Sustainable products and services

There are a variety of sustainable construction standards within the industry. Labels such as LEED, DGNB, SNBS and Minergie set different requirements and focus on different aspects. Implenia had around 61 major building construction projects with sustainability certificates underway in Switzerland and Germany in 2021. That is approximately 165% more than in 2012.

About 40% of the revenue in 2021 of the division Buildings came from certified building construction projects.

As well as its considerable practical skills in implementing sustainability standards, Implenia has also helped develop and harmonise several of them. In recent years, for example, it has been involved as a founder member in formulating the “Standard Nachhaltiges Bauen Schweiz” (“Swiss Sustainable Construction Standard”, or SNBS), which integrates various existing approaches, such as 2000-Watt Society and Minergie-ECO. Implenia’s objective up to 2025 is to develop and build its projects to the highest sustainability standards and to help develop these standards further. 

Implenia signed the Charta Gebäudelabels Schweiz (Swiss Building Label Charter) in 2020. Signatory organisations and companies use the various sustainable building labels to help Switzerland achieve its energy and climate objectives. Their aim is to carry out every construction project in accordance with a high energy or sustainability standard while also delivering high quality. Signatories of the charter also commit to only installing building technology that meets the most stringent energy efficiency requirements.

These days, towns, communities and private organisations use sustainable criteria to design whole neighbourhoods. Implenia – which is often involved in such projects – founded the “One Planet Living Neighbourhoods” association in partnership with WWF Switzerland in 2018. The association has since been joined by further members, including construction companies, public authorities and housing cooperatives. The association developed the “SEED-Next Generation Living” certificate for pleasant living environments with a high quality of life.

The SEED approach defines an action plan for each project based on six sustainability principles and suggests ways of turning this plan into reality. The principles cover areas such as energy efficiency, environmentally friendly building materials, availability of local shops, and green mobility.

In addition to the environmental aspects, the approach promotes local business and social mixing. While investors can expect market returns, tenants benefit from fair rents. The SEED concept makes this possible by achieving a balance within the neighbourhood between zones with more and less services.

The first SEED neighbourhood in Switzerland is the Quartier Gruvatiez in Orbe, the first phase of which was completed in 2020. This project in Canton Vaud includes more than 200 homes and shops, a retirement home and a school. Concrete for construction was made using locally available aggregates. 70% of the ground surface remains unbuilt-on. Other SEED-projects are being built on the site of the old paper mill in Marly in Canton Freiburg and in the Geneva neighbourhood of Grand-Saconnex, where Implenia is planning a “Green Village” with a hotel, a residential block and several buildings for international organisations on a plot of land owned by the World Council of Churches.

If Implenia builds something for a customer as general or total contractor, the sustainability requirements are set by them, not by us. Right from the tendering stage, however, we systematically try to integrate sustainability concepts that exceed the actual project requirements into our services. This allows us to address wider sustainability issues even if this is not explicitly requested by the customer. We want to expand this approach by 2025 and apply it across the whole Group.

In the first stage, Implenia evaluates the potential customer’s sustainability strategy and objectives. Based on this we develop a targeted sustainability concept tailored to the customer’s needs and integrate it into the construction project. A successful example of this was a project we did for the United Nations in Geneva.

Implenia has a lot of scope to make its own real estate projects as sustainable as possible, because these are the projects it plans, designs – and usually builds – itself. When Implenia is the project developer, it can determine the location, the architecture, and the construction and energy concept at an early stage. These factors then affect all the subsequent phases of construction and, in particular, have a decisive impact on the sustainability of the building’s operation once complete.

As a project developer, since 2008 Implenia has been using its own proprietary tool to evaluate the sustainability of construction projects: GeNaB®, which in German stands for “Total Evaluation Of Sustainable Construction”. The tool allows Implenia to assess the sustainability of a building from planning right through to a final review of objectives, by applying 18 criteria in three dimensions – environmental, social and commercial. The company will only go ahead with its own development projects if they score at least 8 of the 12 points awarded under the system.

Implenia has continued to develop the tool ever since it was launched. This applies to the form of tool itself, which has evolved from a simple Excel file to a modern intranet application, but also to its content – the actual sustainability criteria that are measured. Our specialists in the Sustainability Department regularly update these and benchmark them against newly developed standards. During the latest review in January 2019, for example, they integrated the criteria from the Swiss Sustainable Construction Standard (SNBS). 

The SNBS Building standard was developed under the lead of the Federal Office for Energy (BFE) and is part of the BFE’s family of building labels. Together with the other certificates in the family, the aim of this standard is to help implement Switzerland’s 2050 energy strategy within the construction sector. By adapting GeNaB® to the SNBS, Implenia can use GeNaB® as a kind of stepping stone to the SNBS itself.

With the expansion of development business in the German market, our internal sustainability specialists also defined internal requirements for sustainable building in Germany, and harmonised the GeNaB® criteria with the “Deutsche Gütesiegel Nachhaltiges Bauen DGNB”. GeNaB® Deutschland has been online since summer 2020. 

Implenia uses a “materials exclusion list” when selecting construction materials so it can be sure that minimum environmental standards are met. The list include all the Minergie-ECO exclusion criteria, so if Implenia develops and builds its own projects it can be sure it is not using any materials that are damaging to the environment or health. This list is regularly updated and adapted as new information comes to light.

Alongside its conceptual tools, over recent years Implenia has developed extensive expertise in the use of sustainable techniques and materials – especially wooden construction. Thanks to new building methods and its low grey energy content, wood has regained its importance as a natural construction material. 

