Education is the name of the game

How to develop a green conscience was one of the most frequently raised questions during the half-day meeting “We expect that by 2050 the numberof people living in Polish cities will reach 70 pct of the population,” remarked Magdalena Stretton, providing an alarming perspective to the first panel of the Eurobuild conference, which took place at the Sound Garden Hotel in Warsaw. The director of Arcadis, who was the moderator of the panel, also pointed out that it requires a strategy to create green, sustainable cities. Shortly after this the urban challenges and the barriers that are encountered in their sustainable development were outlined by local authority representatives – Jarosław Dąbrowski, the deputy mayor of Warsaw, and Władysław Łokietek, the mayor of Karczew. “We can’t afford the cheapest solutions. We must invest in something that is good or even the best – and this quality is costly,” argued Ewa Mikos Romanowicz, the business development director of Siemens. According to Dariusz Śmiechowski, an architect from the Warsaw University of Technology, people still have low expectations when it comes to their surroundings. “Sustainable development means building just as if you were building for yourself,” – was how Magdalena Stretton summed up the first panel. The second discussion started with a presentation by Jarosław Witek, the sustainability team leader of Arup, on the prevailing approaches in the green building sector. “If something doesn’t pay it isn’t sustainable development. Trendy new tech grows old and soon becomes obsolete – and that has nothing to do with sustainability,” he commented. The following panel then discussed what the real green and sustainable solutions are and what are just flights of fancy. Motion detectors for controlling the lighting in warehouses and the flushing of toilets as well as LEED lights were listed among the most simple, but at the same the time most practical, cost-saving solutions. “Today the most dynamic market is for heat pumps,” remarked Robert Midera, product manager from Viessmann, “this is growing by 30 to 50 pct annually, depending on the specific technologies.” During the third panel of the day, Krzysztof Apostolidis, the president of Fabryka Biznesu, pointed out that a sustainable shopping centre costs an investor 10 pct more and therefore makes it harder to obtain project financing. “The problem is that tenants don’t appreciate that effort when taking decisions on rent – they just don’t care if the centre is BREEAM certified or not.” “Ok, so this doesn’t help, but can it be sold at least in terms of PR?” wondered the moderator Wojciech Zawierucha of Savills. “The message that the centre has been built with very modern technologies allows us to create a completely different image for that facility,” replied Andrzej Łapeta, the marketing manager of Firma Reklamowa Kuc, who maintained that technology can be a powerful tool for attracting tenants. Next, Rafał Schurma, the president of the Polish Green Building council, took to the stage with his presentation on DGNB certification. In Poland there are 72 LEED certified, pre-certified as well as just-registered projects against 188 BREEAM projects. So far there are no DGNB certificates. Carole-Emilie Rampelberg, who spoke about the French HQE certificate, wondered who might be brave enough to go for German or French certificates on a market dominated by the British and Americans.Then, with the final panel, the discussion moved onto the residential sector. Is the customer ready to pay more for a green apartment? Not really, according to developers. “The increase in costs for ecological development often has to be covered by the developer out of his own margins. We give up on one third of the margin, around 5–6 pct, just by meeting ecological standards,” explained Tomasz Jankowski, the president of the board of Fort Development, which is developing the Miejski Budynek Jutra 2030 show-building in Warsaw’s Żoliborz district. He admitted, however, that sustainable apartments sell faster, which is already a positive sign. “Education is the name of the game,” concluded the panellists, before joining the audience for the post-conference wine party.