BREEAM – Now Available in Russia

First green buildings appeared in Russia and were certified by the international BREEAM standard. It means that the damage environmental effect of these objects is minimized thanks to an implementation of up-to-day management systems and considerable reduction of water and energy consumption. Among them there is the business centre “Japanese house”, the first which obtained the certificate BREEAM In-Use Good as an exploited building. Kseniya Agapova, sustainable development manager of the international house “Jones Lang LaSalle”, took part in the work.

Xenia, the first building certified by the system BREEAM In-Use appeared in Russia. Please, tell us about it. As it known, the business centre was built in 1995...

New system BREEAM In-Use certifies existing buildings as only 2% of the total number of buildings are newbuilt in developed countries. The index is higher in Russia as the economics develops faster but in any case it isn’t very high. To reduce a negative impact of buildings on the ecology, it is necessary to think not only about buildings under design or construction but also about those which are in operation.

The business centre “Japanese house” received so high appraisal as the best technologies were applied and international requirements for office buildings of the class “A” were taken into account during its construction. In fact, it was the first example of a private Japanese investment in the Moscow real estate market. During its erection the general contractor (Swedish company “Skanska”) applied such engineering and management decisions which are valued highly by the BREEAM.

They are Building Management Systems controlling the inside microclimate: temperature, moisture, CO2, and water recycling for machine washing, grease traps, etc. The facades were well isolated and ventilation system was thought out initially. The whole process from a preliminary estimation to receiving recommendations and certificate took four months.

What kind of additional measures had to be taken by the building owher to make it fully matching to the BREEM requirments?

Changes were minimal. Among innovations made were movement and presence sensors, water meters and replacement of the cooling machine. But the replacement of the cooling machine was planned before, and thanks to the certification an installation with cooling agent was purchased which doesn’t contain harmful freons for the ozone layer. A complex of measures was realized for management and operation of the building. But this process isn’t efficient, there isn’t a unique standard, including the ecology field, there are only GOSTs and SanPiNs, so they were obligated to develop their own ecology policy and specific documents meeting the standard BREEAM.

Full version you can download here

Text by elena golubeva