear movement bought and restructured, through a nationally launched subscription, a former school near Hanover that could function as a model demonstration.

The integration of green building, energy and water saving systems and renewable energy have reduced the overall energy consumption of 70% and the consumption of drinking water by 50% in the building. Their motto is: “There is also another way” initially referred to nuclear power, it has become a tangible example of a different way of living for all citizens, associations, builders and the institutions themselves.

Today, on the 18,000 square meters of land that is property of the Centre there are also a low energy consumption house built in 1991 and a passive house with almost no energy consumption, built in the year 2000, along with an organic garden, a Phyto-purification system, rainwater collection systems, a pellet heating system, various solar thermal collectors for the production of hot water and photovoltaic systems that provide the electricity produced to the grid.
Over the years, the several hundred citizens, designers, installers, builders, public administrators who have passed through the Center could thus have the clear proof, even before attending the theoretical courses, that this “utopia” might easily become reality with a bit of practical common sense, both ecological and economic.

And somehow the EUZ must have managed to affect its surrounding environment. Indeed, not far from the Centre we can find the solar panel factory Solvis – the world’s first “passive” factory – and the Kronsberg district of Hanover is an example of low-energy consumption architecture, with passive houses and wind farms.

“Practice is our strong point” says another motto of the Centre and, in fact, the academy of the e.u. [Z.] has been offering a professional qualification for 30 years now, with special reference to practice, in the form of seminars and conferences. Here you can learn professional and practical skills that can be integrated directly into your profession.

Three pillars of the Centre:

  • Building for energy efficiency and without wasting resources,
  • Rational production of energy and use of renewable energies,
  • Smart and efficient use of energy in schools and offices.

For more information, please visit the website.