The Ghelamco-owned VIBE office building, located in the center of Warsaw, has received DGNB New Buildings International 2020 Gold certificate. This is the first office building in Poland to have such certification.
“VIBE’s DGNB certification reinforces our position as a leader in creating innovative and environmentally friendly office spaces. We develop projects that not only meet the highest environmental requirements, but also provide comfortable and intelligent work spaces that meet the needs of modern tenants”, says Jarosław Zagórski, Managing Director, Ghelamco Poland.
The certification process was coordinated by PM Services, which assisted the Ghelamco team in obtaining the certificate.
“Although DGNB certification of VIBE as Poland’s first office building was quite a challenge, the number of sustainable solutions planned by the investor already at the concept stage made the process much easier. The building exemplifies the perfect combination of innovative solutions and care for the environment while ensuring high user comfort, making it a model to follow”, says Weronika Kamińska, DGNB International auditor, PM Services.
VIBE is the latest of Ghelamco’s developments in Warsaw’s Wola district. With 11 floors and 15,000 sqm of office space, the building was constructed in the business center of the capital, at the corner of Towarowa and Kolejowa streets.
In the process of constructing VIBE, materials with a reduced carbon footprint (including concrete and steel) were used, and as part of supporting biodiversity, a lot of new greenery was planted around the building, including 18 stately trees (7 meters tall) and more than 8,600 shrubs, perennials and other plants. Ultimately, VIBE will be powered by 100 percent clean energy from, among other things, photovoltaic farms owned by Ghelamco.
DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Nachhaltiges Bauen) is one of the world’s most recognized awards in the field of sustainable construction, evaluating projects in terms of ecology, economics and social aspects. Since 2009, the DGNB System has been continuously developed and is today not only considered the most advanced worldwide, but is also internationally recognised as the Global Benchmark for Sustainability.
In terms of content, the DGNB System is based on three essential paradigms that set it apart from other certification systems available on the market: fife cycle assessment, holistic approach and performance orientation. Certification consistently considers the entire life cycle of a project and evaluates the overall performance of a project instead of individual measures.
The DGNB System is based on the three central sustainability areas of ecology, economy and socio-cultural quality, which are equally weighted in the assessment. In the sense of a holistic approach, the DGNB System also evaluates the location as well as the technical and process-related quality. The performance in these qualities can be assessed through certification criteria. These are individually adapted to different schemes and can be applied to new buildings, existing buildings, renovations and buildings in use.
