Grontmij brings social, economic and ecological building aspects in balance through an integrated and multidisciplinary design process. The social aspects put the human factor at the centre: a building must be pleasant to work in and to be in, and it must meet all comfort demands regarding thermal comfort, air quality, visual comfort, acoustics, user-comfort and safety. Economic factors include more than the initial building cost. By including the operational costs in the design, the Total Cost of Ownership will be reduced over the lifecycle of the building. Ecology means handling the natural sources carefully and with respect, with regards to space, materials, water and energy.

Sustainable design is integrated design
Grontmij assures an intensive collaboration between all parties involved. The multidisciplinary nature and the complexity of sustainable building require combining varied design criteria by the architects and the engineers/experts of the various disciplines. After all, the optimum for a partial discipline is not always in the scenarios of delivering optimal sustainability for the entire building . As a result, sustainable building is an optimisation process whereby a ‘constrained optimum’ needs to be found.

This has two consequences:

• It is essential that the limiting contextual conditions are agreed and discussed properly. Important conditions are for example the required comfort, the number of users and the building budget.
  
  
• The targets that need to be achieved must be clearly specific and quantified. The criteria that are in the scale to direct the optimisation process must always be determined first in consultation with the client.

The end result is a sketch design and a balanced programme of demands, complete wirh the targets that need to be met and criteria. This framework act as a continuous testing reference throughout all phases of the further design process.

However, sustainable building at Grontmij does not stop at the construction and the final delivery of the building. Also after it has been taken into use, Grontmij remains your partner for a sustainable building management whereby we focus on energy management and maintenance management.

Keep the E-level and the K-level as low as possible
High energy rates, pressure from regulations (EPB & EPC) and the increasing environmental consciousness of investors make that more attention is given to an energy-conscious design of new buildings and installations. But, given some simple measures, a lot of energy can also be saved in existing buildings.

Grontmij has excellent knowledge of all modern techniques (balance ventilation, heat pumps, concrete core activation, daylight control…) and building physics (passive house) to  keep the E-level and the K-level as low as possible. As certified experts, we do EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) certification, and we design passive offices and buildings with ‘zero emissions’.