19/01/2012

Report from Tenants and Green Building in Practice Talk

The first Green Building Club this year enjoyed high number of participants. According to the full hall and lively discussion, it was clear that the experiences of investors and tenants are valuable for all participants of the construction process - from developer to end users.
The meeting was traditionally held in the Mosaic House Hotel. The evening anchorman was Boris Zupančič, Director of CZGBC; guests were Václav Matoušek (Project Leader - Skanska) Milena Beránková (Infrastructure Leader - PwC) and Glen Lonie (Partner - PwC). The main theme of the evening was the experience of the investor (Skanska Property) and the majority tenant (PwC) in the project office of City Green Court in Prague, which is the first office building in the Czech Republic to receive pre-LEED Platinum certification.	City Green Court in Prague (visualization)
At the beginning of the discussion Václav Matoušek described experiences in preparing the project for LEED certification - mentioned the complexity of the process, particularly requests for paperwork and e. g. computer simulations. Representatives of PwC pointed out that the City Green Court project was fully following their specific requirements - high sustainability standards, promoting by the company. They also shares their experience with the building in the More London complex, which is certified BREEAM 'Outstanding'. Overall rating of experiences of both parties - investor and tenant - was clearly positive. Some points from the discussion: * The tenant was not decisive on the type of certificate (whether it is a LEED, BREEAM,..), it is rather the investor choice * Certified means, among other things, the real proof of origin of materials, not only ensuring supplies themselves without proof of their origin * LEED certification requirements are tailored to the U.S. market, in Europe is problematic to ensure e. g. adequate lighting system (although the investor chose the highest European standard, it was not possible in this area to avoid significant loss of the certificate points)