Sustainable development practices are a key consideration for Atterbury Europe and their local partners in the various territories.
In today’s world, sustainability considerations have changed the way Funders and Developers approach a project, and according to Atterbury Europe’s Head of Developments Roux Gerber, a number of steps are to be taken to ensure that the right boxes are ticked in accordance with the selected accreditation scorecard process that is being followed.
“All projects that we undertake start with a report aimed at identifying and specifying the most sustainable and optimal solutions for the design of the development,” says Gerber. These, he explains, focus on material choices, energy efficient solutions relating to heating and cooling, natural ventilation and shading options, effective water usage and harvesting, waste minimisation and recycling solutions, and operational considerations all aligned to reduce the carbon footprint and contributing to energy saving measures in the quest to climate change adaptability.
“In the case of the new Cluj Napoca mixed-use development in Romania, for instance, we had several sustainability drivers, starting with our ambition to create a space that would have a positive impact on the local community and the surrounding environment. We are aiming to achieve LEED Platinum certification for the development and worked with Near Zero Energy Building guidelines. ”
LEED, he explains, is a certification scheme created to assess an investment’s impact on the environment. Buildings and developments must fulfil certain initial requirements, and then achieve further optional points towards a score that determines their status. To be certified as LEED compliant, an investment must achieve 40 to 49 points, and up from that there is a silver, gold and ultimately platinum status, when 80+ points are reached.
Buildings are assessed according to seven main categories, (1) namely location and transportation; (2) sustainability of the site; (3) water efficiency; (3) energy and atmosphere; (4) materials and resources, (5) indoor environmental quality, with (6) innovation and (7) regional priority being extra categories.
“In the case of our example in Cluj Napoca, we are well on track to achieve our aim for a platinum certification, with the mall and the residential/office components certified separately,” explains Gerber.
The process to achieve certification for a development starts with a pre-assessment, he clarifies, which is an opportunity to assess the building design in its current form and get an idea of its environmental performance. If more studies are needed to secure extra credits, those are planned for at that stage. “Cooperation between all parties involved in the design process is critical through a coordination process led by a dedicated specialist consultant,” clarifies Gerber.
The project is registered on LEED-Online, and then the consultations begin where the entire project team works together to achieve the targeted results. The LEED consultant will share design guidelines that are customised for the project to achieve the targeted credits. As the project develops, evidence is gathered by every involved party as required by the LEED guidelines and that is all assessed and checked for compliance by the LEED consultant.
“The documentation is then submitted for review by the certifying body, GBCI, and any comments or requests for additional information are shared with the project team for consideration. Once those concerns are addressed, a resubmission is made to GBCI, and a certificate is finally issued.”
Setting out “to gain that elusive LEED platinum status” means dealing with a long list of very specific objectives to achieve extra credit. “In order to simply be certified LEED-compliant there are already multiple requirements, such as, for instance, the reduction of water consumption by at least 20% from the baseline, and the provision of dedicated areas accessible to waste haulers and building occupants for the collection and storage of recyclable materials for the entire building (which must include mixed paper, corrugated cardboard, glass, plastics, and metals),” notes Gerber.
LEED certification is but one way to measure sustainability practices, and in a world where resources are already constrained, and likely to become more challenged in future, practices such as these will become increasingly essential. As responsible developers, it is Atterbury Europe and its partners aim to remain at the forefront of the quest for a green agenda.
