Environmental pollution and global warming require the use of new, eco-friendly technologies in the construction of facilities to reduce these threats to a minimum. In this context, various terms are increasingly used interchangeably: green building, sustainable construction, ecological construction, or eco-building. All of them serve to define a trend that began over 10 years ago, promoting the development of sustainable construction in economic, ecological, and social terms. In 1998, the World Green Building Council (World GBC) was established in Nagoya, Japan, with the task of coordinating the work of representatives in many countries who implement ecological standards in new construction projects. Its goal is also to promote knowledge about pro-ecological behaviors.
As part of the World GBC’s activities, several organizations have been established worldwide in recent years to certify buildings based on solutions used during the design, construction, and subsequent operation phases that are environmentally friendly and beneficial to the health of the people working in them. The most important of these are considered to be: the American LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification system created in 2000, and the British BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) system. These are the two most widespread multi-criteria ecological building assessment systems, which take into account categories such as the building’s location and architectural form, accessibility to public transport, energy and water consumption, indoor air quality, the use of local eco-friendly building materials, low waste generation, provision of friendly working conditions, and management.
Following the global trend, Poland has also decided to introduce both of these systems. In February 2010, the Polish Green Building Council (PLGBC) signed an agreement with BRE (Building Research Establishment Ltd. – a British organization dealing with sustainable construction) to adapt the BREEAM for Poland system, while a month later, negotiations regarding the creation of a LEED for Poland version were successfully concluded. As a result of these actions, there are currently 20 projects registered in Poland certified under the LEED system, including one with a LEED-NC v. 2.2 silver level certificate, and 9 under the BREEAM system.
Buildings of various purposes can be certified under the LEED system, including both new and renovated facilities. However, the BREEAM International system used in Europe applies only to office, industrial, and commercial facilities. More detailed differences and similarities between the two systems are presented in Table 1, and the scoring system used is in Table 2, which were developed at the Polish branch of the British company WSP Environmental Ltd. – WSP Enviro Sp. z o.o.
Although the procedure leading to obtaining a certificate is a long-term process lasting even several months, during which the conditions in the facility are subjected to detailed examination regarding the quality of: energy sources, water, indoor air, materials used for construction, waste management solutions applied, and many others, investors are increasingly deciding to register in the LEED, BREEAM, French CSTB (Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment), or German DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Nachhaltiges Bauen) systems. This is primarily due to the growing interest in certified facilities from Investment Funds, which are more willing to acquire such properties for their portfolios, which is directly related to reduced investment risk, as well as due to the increased prestige of a company promoting pro-ecological policy. In Poland, the company Ghelmaco was the first to obtain the popular European ecological BREEAM certificate for the Trinity Park III office building in Warsaw. Meanwhile, the first LEED certificate at the silver level was awarded in January of this year to the office, warehouse, and production building of the Borg Warner Turbo Systems Poland company.
Development companies providing facilities for logistics needs to the European market are also interested in sustainable development. Among the global leaders applying ecological solutions in such buildings is the British company Gazeley, which as early as 2003 commissioned a group of collaborating designers to analyze the possibilities of using environmentally friendly solutions in warehouse and production facilities.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 4/2010.