Union Investment Real Estate GmbH has had three buildings from its international property portfolio certified in accordance with the UK's new BREEAM In-Use sustainability standard.
The buildings the first Union Investment properties to be certified under the scheme are the office properties West Park in Zurich and Equinox in Glasgow plus the 3 Stawy shopping center in Katowice, which belong to the open-ended real estate funds UniImmo: Global and UniImmo: Deutschland.
BREEAM In-Use is a simplified international certification system that enables relatively fast assessment of entire portfolios or individual properties. By annually updating property data, the new BREEAM scheme helps facilities managers to cut running costs and reduce resource usage and thus environmental impact.
"The future focus of sustainability certificates will be on existing properties," says Dr. Reinhard Kutscher, Chairman of the Management Board of Union Investment Real Estate GmbH.
"BREEAM In-Use is an attractive alternative to other methods of certification for such properties. The cost of the initial BREEAM In-Use certificate is a maximum of 10% of the cost of a full BREEAM certificate."
The assessment procedure is internet-based, with a BREEAM auditor checking and verifying the building and consumption data entered by the owner. Unlike the other main certification systems, the certificate is issued by the assessor themself using one of six assessment ratings ranging from 'acceptable' to 'outstanding'.
Union Investment's property portfolio currently includes 20 properties worth around 2.5 billion with sustainability certification from BREEAM or other major bodies such as LEED, DGNB or HQE.
Source: Union Investment Real Estate GmbH
