Sustainability in buildings

What is sustainable construction?

Sustainable construction is a process supported by modern building technologies and materials, which on the one hand leads to a reduction of greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions as well as waste and on the other hand creates a cost-effective, durable, easily adaptable, healthy and pleasant living environment.

Sustainable construction is crucial part of sustainable development where the following criteria need to be in balance:
• environmental criteria,
• economic criteria,
• social criteria and
• health criteria.

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising future generations' inability to meet their own needs.

The sustainability criteria should be considered as early as planning begins.

In sustainable development, the entire life cycle of the building is important: from raw material procurement and transport, through material processing, the construction process and building operations, to the building demolition phase, in which the materials need to be recycled and reused.

The planning of sustainable buildings must be coordinated, workflows must be optimized and problems that arise must be resolved when it is most effective.

Integral planning is a key element of sustainable construction.

A holistic approach respectively integrated design is of utmost importance for achieving sustainable solutions. Sustainable planning also requires the implementation of information tools to manage the complexity of projects and the knowledge of the project team. With the help of BIM, we already address the aspects of sustainable construction in the initial phases of the project.

Cooperation of the multidisciplinary project group enables efficient problem solving and decision making in early project phases. The project group focuses on creating a high-quality building that will be functional, economical and sustainable.

Ceritification of sustainable buildings

Sustainabe buildings ensure numerous advantages for investors, owners, facility managers, tenants and users.

These advantages include, among other things, a low energy requirement and thus lower operating costs, a high-quality living and working space or also an environment made of materials that are friendly to humans and the environment.

A sustainability certificate demonstrates a high quality of planning, execution, maintenance and operation.

CONSULTING AND CERTIFICATION

We advise investors during the entire certification process. We use an integral approach from the very begining of the project.

Protim offers consulting and certification services according to different methods: Level(s), BREEAM, LEED, DGNB and ActiveHouse.
In addition to certification and consulting, we also carry out Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA).

The certificates for sustainable building are adapted to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations (SDG).

We are DGBN Consultant license holders.

Protim's sustainable competence

Integrated design

Integrated design is based on cooperation between the planning team and stakeholders. The interdisciplinary team of designers is involved in the design, planning, execution and later use.

BIM - Building information modeling

BIM is the holistic process of creating and managing information from the begining of the project to the operation of the building. With the help of this information, we can visualize the building in all its dimensions.

Energy Consulting

Industry, business or the public sector - in addition to the dominant environmental aspect, the energy demand also has an explicit economic dimension. The experience that we acquired during the successfully completed projects enable us to find cost-efficient and sustainable solutions - either for new buildings, reconstructions or renovations. We offer long term support to the investors by tracking energy consumption and through energy management.

Expertise

The timely involvement of experts is of great importance when planning an investment project. Consequently, all decisions in the process are sufficiently supported by technical expertise to prevent the negative surprises at the end of the project.

Certification

Sustainability in bulidings is achieved by using various assessment methods from architectural design to mechanical equipment in the building. Sustainability certificate is the result of high quality planning during all phases of the project.