Improving the sustainability of Daalsesingel 51 is good for the climate

It’s a beautiful image, the green field on the roof of the Daalsesingel office building in Utrecht. At the start of next year, Rick Sturkenboom, asset manager for ASR Dutch Mobility Office Fund, will be welcoming the new tenants. After renovation of the exterior, they will start on the interior fittings. ‘It’s not just the green roof that makes the building sustainable, we’re also working with special windows, solar panels and LED lighting, among other things. This is something we do with every building in the portfolio and with every purchase.’

Only a few finishing touches to the interior of Daalsesingel 51 are needed before the new tenants can move in. The office building already had an ‘A’ energy rating and a BREEAM certificate of ‘Very Good’ when it was bought by the office fund. ‘When ABN AMRO indicated that they wanted to move, we surveyed the possibilities for optimisation and sustainability’, Rick explains. ‘Then we drew up a plan for the renovation of the premises of about 8300 square metres.’

This design included installation of a moss-sedum roof. ‘You can’t just install that on top of existing roofing. There’s going to be extra load added and the roofing itself has to meet certain requirements, because the idea of a roof like this is that it retains rainwater so it doesn’t run right into the sewar system. The roof was also installed to prevent heat stress. Masonry buildings absorb a lot of heat and release it very slowly, so the greener the building, the cooler it will be.’ Along with such features as extra insulation for the facade, solar panels and LED lighting, Rick is aiming for a top sustainability certification for these premises. ‘The so-called BREEAM method for sustainability of the built environment. We’re aiming at the qualification “Excellent”.’

Renovation of the Daalsesingel office building is part of the overall sustainability strategy of ASR Dutch Mobility Office Fund for existing as well as new objects. ‘Consider, for example, the Wonderwoods project in Utrecht that is currently under construction. Residences and office space are being built together in a vertical forest. It’s actually a high-rise forest of green facades. And recently we bought the Tree House project in Rotterdam, an Almost Energy Neutral Building (BENG in Dutch), which makes use of maintenance-free materials and recycles existing materials. Rainwater will be captured for re-use. Along with seeing how we can make the object itself more sustainable, we are also looking at the immediate vicinity. The Moreelse gardens are an example of this. In collaboration with the City of Utrecht and other property owners in the area, we are working on a large-scale expansion of green space in the area. By doing all this we are showing that for ASR Dutch Mobility Office Fund, too, climate is an extremely important issue.’

Insight into the negative effects of climate change is essential in order to anticipate the impacts climate change is already having and to be prepared for future effects. ASR Dutch Mobility Office Fund has such insight and is taking steps wherever possible, such as the improvements to the building at Daalsesingel 51 in Utrecht. By adding a moss-sedum roof that retains rainwater and prevents heat stress, installing solar panels, LED lighting and extra insulation in the exterior, the premises on Daalsesingel 51 in Utrecht will be making a small but important contribution to the mitigation of climate change.