Sustainability and climate protection are a central company aim for BUWOG and a valuable element of its corporate culture. Sustainability is understood in a comprehensive sense, that is, in environmental, economic and social terms. This applies to the development of new construction projects, the management of our residential complexes and the properties of our third-party clients as well as to our employees’ jobs. In order to send another important signal to our customers, we are the first Austrian real estate company to have developed our own training initiative for the management of our real estate: a course to become a climate administrator.
The challenges of climate change as well as political and legal upheavals are perceptible to us as well as our customers and therefore in our day-to-day business. With the training programme for climate administrators, which will be launched in May 2023, we are creating a one-of-a-kind and climate-friendly qualification opportunity for our property managers in Austria. BUWOG has developed an entirely new hybrid learning format in cooperation with ecowo GmbH, the EBZ Business School and renowned partners such as the engineering firm e7.
Hybrid training model
The further training to become a climate administrator can be completed for the most part online using a learning app. The course consists of 17 e-training sessions, which can be learned via the app within a year, entirely independent of time and place. There are also three face-to-face seminar modules, which are defined primarily by practical relevance and intended to deepen the theoretical content. For the training modules, renowned partners such as ÖGNI, E7 as well as the EBZ Business School in Germany have been obtained as training institutes and to provide lecturers.
The new course for climate administrators enables the development of sound expertise on relevant topics in several modules. The topics covered include climate protection targets and the legal framework, e-mobility, renewable heat and power generation, building certifications and the fundamentals of the EU taxonomy.
The course is intended to combine available expertise and the existing professionally relevant training, knowledge and evidence in real estate management with the subject area of sustainability, both in theory and in practice. After completing all modules, the course finishes with a certificate as climate administrator.
Sustainable customer orientation
Another important objective of the new course is to actively prepare our customers for current and future climate-related challenges and to advise them in this regard, thus adding a valuable component to our extensive range of services. As a first step, we will bring our customers up to speed on the topics of sustainability and climate protection and inform them in an established agenda item at our future owners’ meetings.
The training to become a climate administrator and the resulting additional services are also an important factor in achieving the target of reducing CO2 emissions nearly 57% (basis 2005) by 2030. BUWOG is the only real estate company to be a partner in the klimaaktiv pact of the Federal Ministry for Climate Action. Together with ten other large companies in Austria, we are pursuing the target mentioned above.
With the climate administrator course, BUWOG’s intention is to take responsibility for sustainability, climate and environmental protection as well as socially and to introduce a new trend in the real estate industry in Austria. We are convinced that the topic of sustainability must become an important and indispensable part of future training in real estate management.
