100% BREEAM: CTP certifies 292 properties, becoming the first industrial real estate developer to certify all buildings according to highest environmental standards

Prague, 25th January 2021

European commercial real estate developer CTP has the most environmentally-friendly industrial real estate portfolio in Central and Eastern Europe. In total, 292 CTP buildings at around a hundred different locations in six countries have confirmed their BREEAM In-Use status at the Very Good level or higher. A number of properties have reached the Excellent level. This means that the company is the greenest developer of industrial real estate in CEE and ranks among the best in Europe.

LAt CTParks, all buildings that can be certified and had been completed as at 1 January 2020 will be certified at the level of BREEAM Very Good or higher.

Martin Vaidiš, who is responsible for sustainable construction design at CTP, added:

The BREEAM In-Use certification has to be renewed every three years, which is a significant investment considering the size of CTP‘s real estate portfolio. In total, the company plans to invest €1.75m in building certification. Unlike much of the competition, which certifies buildings during construction only, CTP, as a developer that also operates buildings over the long term, wants to ensure they are sustainable throughout the building’s life cycle. That is why the company opted for the more costly In-Use system, where the evaluation also includes facility management and the building’s tenants, without that cooperation the certificate cannot be obtained.

Lenka Matějíčková, leader of the Green Team at Arcadis, a company that certified most of the CTP portfolio, confirmed :

She notes that other companies will follow this trend.

Shamir Ghumra, Head of Building Performance Services, said:

“We took an environmentally-friendly approach to construction right from the start and adopted green principles long before they became a trend, giving us a huge advantage over the competition“ said Martin Vaidiš. Although the process requires more expensive construction, he believes that the funds are invested in a more environmentally way. Green buildings are more efficient for their owners in the long run. They consume fewer resources, such as energy and water. Besides, these days, the vast majority of multinational tenants require high quality buildings.

A world leader in the certification of industrial buildings

Most of the industrial buildings in the CTP portfolio achieved the Very Good BREEAM In-Use rating; some of them even reached the Excellent level. This brings the average standard of CTP’s portfolio to the BREEAM Very Good level, which is an exceptional achievement even in a Europe-wide context. The average result of CTP buildings reaches 60.13 %, an excellent rating. “In the Czech Republic, CTP achieved the highest number of certifications in the market, and the company leads in terms of the number of certified industrial buildings measured against BREEAM In-Use worldwide“ added Matějíčková.

What does a green building actually look like?

Today, the average layperson imagines a sustainable building as a structure covered with greenery. If such a structure were to be built from non-environmentally friendly materials, however, the presence of greenery wouldn’t be much of a help. For a proper assessment of environmental quality, we must delve deeper into the evaluation of the technology used, certificates on the environmental impact of materials, etc. Green roofs, for example, which are highly popular and very visible, are not a suitable solution for industrial real estate.

Martin Vaidiš, explained:

Today’s green building therefore primarily addresses energy saving through a high-quality building envelope, efficient LED lighting and efficient ventilation with the use of heat recovery. In the future, energy use at logistics warehouses will involve the concept of (partial) energy islands, which can be created with the use of photovoltaic roofing. Roofs offer plenty of space, which is usually not very usable, but great for photovoltaic panels. In the near future, CTP intends to install rooftop photovoltaic power stations at its parks, with the goal to generate over 20 megawatts at their peak. In the more distant future, the ambition stands at 250 MWp. Another essential feature of today’s warehouses are smart building management systems and a quality database of measured data.

What is also crucial is the use of low-carbon materials and certified products that are environmentally-friendly throughout their life cycle. Vaidiš says that the future for warehouses is about, among other things, the use of wooden structures or recycled materials. Adopting the right approach to recycling original materials is necessary for example if an old building is standing on the original brownfield site.

In green industrial buildings, the issue of water conservation needs to be addressed. Water is saved, for example, by flushing toilets with once-used purified greywater. Rainwater management also plays a role, either through retention tanks for further use (e.g. watering) or through seepage. It is highly important to leave rainwater at the point of impact and not let it drain into sewers or evaporate from a green roof.

About CTP

CTP Group is a commercial real estate owner, developer and manager providing complete services in the logistics real estate sector. The Group specialises in the construction, ownership, and management of customer-oriented high-tech business/logistics parks for leading international and domestic companies that are strategically investing in new or expanded projects. CTP Group is the largest full-service owner-developer of prime industrial and logistics property in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The Group’s core portfolio consists of 6 million m2 of Class A real estate in over 100 strategic locations in seven CEE countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria. As part of its long-term commitment to building and owning the most efficient and sustainable assets, CTP already has over 100% of its logistics/industrial portfolio BREEAM certified (“Very Good” or “Excellent”) and plans to be carbon neutral in its operations by end-2021.