Green Building is becoming attractive for retailers

Ecological also means economic. Because Green Building has enormous advantages regarding costs. Some of the retail trade big players, like Rewe, kik, ECE or SES prove that Green Building does make sense for retail properties.

Buildings without CO2 emissions, intelligent technologies for significant reduction of energy consumption, systems to protect wildlife in the direct vicinity of the property – that is reality with a green retail property. Some of the pioneering companies include REWE who opened the first CO2 neutral supermarket in Berlin in 2009. This means that the systems in the building are no longer polluting the environment with carbondioxide emissions. Additionally the market uses around 40% less energy than an average REWE supermarket.

Clothes discounter kik opened a shop in Gnoien (Germany) that has been awarded by the European Co-mission, by using energy-efficient heat pumps to heat the building. The market leader regarding shop-ping center development, ECE, is also focuing more on Green Building: three ECE shopping galleries have received the highest commendation by the German Sustainable Building Coucil.

In Austria the SES already built some “green shopping centers” like the Atrio Villach, Q19 in Vienna and the Europark Salzburg. The shopping center Gerasdorf by BAI, which is currently under construction, will include special arrangements for the protection of several butterfly and bird species besides using various environmentally friendly building technologies.