We are sustainable
At CTP, we take a hands-on approach to protecting the environment. That’s why we have undertaken to make our business net carbon neutral by 2023. The aim is not only carbon-neutrality but to positively impact the communities where we operate.
We take the environmental impact of our activities seriously. That’s why we build industry-leading sustainable buildings with state-of-the-art materials and technologies to ensure their sustainability over time. As the owner and operator of our industrial and office portfolios, we are hands-on about making sure that we deliver highly efficient buildings with the smallest possible environment footprint. Our goal is to be an industry leader in the transition to a carbon-neutral economy, which is why we have undertaken to make our business net carbon neutral by 2023. We have redoubled our existing sustainability efforts and last year introduced a number of initiatives that will impact the full scope of our operations. The aim is not only carbon-neutrality but to positively impact the communities where we operate.
BREEAM certification
To further enhance the sustainability of our operations and help us achieve net carbon neutrality by 2023, CTP is now the first European industrial developer to undertake BREEAM certification for its entire portfolio of industrial properties.
BREEAM is the world’s first standardised method for assessing the sustainability of buildings. In 2012 CTP became the first company outside the UK to be awarded the highest level of BREEAM certification for our portfolio of office buildings. All CTP office holdings are built to the highest BREEAM specifications. At present, nearly 20% of our total portfolio is BREEAM certified. To further enhance the sustainability of our operations and help us achieve net carbon neutrality by 2023, CTP is now the first European industrial developer to undertake BREEAM certification for its entire portfolio of industrial properties. This involves not only BREEAM certification for new buildings but also for the standing portfolio, which requires significant on-going investments into new technologies, systems and materials. This will be the largest BREEAM certification process ever undertaken—certifying nearly 300 buildings across six countries. By 2021 we plan to have all of our buildings BREEAM certified.
Smart buildings
Smart buildings measure energy consumption in real-time and make it possible to identify ways to make building operations even more energy efficient, which helps to save both money and the environment.
As part of our commitment to sustainability we are upgrading our standing portfolio with data-gathering technology to better analyse building performance. Smart buildings make it possible to monitor energy consumption of a building in real-time. This enables us to identify ways to make building operations even more efficient, which helps to save both money and the environment.
ISO certification
Our commitment to sustainable development includes ISO certification for environmental and energy management systems for our entire portfolio.
Currently all of our buildings in the Czech Republic and Romania have received ISO 14001 (Environmental management) and 50001 (Energy management) certification. This further underscores our commitment to both the environment and our tenants. We continue to implement high sustainability standards in our processes throughout the Group portfolio and plan in the near term to finalise ISO certification in all countries where we operate the CTPark Network.
Circular parks
The circular economy is a “closed-loop” system that minimises waste and resource consumption. We’re rolling out the concept of “circular parks” to maximise sustainability, starting with our A-class office portfolio.
CTP is working to make its industrial and office parks more sustainable. We chose Spielberk Office Centre in Brno as a pilot project to discover what we could do to get to zero waste and greater efficiency in line with the principles of the circular economy. The Czech-based Institute of Circular Economics gave us a set of concrete recommendations that will make the functioning of the entire office park more eco-friendly. This includes things installing hot-air dryers in all bathrooms, which prevents nearly 80,000 tons of paper waste each year. Other initiatives include investing in better recycling containers and creating systems to enable our clients to easily recycle their office waste, including paper, printer toner, and bio waste. Best practices from the Spielberk pilot project will be transferred to our other office projects in Brno and Ostrava, in addition to our industrial portfolio wherever possible.
Solar plan
As part of our comprehensive sustainability initiative, starting in 2020 all of our new buildings will be constructed “solar ready.” We’ve also formed a partnership with a company that sources and resells 100% renewable energy to enable our clients to purchase 100% renewable, always-on energy at costs rivalling or below standard utility charges. Currently our solar target is to develop 20MW of electricity capacity in the Czech Republic during 2020.
Over the years, CTP has installed many solar plants on the rooftops of our buildings. Currently, we have eight functioning solar farms in the Czech Republic. As part of our comprehensive sustainability initiative, starting in 2020 all of CTP’s new buildings will be constructed “solar ready”—meaning either that the roofs will be built to allow the creation of a solar farm on each building by incorporating the necessary hook-up technology, or they will be built with solar panels already installed. In January 2020, CTP began a partnership with Nano Energies—a company that sources and resells 100% renewable energy—to enable our clients to purchase 100% renewable, always-on energy, at costs rivalling or below standard utility charges. This will be a major advantage for our clients and is only possible due to the scale and scope of the CTPark Network. Currently our target is to develop 20MW of electricity capacity in the Czech Republic during 2020. Our solar initiative allows CTP to offer renewable energy to our tenants in those parks that have it, lowering their operational costs while at the same time providing them with a viable source of renewable energy for their own sustainability goals.
CTForest
A key pillar of our net carbon neutral strategy is the purchase and maintenance of natural forests in the countries where we operate. To this end, CTP has committed to investing in forest preserves across CEE on a 1:1 ratio to our built portfolio. As a first step, in October 2019 CTP purchased its first forest preserve outside Mladá Boleslav in the Czech Republic. The entire 100-hectare forest will be preserved in its natural state and will be managed by expert staff to encourage biodiversity, which will also protect against the bark beetle infestation that is ravaging the Czech Republic’s coniferous forests. CTP will plant a variety of trees to both offset our carbon footprint and also to provide genetic diversity to help battle the bark beetle infestation, which is a direct result of low-biodiversity resulting from mono-culture planting and over-forestation. CTP continues to seek other, old-growth forests across CEE to preserve, as they are the best type of carbon sink: wild, bio-diverse, old-growth forests are up to 40 times more effective at capturing carbon than a new-growth, managed tree farm.
What will the perfect warehouse of the future look like?
It’s called a circular building. Thanks to perfect insulation, it almost does not need heating or air conditioning. It works independently of public networks, which it uses only as a backup. It generates energy from solar panels and recaptures , capturing rainwater, which it can then 100% recycles. Even flush toilet water is cleaned on filtereds and re-circulated. Likewise, unused food will be recycled to produce biofuel. The advantage of such a building is that it can be built anywhere and used without additional any environmental requirementspermits. Once it isoperations are over, the supplier will disassemble it and take all the material for recycling and reuse.
What does a smart building look like?
Data collection is the key. With data analysis, we are able to save our tenants money, for example by discovering out that he a tenant is purchasing more reserved electricity capacity than he they actually needs. Or another example: during Christmas time in our office parks—time when virtually no one body was at working in the facility—we found out that the offices were still consuming a large amount of electricity. This was caused by the cooling needed for computer servers and the cooling needed for these servers. So we came up with the idea of pumping in naturally cool air from the outside to cool the servers. These “‘small’” things can save tenants tens of thousands of euros a year. And the list goes on: lighting management can be set up correctly, we can change the door systems in the areas where we space heating is required, etc.
We make parks
CTP is a full-service commercial real estate developer. We build, manage and deliver custom-built, high-tech business parks throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
We build communities
We want to be a good neighbour. We promote socially responsible behavior throughout the countries in which it operates, where we support a wide range of community-based organizations mainly focused on children and adolescents.