14 November 2019

Knack: ‘ENCON has the most sustainable building in Europe’

Knack article 14/11/2019 - SOLUTION: energy-neutral buildings

Europe’s most sustainable office building is located in Bilzen and is called Infinity, as it is intended to be an ‘infinitely’ sustainable building. It is the headquarters of Encon, a consultancy firm specialising in energy savings, renewable energy and sustainability projects. Thanks to its own wind turbine, three sun trackers and geothermal energy, the building generates more energy than it consumes.

Written by Robin Bruninx

“Anyone can build an energy-neutral office”Sustainability naturally comes at a price: Infinity cost, excluding the wind turbine,

“Anyone can build an energy-neutral office”

That is the view of chairman and managing director Robin Bruninx. “And everyone should do so.” He adds that Infinity goes even further. The building is one of only 33 offices worldwide to have received the highest certification from the European sustainability label BREEAM. It is even unique, as it has also achieved the American LEED certification. “That means we are about fifteen years ahead of the market in terms of sustainability.”

Europe has set the course with the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. According to Bruninx, achieving climate neutrality is feasible for businesses: “You can perfectly calculate the carbon emissions from your operations and buildings. Then it’s a matter of investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy. You can offset the balance.” Moreover, the share prices of listed companies are coming under increasing pressure if they do not make sufficient efforts to make their operations and products more sustainable. “The result is that they are striving for CO2 neutrality, and expect the same from their suppliers and subcontractors. So you need to be working on this now, so that you’re ready when that request comes from your biggest client,” says Bruninx.

Sustainability naturally comes at a price: Infinity cost, excluding the wind turbine,

5.2 million euros. Around 1 million went towards additional investments in sustainability: geothermal energy, energy savings and the requirements for BREEAM and LEED certification. “Nevertheless, I can recommend it to everyone. Investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy typically yield a return of 10 to 25 per cent. So if your EBITDA margin is lower, it’s actually a no-brainer. Thanks to those extra investments, the building’s valuation is 20 per cent higher, which meant we could borrow 100 per cent of the costs. But the biggest impact was on staff. We used to have four or five applicants a month; now we have five times as many.”

Source: Huysmans, L. (2019). Trends: Sustainability pioneer Paul Hawken fights Project Drawdown against greenhouse gases. Accessed 14 November 2019, https://trends.knack.be/economie/beleid/met-welke-maatregelen-kunnen-we-het-best-de-klimaatverandering-aanpakken/article-longread-1531481.html