BNP Paribas has committed more than EUR20 million to a green makeover for the Brussels head office of Fortis Bank Belgium, which it acquired in May.
The bank has contracted Dutch IT services group Imtech to green the Brussels head office, which is made up of five integrated, historic buildings, and slash energy costs by 50%.
Among the energy saving initiatives will be a system of 100-metre-deep boreholes used to temporarily store cold energy deep underground. This air is then transferred to the building via a piping network for climate conditioning.
Solar panels will be placed on the roof to preheat warm water for the building's restrooms. In addition, cooling beams will be placed, which periodically make use of energy that is available in the outside air, based on the 'free-cooling' principle.
Imtech says the mix of these measures will result in an energy saving of about 50% and a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions.
René van der Bruggen, CEO, Imtech, says: "More and more big organisations are deciding to make their head offices completely sustainable in the name of corporate social responsibility. Imtech capitalises on this trend to create 'green head offices' with sustainable, integrated and intelligent technical solutions."
Imtech is also working on Deutsche Bank's green technological modernisation of its iconic twin-tower office blocks in Frankfurt.