mipsHAUS

The mipsHAUS-Institute charity corporation (mHI) aims to integrate resource efficiency into the daily work practice of architects, planners, and construction engineers. Founded in 2004 by an interdisciplinary working group of experienced architects, scientists, and construction engineers, mHI is an independent research and training organisation in the field of resource efficient and sustainable building and construction.
Implementing the famous MIPS-concept into the planning process of building construction and renovation mipsHAUS-Institute forms a bridge between research and business institutions in the construction sector. MIPS stands for Material-Input per Service Unit and is a widely acknowledged life-cycle-based measure, originally developed by Prof. Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek and his team at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy (WI), indicating the amount of nature used to provide one unit of a predefined product or service in kg.

Emblematized by the weight of the "ecological rucksack" MIPS indicates the overall material requirement along the whole product life cycle including production-, use-, and disposal-phase (from the cradle to the grave) visualizing usually hidden material flows as well as potentials for more eco-efficiency.
The mipsHAUS-Institute further developed the MIPS-concept, adjusting it according to the needs of daily working routines in the planning and construction sector. To enable a wide application of the MIPS-evaluation already in the early planning-phase of construction and renovation projects, existing standards like the "Bauregelliste" by the German Institute for Construction Techniques (DIBT) were taken into account during the adjustment of the MIPS. By this means reliable estimates of the life-cycle-wide resource requirement of a construction project can be produced at low cost and time expenditure already during the planning phase.
Through the development of "mipsHAUS-Standards" for a sustainable quality assurance in the construction sector mipsHAUS-Institute helps to facilitate the necessary change towards sustainable development in the building industry.