Bekaert's Asian HQ Earns LEED Gold and Forms Sustainability Partnership with Shui On Xintiandi

On January 25, 2024, Bekaert Regional Headquarters Asia in Shanghai held an awarding ceremony, to celebrate its LEED Gold Certification Award. (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). This award is granted by the U.S. Green Building Council for the environmental friendliness and sustainable design of the new Bekaert offices in Shanghai. At the ceremony, Bekaert also signed a strategic cooperation agreement on sustainability with the landlord of its office building, Shui On Xintiandi, to strengthen green cooperation and jointly promote the low-carbon and sustainable development of the buildings.

Mr. Bruno Jans, Belgian Consul General in Shanghai, Mr. Huang Feng, Chairman of Shanghai Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, Mr. Yang Xubo, Head of Business Development of Shanghai Hongqiao International Central Business District Management Committee joined the event along with LEED North Asia head and representatives from landlord office. They extended warm congratulations to Bekaert for achieving this “Green” international standard in Shanghai.

The LEED Rating System is the world’s most influential rating that defines and benchmarks “green buildings”. It evaluates the sustainability in building design, construction, operations and daily maintenance, with specific focus on sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

This Golden Award directly relates to the LEED category “commercial interiors”. Seizing the opportunity of relocating its regional headquarters, Bekaert takes the concept of “next-generation office” and creates a green, diverse and equal workspace for its employees. With the support of its interior designer, the new office design and layout met the highest global standards in energy saving and carbon reduction.

Key features considered in the audit report leading to this prestigious award for Bekaert’s new offices are:

ü  The new headquarters is close to the Hongqiao transportation hub, and the convenient transportation is helping to minimize employees’ commuting emissions. The surrounding commercial and entertainment facilities are within walking distance, reducing the vehicle’s environmental impact.

ü  The heat recovery system improves the indoor air quality as well as significantly improve the energy efficiency.

ü  The installation of motion sensors and daylight sensors to reduce the electricity consumption.

ü  The use of eco water saving devices reduced water consumption by 35% compared to the baseline standard. Two direct drinking water dispensers with a high filtration grade to reduce the use of bottled water.

ü  High-grade environmentally friendly decoration materials are used and strictly tested for harmful substances to ensure that a safe, healthy and harmless workplace is created for employees.

ü  75% daylight penetration to gain maximum daylight into the offices by using glass wall partitions and low-height workstations.

Bekaert's new Asian headquarters has been designed and built to the world's leading high standards for green building, but this is only a start, and the energy-saving in the daily operation is even more important. Hence, at the awarding ceremony, Bekaert also signed a sustainability strategic cooperation agreement with the office landlord, Shui On Xintiandi, to establish a partnership to achieve the goal of creating energy-efficient buildings, and jointly explore how buildings can be built, managed, used and optimized in a sustainable way to create long-term value.

Yu Daming, President of Bekaert China, commented: “We are honored to have achieved LEED Gold certification and partnered with Shui On Xintiandi to explore a viable green lease model that is binding on both tenants and landlords, using our office space as a model. We look forward to working closely with all partners to implement the green commitments into the actions and set a good example to reduce carbon emissions."