In 2015 the Swiss federal government revised its fire safety regulations and allowed the construction of multi-storey timber buildings up to 100 metres high in Switzerland. Switzerland is blessed with large forested areas from which local wood can be obtained. If the raw material is purchased locally, the construction of timber buildings generates 30% less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional solid wall structures, so Implenia always considers and promotes local forest resources whenever possible.

Wood is highly suitable for making prefabricated construction elements. Another advantage of modular construction is that these elements can be used flexibly and are easy to replace. All of these benefits make wood an ideal building material within a closed cycle.

In the projects it develops itself, Implenia only uses wood and wooden materials that carry an FSC, PEFC or equivalent label. The company also supports FSC Switzerland in the implementation of important projects. The FSC standard is still not as widespread in construction as it is in the paper and printing industries. Implenia has made a financial contribution to help implement the Swiss forestry standard and develop an online tool to improve the marketing of certified wood within the construction sector. 

In order to cope with growing demand, Implenia opened a new wooden construction production plant in Rümlang, Canton Zurich, in 2017. The 3,300 square metre plant allows Implenia to carry out more complex projects to the highest quality, and has increased the company’s production capacity by a third. Around 50,000 square metres of wood per year are now processed at the eight production benches in Rümlang. The production plant also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using left-over wood to fuel the heating system for the main hall and neighbouring yard. 

Its pioneering projects have made Implenia one of the leading players in the wooden construction segment in Switzerland. 

• The company built the country’s biggest ever largest timber-built housing project in Winterthur: 8,100 cubic metres of wood were used to make the 307 apartments in the “sue&til” development, and around 80% of this wood came from Swiss forests. 
• At the Lokstadt development, also in Winterthur, Implenia has built a wooden high-rise residential building known as “Krokodil”. Containing 254 apartments, some of them cooperatively owned, this building used 7,700 cubic meters of wood. 
• The next big Implenia timber project is the new “KIM” neighbourhood in Oberwinterthur. Construction of this mixed-use residential and commercial building, with a total of 208 apartments, requires 5,500 cubic meters of wood.
• Project Pi in the Zug Tech Cluster, where Implenia is working as total contractor, will be the tallest timber-built high-rise in Switzerland. Around 80 metres tall, the building will be a beacon of environmental and social sustainability. The 10 “vertical neighbourhoods” within the building, each with 22 residential units on three floors, have been designed for new forms of living together.

New materials, technical progress and ground-breaking insights are changing the construction industry quickly and profoundly. Implenia is harnessing these changes to the benefit of its customers, employees and shareholders. “Innovation” has been one of the company’s four strategic pillars since 2019.

Implenia focuses specifically on the following five fields of innovation:

• New services go beyond our current service portfolio, change traditional customer relationships and generate new revenue and business models along the value chain. 
• New products offer integrated and scalable solutions for our customers at project level and beyond.
• New production refers to new materials, construction methods, value and supply chains, forms of management and process that facilitate economies of scale and volume, and improve quality.
• New sustainable solutions offer a high level of customer benefit, reduce environmental emissions, meet higher social standards and/or create long-term profitability. 
• New simplicity refers to solutions that reduce complexity or remove bureaucratic obstacles by simplifying internal and external services, products and processes.

The Implenia Innovation Map provides an overview of trends, of existing and new areas of innovation, and of promising spheres of activity (“opportunity spaces”), as well as technological catalysts for the future of construction.

Since 2018, Implenia Facade Technology has been working on a way to supply buildings with energy generated by their facades. Working with the Fraunhofer Institute of Energy Economics and Energy System Technology, the engineers have developed facade elements that can provide the offices behind them with all the power they need.

As well as electricity-generating photovoltaic modules, these integrated components include micro-heat pumps, and ventilation systems with heat recovery technology. In the ideal case, as well as providing insulation the building envelope can therefore take over all the key building technology functions. The premises will not then need any additional heating, cooling or ventilation systems. With less cabling and pipework required, there is greater flexibility in the way the space within can be used. 

And because the facade modules can be almost entirely prefabricated, construction time is reduced. The first module is currently being tested at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics in Holzkirchen, Germany. The one-year test phase will show how well the module performs over the long term in different temperatures.

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As a construction and real estate services company, Implenia buys in building materials such as cement, steel, wood, plaster and paint from external suppliers, as well as sourcing construction services from external carpenters, plumbers, gardeners, etc. In total, the Group spends about 60% of its revenue on suppliers and subcontractors.

To avoid risks in this extended value chain, the company has used a systematic supplier management system since 2014. Suppliers and subcontractors go through a qualification process that forms the basis for a long-term working relationship. This requires them to disclose their social, environmental and economic profile. Of its approximately 5,000 subcontractors and suppliers in Switzerland, Implenia had evaluated 1,798 by the end of 2021.

All business partners must fulfil clearly defined minimum requirements relating to the environment, working conditions, health and safety at work, quality, purchasing and finance. If Implenia finds that a company is not meeting these minimum standards, the problem areas are discussed; no new contracts will be awarded to the company until the issues are sorted out. 

By contrast, if a business partner goes beyond the minimum sustainability requirements, it is given additional points in Implenia’s evaluation system. For example, if a supplier can provide proof of the origin and recycling content of its products, it will receive a higher score. This allows partners who are committed to sustainability to improve their chances of winning contracts.

Implenia wants to work exclusively with sustainable partners. It has set itself a goal for 2025 of awarding at least 75% of its contracts by value to subcontractors and suppliers that have been evaluated according to sustainability criteria and that meet a higher standard. In addition, group-wide procurement policy should include sustainability criteria and all procurement specialists and project managers should receive appropriate training. Greater transparency in the supply chain should ensure there are no breaches of environmental or employment law.