The Dutch Green Building Council (DGBC) has awarded Schiphol Trade Park (STP) the Outstanding BREEAM-NL certification, making it the world’s first logistics business park to receive this highest possible qualification. With a score of 87.67% in BREEAM-NL Area Development v2018, the business park run by Schiphol Area Development Company (SADC) is now the most sustainable logistics business park in the world, as well as the first business park in the Netherlands with a BREEAM-NL recertification for sustainable area development.
SADC had previously received an Excellent BREEAM-NL Area Development Design Certification in 2014 for Schiphol Trade Park, which is located in Hoofddorp. The upgrade to Outstanding (the highest available designation on a scale of 5) for the recertification in the realisation phase is partly due to links between new initiatives by SADC and BREEAM-NL, such as a sustainability dashboard and circular procurement. Requirements and applications are constantly scaled up based on new experiences and developments. In addition, seven new buildings at Schiphol Trade Park were certified with BREEAM-NL New Construction.
A unique detail is that 3% innovation credits were awarded with the certification, which will further stimulate pioneering sustainable initiatives. One of the innovations involves the virtual network in which parties with and without power capacity share the available capacity. This ensures that supply and demand are optimally aligned and unnecessary CO2 emissions prevented.
Rudy van der Helm, Development and Management manager at DGBC: “We are delighted that SADC Schiphol Trade Park is being developed in such a sustainable way and proud that they chose for BREEAM-NL certification. Realising area development in such an integrated way demands considerable perseverance. Moreover, the development became increasingly sustainable throughout the realisation process at the same time as standards became even stricter. This makes the result all the more commendable.”
“We have long had the ambition to be the most sustainable and innovative business park in Europe. BREEAM-NL challenged us to take things even further. The fact that the certification makes us the most sustainable logistics business park in the world fills us with pride. But there’ll certainly be no resting on our laurels as we continue to innovate and raise the bar in the future”, says Eva Klein Schiphorst, SADC director.
Working environments of the future
SADC is actively working on greener, healthier, climate-adaptive and biodiverse business parks, so Klein Schiphorst: “We are talking about the working environments of the future. The 3,000-plus business parks in the Netherlands account for a major part of the built-up area and they are increasingly outdated. The urgent social and economic challenges related to climate adaptation, biodiversity, the energy transition, new working methods, housing and circularity require a fresh perspective for these areas.”
About BREEAM-NL
BREEAM stands for Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method and is the certification method for a sustainable built environment. Used in more than 80 countries worldwide, BREEAM has issued thousands of certifications, with only a select number of area developments – ranging from residential areas to office parks – winning an Outstanding qualification.
BREEAM-NL has been the certification method for Dutch buildings and areas since 2009. The system assesses projects on all aspects related to sustainability, energy consumption, material use and waste reduction to their contribution to health, social cohesion and biodiversity. Sustainability not only benefits ecology, it also contributes to water storage and combating heat stress. This makes BREEAM-NL Area Development the most integrated standard for sustainable area development in the Netherlands.The various aspects are part of six categories that make up the total score for BREEAM-NL Area Development. This score results in five qualifications, with Outstanding being the highest.
BREEAM-NL has various quality marks including BREEAM-NL New Construction for realising new builds, BREEAM-NL In-Use for existing buildings, and BREEAM-NL Area Development for entire areas. The method was developed by the Building Research Establishment centre (BRE). The Dutch Green Building Council has made the method and new guidelines suitable for the Netherlands under the BREEAM-NL guidelines.
