OREANDA-NEWS. CROC has expanded its service portfolio with DGNB certification for office buildings.

CROC can now conduct and guarantee independent expert evaluations of building designs to ensure that they comply with modern international requirements for the construction of energy-efficient, green, and community focused buildings. Upon certification, the site is awarded a certified, bronze, silver or gold DGNB certificate.

"Possession of such a certificate increases the capitalization, market value and marketing attractiveness of commercial real estate and provides additional advantages for attracting domestic and foreign tenants. Furthermore, a DGNB certified building can become especially attractive for foreign tenants who actually consider sustainable development compliance to be a corporate standard," said Alexander Shirokov, Director of Intelligent Building Department, CROC.

The DGNB certification system takes into account all of the latest innovations in construction and development (including financial and economic evaluation of buildings), considers site characteristics during the whole lifecycle from design to demolition, and contains over 50 evaluation criteria which, for convenience, are classified into six categories:

Environmental quality

Economic efficiency

Social and cultural features and functionality

Technical equipment

Quality of design and construction process

Location quality

"The DGNB certificate confirms that construction complies with safety criteria and does no harm to the environment or community. In addition, unlike other certification systems, DGNB allows for building quality evaluation via multiple criteria during the entire lifecycle of 50 years. Other systems such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) are mostly focused on evaluation and classification but do not consider relevant factors in total during the entire lifecycle of the building," said Maxim Kobert, Head of DGNB Community in Russia.

Austrian developer Raiffeisen Evolution was the first company in Russia to certify its building for DGNB conformity as its customers were deeply concerned about the building's environmental effectiveness, which turned out to be an important point for tenants to make their choice. For the majority of modern companies, a green building is not just a matter of image or social responsibility but also a source of economic benefit. Currently, offices of well-known organic cosmetics manufacturers such as 'Recipes Grandma Agafia' and 'Natura Siberica' are located in DGNB certified buildings.