Publications

With its characteristic shape and the colour scheme of its facade, the UBA’s new main building blends in well with its surroundings. A four-storey ‘snake’ of offices and functional rooms wraps around a public forum and the atrium, which is reserved for Agency staff.

Flyer for the offices of the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau. Visitors who wish to be fully informed about the architectural and environmental design of the new building and head to the atrium can join one of the guided tours.

For the German public, environmental protection is the most important problem in Germany after the labour market. People attach great importance to the quality of environmental assets - such as climate, water, soil or air.

Climate change is already having numerous direct and indirect effects on human health, which means that adaptation measures are required in the fields of health care and preventive medicine, urban planning and building design and in individual behaviour.

On the CD-ROM you will find the complete contents of the internet application ‘Data on the Environment’ (in German, 2009). The brochure is designed to tell you about selected significant trends within five important areas of environmental protection.

Fluxes of reactive nitrogen compounds1 caused or massively changed by human activity constitute a cross-cutting problem in environmental protection. The intensification of the nitrogen cycle makes it possible to supply a growing world population with protein-rich food, but has considerable adverse effects on the environment and human health.

This material was originally published in German and was designed for lessons for 6-12 year old pupils in Germany. It may therefore be necessary in some cases to adapt the worksheets to the situation in the countries where the material is to be used.

Please note: The chapter "Warning - Chemicals!" isn´t up to date any more!

Air pollutants inside schools present a hygiene problem. The indoor pollution observed inside school buildings can be traced back to a variety of causes, such as poor construction, failings in ventilation engineering, incorrect ventilation routines, and the use of particular building materials, fittings or cleaning products which release chemicals into the air.

When this research project was started in autumn 2006, the discussion on the sustainability of bioenergy – and particularly biofuels – was largely restricted to expert circles. The tenor of the discussion however had already developed in the direction of increasing skepticism.

Flame retardants delay the ignition of flammable materials such as plastic, textile and wood and retard the flame propagation. This either prevents a fire from breaking out in the first place, or gives people more time to escape. Materials treated with flame retardants will generally be destroyed in a full fledged fire, though. Numerous chemicals are used as flame retardants.

The brochure presents important and topical facts from the Federal Environment Agency’s core environmental indicator system. 44 environmental indicators – theme-based “signposts in the jungle” of environmental data – provide information about the state of the environment in Germany.

Aufbau von Umweltbehörden und Umsetzung von EU-Recht