EU on a green visit to Ramboll Head Office

A group of city planners and officials from the European Union have just visited Copenhagen to get inspired by the city’s green solutions. A significant element on the agenda was Ramboll’s Head Office in Copenhagen.

An EU delegation has just visited Copenhagen, which has been appointed as Europe’s environmental capital in 2014, to find out what makes the city’s green solutions successful. Among other things, the group of delegates took a closer look at green buildings, the use of district heating and cooling, integrated city planning and the use of waste for heating production.
 
Ramboll Head Office was among the selected buildings that the delegation visited – as it is a good example of a green and energy efficient office building:
 
“Our building reflects the many areas of expertise we possess in our company. Focus is on sustainability – including low energy consumption – but also on the fact that the building has to function optimally in our everyday work and should encourage cooperation across departments and areas of expertise,” says Lars Ostenfeld Riemann, who is the Group Market Director for Ramboll’s Buildings area. 

A cooling system with energy savings of 85 percent
In 2010, Ramboll’s office building was shortlisted as one of the world’s top five office buildings by WAN (World Architecture News) and among other things excels by being holistic and sustainable with special focus on energy consumption and indoor climate. For example, the building has a cooling system which saves approximately 85 per cent of energy consumption.
 
Cooling and the indoor climate are inseparably connected to each other when dealing with office environments, as emission of heat from lighting and IT equipment result in an increased need for cooling. And exactly because of the relatively large impact of cooling on the indoor climate, this area received a great deal of attention when Ramboll looked for the most optimal solution for its head office. 
 
The solution proved to be the ground water cooling system ATES (Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage), where you use the ability of a ground water basin to store cooling or heating over longer periods of time. The system is a unique solution that can result in a realised saving of energy for cooling of approx. 85 percent.

Europe needs smart and durable solutions 
In context of the EU, Copenhagen’s plans to become carbon neutral by 2025 make the city a living example of the fact that it is possible to combine economic growth and environmental and climatic considerations. In a press release about the EU delegation visit, Connie Hedegaard, who is the EU commissioner of Climate, emphasises the increasing need for European cities to find smart and durable solutions:

“As an increasing number of European citizens move to cities there is also an increasing need for intelligent and sustainable city solutions that can deal with the increased pressure on the climate due to population growth while safeguarding the citizens’ quality of life. This for instance concerns CO2 emissions, pollution, traffic jams and waste,” she says with reference to Copenhagen’s status as European environmental capital.