Certified success

Developers in Poland often like to talk about the green features of their buildings and how much energy they save. It’s now even become regular practice to install solar panels to power the lighting in common areas and to collect rainwater – as well planting green areas, creating rain gardens and installing smart home management systems that are not only designed to please technophiles and gadget lovers but also to reduce electricity usage. Their press materials also wax lyrical about the use of high-quality materials to ensure users’ health and well-being. But at the same time, when you look at the huge number of developments, it is still surprisingly rare for Polish residential developers to confirm the environmental advantages they claim for their projects in the form of obtaining official certificates.

Just a few numbers

Prior to 2015, not even one residential building in Poland had been BREEAM certified, and even now only about 20–30 residential buildings have received such a certificate. According to the Polish Green Building Council (PLGBC), just under 1,000 buildings have obtained this certificate. Only a handful of residential buildings have been LEED certified, all of which were built in a single project (Riverview by Vastint). And just a few projects have been awarded the HQE International certificate (Bouygues Immobilier alone has decided to go with this French system). Even though there has yet to be a residential project with a Well certificate, this situation is set to change. Vastint’s Stara Rzeźnia project in Poznań will soon obtain this and is also to be LEED certified, even though so far the only residential development with two certificates has been Le Melodie in Warsaw developed by Bouygues (HQE and BREEAM).

According to the ‘Green Building Certification in Numbers report’ by PLGBC, which covers the period from March 2019 to March 2020, residential developments constituted 5 pct of all certified buildings in Poland. In comparison to the figures from the previous report, this represents a rise (in sqm) of 14 pct, which is similar to the increase seen in industrial and warehouse buildings over the same period. This year the figures have seen some improvement, although the growth could hardly be described as stellar. The latest PLGBC report, which came out at the end of April, puts the figure at 8 pct.

So far, it’s mainly been international operators that have been opting to certify their work, including such developers as Skanska, Yareal, Vastint and Bouygues Immobilier. They have certainly had a head start as a result of their global experience in such assessment methods and also have the advantage of having experience of such certificates in other development spheres. This all means that they can take a more comprehensive view when it comes to certifying their projects.

“With both office and residential buildings, we have the same goal – to create buildings that are both environmentally and people-friendly. The differences lie in their separate uses and this can be seen in the different installations and systems. We have a great deal of experience of LEED certification, so we also decided that Riverview should be certified under this system,” explains Marcin Naczke, a project manager at Vastint Poland.

Murapol and Asbud each have just one certified development to their names (Murapol’s Parki Warszawy and Asbud’s Metropoint, both in Warsaw). Other large developers, such as Dom Development, Echo Investment and Robyg, do not apply for certification for their projects, even though they often fulfil all the required criteria. “We create friendly living space where the environment plays an important role on a number of different levels. We provide our buildings with renewable energy as well as amenities for electric vehicles and car sharing. At the moment we are analysing the market as well as the changing needs of consumers and the certificates that are available,” claims Dawid Wrona, the apartment sales director of Echo Investment.

High demand for flats, low demand for certificates

The reason for the low demand for certification is not difficult to explain. ”When the demand is so high and developers are selling all the apartments in their projects so quickly, certification is often shelved. A year ago the initial forecasts predicted that apartment prices would fall, but as it turns out they rose and everything is still being sold as soon as it’s built,” points out Dorota Bartosz, a project expert at PLGBC.

Home buyers are considerably less knowledgeable about certification issues than those who operate in commercial real estate, so developers prefer to talk about the environmental features of their projects in a more direct manner that is possibly easier for them to understand. Those who buy and lease offices and warehouse space see certification as a must-have criterion before signing off on a deal, whereas home buyers are not quite so demanding.

“Generally, it’s not the certificates they ask about but the measures employed to ensure the development is sustainable and environmentally friendly. Buyers are becoming more aware of the advantages of certification that confirms that the building is sustainable; but this is still not a major factor influencing their final decision,” claims Jacek Zengteler, the managing director of Yareal.

A home grown certificate

There is yet another reason for the lack of certification on the residential market – developers (especially the smaller firms) are convinced that the current international certification is simply too expensive and that they would have to raise their sales prices to be able to afford it. Some also hold the opinion that some aspects of the assessment are not suited to Polish circumstances. “These are some of the reasons why we have devised our own Polish certification system, which we call Zielony Dom. In contrast to international multi-criteria systems it is simple, but it is also ambitious in that it assesses how well individual measures have been applied. And it is also cheaper for the developer,” explains Dorota Bartosz.

The Zielony Dom certificate was launched in October 2020 and was announced exclusively by ‘Eurobuild CEE’. It involves the use of Zielona Hipoteka mortgages. Under this scheme, partner banks offer preferential mortgage terms to those buying homes or apartments that possess the certificate. PLGBC has already teamed up with Bank Ochrony Środowiska and BNP Paribas for this. “We have had many enquiries from investors and developers. We are also training assessors, who often bring up the idea of the certification, while suggesting the best solutions and overseeing the certification process. Twenty-one people have already been trained for this. Importantly, Zielony Dom doesn’t require an outside auditor, as some of those who have qualified as assessors are currently employed by the developers. PLGBC checks if the various criteria have been met and we then proceed on the assumption that the developers themselves know their own projects best. We have been pleased by the involvement of the development sector, which has given us a clear signal that the certificate interests them,” adds Dorota Bartosz of PLGBC. The launch of the Zielony Dom certificate was actually delayed by changes to the regulations. Since January, buildings have had to meet stricter criteria for energy efficiency. However, PLGBC believes that this year will see a breakthrough for residential project certification. “We are counting on soon being able to announce the first project certified under the Zielony Dom scheme. The developer is right now waiting to be granted the building permit,” reveals Dorota Bartosz.

Certification as a guarantee

Last year was a good time for residential developers in Poland, despite the Covid outbreak. Indeed, it was probably even due to it 2020.the first few months of 2021 also look equally impressive. But when it comes to the quality of the projects themselves and meeting deadlines, the situation is not so rosy. The huge demand and rising prices have resulted in a situation where even projects of questionable quality sell out quickly. This is not going to help Zielony Dom find more adherents despite the certificate guaranteeing the quality of a project; but if the certificate were to become more widely adopted it would certainly raise standards across the whole sector, as such certificates have done with offices and warehouses. “Green certificates improve living conditions while reducing utility and other living costs. And the use of better materials means that green buildings grow older at a slower rate,” points out Jacek Zengteler, the managing director of Yareal.

At the moment, those developers who have shown an interest in certification are all from the premium segment – those companies that target more demanding customers with more money to spend. Zielony Dom could transform the situation, but we still have to wait and see what happens with this scheme. But it would be nice if Polish residential construction could finally cease to be the butt of sarcastic memes on satirical social media sites and the subject of sensational articles in the tabloid press.

How to get a PLGBC Zielony Dom certificate

The criteria for a Zielony Dom certificate include:

• the use of different systems to improve energy efficiency, thus reducing monthly bills
• the use of building materials that are environmentally-friendly and not hazardous, thus improving the health and well-being of the building’s residents
• the collection rainwater and its use (e.g. for watering plants or flushing toilets)
• testing the quality of the tap water to ensure that it is clean and suitable for drinking to avoid the unnecessary purchase of bottled water
• checks to the internal air quality and the acoustics of the building to ensure that the indoor conditions are both comfortable and healthy
• ensuring that the building is easily accessible for both the elderly and the disabled
• the project being within walking distance of local amenities, including shops, schools and kindergartens as well as sports and recreational facilities, in order to limit the time spent travelling by car

Source: PLGBC