Ground-breaking ceremony for new headqaurter of AfB

Non-Profit IT-company creats space for 50 more jobs

Spatenstich AfB-Zentrale

On June 21, the ground-breaking ceremony for the new headquarters of the non-profit IT company AfB (Arbeit für Menschen mit Behinderung) in Carl-Metz-Straße in Ettlingen took place. The new building will be constructed here by June 2019, creating space for around 50 additional jobs in the inclusion company. Together with the District Administrator of Karlsruhe, Dr. Christoph Schnaudigel, the mayor of Ettlingen, Johannes Arnold, the members of the state parliament Christine Neumann-Martin and Barbara Saebel as well as the investors of oeko2 GmbH and the accompanying architects, AfB founder Paul Cvilak opened the start of construction. "With this new building, we, as Europe's largest non-profit IT company, are committing ourselves to Ettlingen as a location for many more years to come," said Cvilak at the ground-breaking ceremony. "We are very pleased that we are continuing to grow here in the region and will soon be able to offer our employees a new, modern and ecological working environment".

 

The District Administrator of Karlsruhe, Dr. Christoph Schnaudigel, warmly congratulated Cvilak: "The AfB lives inclusion, for which I thank you. I am pleased about the new jobs in the district, which are also created in a company that contributes to the conservation of natural resources. And Ettlingen's mayor Johannes Arnold did not miss the chance to be present at the groundbreaking ceremony. "The AfB succeeds in filling the word 'integration' with content - it thus plays an exemplary role," said the mayor. "The city of Ettlingen is grateful that with AfB it has a competent and reliable partner for inclusion and sustainability in town and that AfB has committed itself to Ettlingen as a location with its new building and will remain loyal to us in the future.

 

oeko2 GmbH will take over the construction financing and operation. The building will be up-to-date in terms of building technology and ecology. For example, a solar power plant and cooling by well water are planned. Overall, the building - planned by Dieter Keck (Atelier 77) and the independent architect André Göhring - falls below the minimum value specified by the German Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) by 25 percent. "Our partnership with the AfB also works extremely well at the current location," says Stefan Weber, Managing Director of oeko2 GmbH. "We are pleased to be able to make a lasting ecological and - thanks to the inclusion concept of the AfB - social impact with the new building.