Green office buildings

Office areas are getting more and more comfortable. „Green” public buildings have become almost a standard today. In 2014 nearly 100 buildings were BREEM certified in terms of low energy consumption, while in early 2013 there were 150 of them. More and more often commercial centers and warehouses are getting energy efficient too.

Popularity of low energy use certificates is growing. Most of newly constructed office buildings in Warsaw and regional cities apply for a relevant certificate.

Experts claim that this is a way to strengthen the competitiveness of a building. Lower operational costs can be of decisive importance when choosing an office for a company seat, especially that the selection of available offers is wide. The number of available offices is growing. In 2014 in Warsaw approximately 300 square meters of new office area was built. The trend is to follow in the upcoming years.

Older buildings also have to apply for the certificates to confirm their competitive advantage. They introduce energy and water saving procedures, says Aleksander Gutowski, specialist for office buildings certification at Colliers International. – For many lessees the certificate is a must-have in property lease strategy and they ask only for certified offices.

Colliers notices that the interest in certificates is growing also in other sectors of commercial property lease, i.e. in commercial centers and warehouses. There are plans to certify housing buildings as well.

The most popular certification systems are the American LEED and the British BREEM. Both certificates assess the impact of the building onto the environment. They include such parameters as energy and water consumption, CO2 emission, environment-friendly construction materials and comfort for their users.

– We can see a considerable growth in certificates for the commercial sector. Certified buildings are optimized, however, and the use of energy and water is limited, which translates into operational costs of the facility. In the warehouse sector the cost is a key factor too. We can observe – slowly but steadily, the growing popularity of the certificates here too, explains the Colliers expert.

Improving the energy efficiency of buildings will help Poland to reach targets set by the EU. Under the 20-20-20 package, by 2020 member states should improve their energy efficiency by 20%.

source: newseria.pl

This material has been published thanks to the financial support of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The sole responsibility for its contents lies with Collegium Mazovia.