Are there more buildings with green certificates in Poland? In which regions are they arriving the most, and in which the least? The Polish Green Building Association PLGBC has prepared another, already the seventh installment of the report Sustainable Certified Buildings.
The document was published on April 22 this year. It is no coincidence that PLGBC chose International Earth Day. Climate change, with all the problems that are already beginning to emerge, is one of the most important challenges for humanity in the 21st century. Reducing the carbon footprint will be directly related to construction, not so much in sequestering the carbon equivalent, but in reducing the burden on the environment through better choice of materials and higher energy efficiency. How has the situation changed from previous difficult years? Is our situation improving, or are we stuck?
floor area of certified buildings
© Polish Green Building Association PLGBC
key findings
The report prepared by PLGBC is based on multi-criteria certification based on systems such as BREEAM, DGNB, GBS, GQE, LEED, WELL and GREEN HOUSE. The data used in this edition of the report covers the period from March 2021 to March 2022. What does the report show?
Certified warehouse space grew the most - its stock expanded by as much as four million square meters during the year. Thus, warehouses dethroned offices, which had reigned in all the lists since the beginning of the start of multi-criteria certification in Poland.
number of certified buildings
© Polish Green Building Association PLGBC
The largest drop in new certifications in Poland is seen among commercial buildings. In the period covered by the report, there were only four new commercial buildings. In the sixth installment of the report, the number of certified commercial buildings was forty-five. This is probably due to changes in consumer habits, which have been primarily influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, which has been ongoing for two years.
the right way
The report shows a good direction of change. How much was the floor area of certified facilities? More than twenty-eight million six hundred thousand square meters. This is an increase of twenty-four percent over the previous year. The number of certified buildings reached almost one thousand four hundred.
industry breakdown of certified buildings
© Polish Green Building Association PLGBC
The most popular certification is BREEAM, which reaches eighty-one percent of the certificate market share. The number of BREEAM certifications this year exceeded the number of all certifications in the previous year. The second certificate after BREEAM is LEED, which accounts for sixteen percent of the market share. Other certifications like HQE, WELL, DGNB and GBS oscillate within one percent.
floor area of newly built and existing certified buildings
© Polish Green Building Council PLGBC
Offices, despite a downward trend, still account for the largest share of certified buildings. They are being caught up by warehouses and logistics centers. The share of residential construction has also increased gently. Schools, along with hotels, are a marginal component.
Certified buildings vs. non-certified
Certified buildings dominate the office space category. Their share of modern office space is as high as eighty-seven percent. In the case of warehouse space, it is forty-one percent. The ratio of certified buildings to non-certified ones looks better in the case of retail space, it is as high as fifty-four percent.
The report can be read on the PLGBC website(see here).
The dominant region in green certification is the Mazowieckie voivodeship
© Polish Green Building Association PLGBC
