Certification

SIC awarded Platinum for sustainability – second place nationwide

The Platinum award

In September 2013 the U.S. Green Building Council certified the Solar Info Center to LEED platinum level for its highly efficient building operations and maintance.

The Solar Info Center was awarded 92 of a possible 110 points in the category “Building Stock”. On receiving this award, the Centre was the second best LEED certified stock building in Germany – and the fourth best in the world. The points awarded were 60% higher than the international average.
The SIC was chiefly awarded platinum certification for its high building energy efficiency the high level of power gerneration from renewable sources and its entirely emissions-free heating supply.

In 2020, the Solar Info Center was recertified, and again was awarded Platinum. According to the latest LEED v4.1 catalogue of stringent criteria, the Solar Info Center has been awarded the most points for a building of this category in Germany.

The US sustainability label LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the leading international certification system for green buildings, homes, and neighbourhoods.


“This encouraging score again awarded to the Solar Info Center less than ten years after its completion testifies to the excellent quality of the office complex,” said Frank Kobiela of IVG Institutional Funds GmbH in Frankfurt. Yet this exemplary score, after all, did not come as a complete surprise. As early as 2008, the building was judged highly for its energy consumption and user satisfaction after a long term monitoring project run by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs.

With a view to confirming the energy efficiency according to modern standards, the owner decided to have the building certified in accordance with the US sustainability label LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). This certification system is the leading sustainability label for green buildings, homes, and neighbourhoods. The certification was followed in Freiburg by the consultancy EnEd and the architects Prettner + Buschmann.


Best score for the Solar Info Center

“LEED employs a complex process to rate e.g. energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, the protection of resources, and indoor quality,” explained Carolin Prettner of Prettner + Buschmann. Also scrutinised are everyday routines: use of bicycles and public transportation, cleaning, waste disposal, water savings, food and commodity purchases. As part of the certification process, the owner IVG financed additional, efficiency enhancing measures.


Investor satisfied

The investor, too, is satisfied with this property in the southwest. “Not only do we, as an underwriter, see climate change mitigation as an insurance factor, the status it enjoys in our society demands our wholehearted support. This, too, was the reason we invested in this property, seeing that its conception justifies both the sustainability and viability of an investment in equal measure,” replied Burkhard Schleif, Head of the Real Estate Division, when asked about the investment of EUR 26 million contributed by Provinzial Rheinland Lebensversicherung AG in 2003.

Particularly the following items earned the Solar Info Center in Freiburg LEED Platinum:

  •  the building’s high energy efficiency
  •  a high percentage of electricity and heat generated from renewable sources
  •  water saving fittings and rainwater retention for irrigation
     und wassersparende Armaturen
  •  real time monitoring supplemented for energy consumptions and indoor qualities
     night air cooling optimised by integrated weather forecasting, enhancing building comfort and energy savings
  •  reduction in individual CO2 emissions thanks to the tenants’ widespread use of environmentally friendly transportation (bicycles and good links to public transportation), including sheltered bicycle parks and cyclist showers for employees
  •  high daylight yield in the office areas
  •  LEDs and motion sensors integrated in all lifts
  •  LED lighting in general areas
  •  der Austausch der Beleuchtung in Allgemeinbereichen durch LED
  •  locally and ecologically produced foods in the canteens
  •  environmentally friendly cleaning
  •  Freiburg Eco Label