Pulkovo - a pioneer of green building in Russia

22 May 2012

Pulkovo - a pioneer of green building in Russia

Technopolis Pulkovo is a stone's throw away from the Pulkovo international airport.

Technopolis Pulkovo - the new science and technology center in St. Petersburg - contributes to the evolution of the Russian economy from a raw-material-intensive to a service and knowledge-based model with a better capacity to generate successful innovation. It also acts as a model for sustainable building for Russian real estate sector.

The Pulkovo center will promote the competitiveness of the St. Petersburg region. It also stimulates technology and knowledge transfer over the chain Russian Northwest - Finland - Europe.

The Pulkovo center that opened its doors in September 2010 was developed and introduced by the Finnish company Technopolis, a growing European real estate investor.

The center has been built according to the high level energy efficiency standards of the Finnish construction and engineering contractors who have experience of several energy efficient building projects in Europe.

In the planning and implementation phase, Technopolis own environmental experience was utilized to cut down the environmental impact of construction activities and real estate operations.

“As a result, our center is energy efficient and its performance exceeds Russian national standard requirements by more than 40 percent,” says Peter Coachman, Director of Russian Operations for Technopolis. “Our center introduces improved energy-efficiency standards to the Russian commercial real estate sector."

“Everything is going according to schedule. We have outperformed even the best Russian level for pre-letting rates for office buildings, as well as pre-letting rates one and two months after a building's acceptance into use. And our performance levels will remain high,” Coachman promises.

The Technopolis Pulkovo center’s first phase have a gross rentable area of 24,100 square meters and total cost of project is EUR52.2 million including the building and land plot needed for the first phase.

In autumn 2011, Technopolis decided to expand the Pulkovo center. Work on the second phase started in January 2012, with estimated completion in September 2013. As completed, this phase's total office area is 18,750 square meters.

Pulkovo phase 2 is the first international project for Technopolis seeking LEED certificate. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is an internationally-recognized green building certification system. The LEED consultant for this phase is architectural firm Arkkitehtitoimisto Larkas & Laine and constructor Lemminkäinen Oyj from Finland.

Providing full palette of services

In line with the Technopolis
concept, Technopolis Pulkovo
will become a broad-based center
of knowledge-intensive business.

Technopolis Pulkovo is the
first and only facility designed to
serve high-tech companies in St.
Petersburg.

The services include, for instance; financial advice, strategic advisory services, innovation services, connecting customers, partners, financiers and talent.

"We apply all our expertise and experience to provide a business environment, as well as services and development tools, that companies need to expand their business and explore new opportunities in Russia and abroad,” Coachman concludes.

Continuing efforts to turn green in Finland

Technopolis has crystallized its sustainability targets for 2011-2015 into an environmental strategy. Main targets include reducing energy consumption by 10 percent, water consumption by 8 percent and CO2 emissions by 20 percent. This is a part of Green Technopolis development project launched at the end of 2009.

Technopolis own offices seek for Green Office environmental label granted by WWF, according to which also Technopolis concept and services will be developed. Corporate social responsibility will be developed according to Global reporting Initiative (GRI) principles.

Technopolis office in Tampere has already received the Green Office label and several new Green Office projects have been launched in Finland and Estonia.

Technopolis has also introduced several innovative energy saving solutions. For example, Technopolis Innova phase 2 in Jyväskylä will be the first project in Finland to have a system that includes ground source heat harvested with energy piles.

With the help of energy piles, aroud 50 percent of heating energy and 40 percent of cooling and will be saved. The piles are piloted together with Finnish companies Ruukki Construction, Are and Uponor.

The project also utilizes innovative panels that use free and low-energy sources to significantly reduce or even largely replace purchased heating and cooling energy.

As a result of increased energy efficiency and green energy, project´s carbon footprint is decreased almost by half. Project aims at LEED Core & Shell certification.

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