Pollux Tower achieves world first

Buro Happold

25/11/2011 Written by: Nadja Stachowski No comments

First ‘existing building’ to achieve Gold DGNB certification

Having already achieved the status of the first office building in mainland Europe to be awarded BREEAM In-Use ‘Excellent’ rating, the Pollux Tower in Frankfurt has now become the first building in the world to receive a DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen)Gold certification for existing buildings. Both certification processes were carried out by Buro Happold’s Berlin office.

Built in 1997, the Pollux Tower is a high profile office building situated in the financial district of Frankfurt. Visible on the Frankfurt’s skyline, the 33 storey tower will soon form part of the new ‘Europaviertel’ which is currently under development. Buro Happold was commissioned to carry out the building’s DGNB assessment, and it achieved the first gold DGNB Gold certification for ‘existing office and administration buildings‘.

The criteria for assessing an existing building looks at all aspects of sustainable construction. In the Pollux Tower’s case the use of building management systems is one of a number of measures that has been adopted to reduce energy and water usage. To raise awareness and encourage building users to reduce their consumption, monitors showing the immediate consumption rates have been placed in the lobby. These have proved invaluable in the quest to achieve low operating costs for the tenants. In order to achieve an excellent certification result and, most importantly the optimisation of the building’s performance, the certification process requires good cooperation between the client, asset manager and auditor.

The Pollux Tower sets an important example to investors, developers and the construction industry as a whole as it shows that with good design, achieving a DGNB Gold certification does not have to be an expensive undertaking, and results in both a better internal environment for occupants and a good return on investment.

The existing buildings category in the DGNB scheme is still in its pilot phase and continues to be developed and consolidated.