Adsorption heat pumps can provide cooling based on renewable district heat or waste heat, thus expanding the scope of district heating networks (DHN) and making better use of existing renewable heat sources. On the other hand, they can also provide heat while significantly reducing the return flow of the district heating network, thus increasing the efficiency of district heating supply. However, commercially available sorption machines are not designed for DHN. Therefore, new and sustainable adsorbent materials ideally suited for the temperatures and applications of district heating networks are developed and incorporated in a heat & mass exchanger designed for reversible adsorption heat pumps. The new sorption heat and mass exchanger is subjected to performance measurements. The results are used to carry out simulations to demonstrate the advantages of adsorption heat pumps for the supply of cooling and heating in district heating networks.