Stakeholder workshop on OIB Guidelines 7 – Exchange on the sustainable use of natural resources

For the second time, the Austrian Institute of Construction Engineering organized a stakeholder workshop on OIB Guideline 7 “Sustainable use of natural resources” and invited experts from administration, research, planning, business and interest groups to the large GÖD hall in Vienna on October 9, 2025. This year’s edition focused on presenting the current status of the work and the next steps towards a future seventh OIB Guidline. The main focus was on a common understanding of the future foundations on which sustainable building in Austria is to be further developed.

Classification and objectives

OIB Guidelines 7 will formulate requirements for the sustainability of buildings for the first time. A central element is the assessment of the life cycle global warming potential (GWP) – the key figure that describes the climate impact of a building and the building materials it contains over its entire service life.

The workshop provided space to classify current developments and share experiences from ongoing projects. Keynote speeches by representatives of the building materials industry offered the 120 participants a practical perspective by providing insights into existing sustainability measures in the building materials industry.

Topics of the workshop

The specialist presentations highlighted different perspectives:

• the European framework through the EU Buildings Directive (EPBD 2024/1275) and the new Construction Products Regulation,
• the planned timetable for Austrian implementation,
• methodological questions on data collection and calculation of limit values,
• as well as experience from research, standardization and ongoing projects.

Next steps

The roadmap for the coming years is already clearly outlined:

• by the end of 2025: publication of the EU delegated acts,
• 2026: Draft and review of OIB Guidelines 7,
• 2027: Resolution by the OIB General Assembly,
• from 2028 (floor space > 1000m2) or 2030 (all): mandatory disclosure of the life cycle greenhouse potential in energy performance certificates for new buildings,
• from 2030: Targets for new buildings and introduction of GWP limits.

Panel 1: The OIB Guidelines 7 puzzle

• Robert Schweinzer (SVBRL7 I Federal States of Lower Austria)
• Miriam Pertl (SVBRL7 I Federal states of Carinthia)
• Robert Steinwender (Federal states of Carinthia)

Panel 2: Limit values

• Thomas Zitterl (SVBRL7 I City of Vienna)
• Markus Zilker (Habitat 2030, einszueins architektur ZT GmbH)

Panel 3: Data collection

• Georg Hofmann (SVBRL7 I City of Vienna)
• Georg Matzner (Austrian Steel Construction Association)
• Clemens Schirmer (ARGE Baustahl Eisen Blasy-Neptun GmbH)
• Simon Winter (Holzforschung Austria)
• Sebastian Spaun (Association of the Austrian Cement Industry)
• Roland Zipfel (Stone Ceramics Trade Association)
• Alexander Passer (TU Graz, ASI Committee 271)
• Jürgen Silberknoll (Öst. Bautechnik Vereinigung)
• Robert Veit-Egerer (VCE)

Moderation: Roman Degold (OIB)

Materials and presentations

The presentations of all speakers are now available here free of charge for review and download. The copyright lies with the respective authors

Photo selection (Copyright OIB):

Slides of the presentations for free download: