Video: is this the world’s most sustainable office building?

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What is claimed to be the world’s most sustainable office building has just achieved a platinum LEED certification. The NuOffice building in Munich was supported by the EU funded Direction project which promotes energy efficient and sustainable building design along with the  Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP). The focus of the building’s design is on energy efficiency and applies radiant heating and cooling technology, switchable glazing and innovative insulating material to reduce the environmental footprint and running costs of the building. The developers claim that local energy costs have increased by 50 percent over the last decade so the new building which is expected to reduce energy consumption by 90 percent can offer a substantial cost saving over conventional designs.

Michael Krause, the group manager of systems engineering at IBP says of the new building: ‘At the end of the year we expect a primary energy consumption of about 30 kilowatt-hours per square meter and year. Conventional new office buildings which don’t have any ambitions concerning energy savings range between 100 and 150 kilowatt-hours per square meter and year.’