Purpose driven buildings: a holistic approach to the wellbeing of the humans and the planet

Designing and thinking about buildings with the wellbeing of people and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in mind. This is one of the challenges that companies will face in the coming years. This has been understood by the Chiesi Group and the Davines Group, which have chosen to adopt international frameworks for assessing the environmental and social impacts of their production sites, going beyond the concept of ESG compliance, adopting good practices and submitting to strict measurement criteria.

Buildings in Europe today are responsible for 40% of total energy consumption and 39% of greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, people around the world spend 90% of their time in buildings, between home, office and business.

Two simple reasons why improving the impact of buildings is not only important to make a concrete contribution to the transition but also to improve the well-being of the community and the people who use them. These aspects also increasingly concern companies, because the evolution towards a more sustainable model also involves working on the impact of the buildings used on a daily basis, especially when talking about production sites.

What does it mean to intervene with a view to sustainable evolution on the building stock? It means constructing or renovating buildings by integrating, with a holistic approach, the consideration of all stakeholders, including the planet. Designing innovative and purpose-driven spaces, assessing the impacts of sustainability and business – direct and indirect – and managing their buildings in a logic of continuous improvement, following the best practices available and the indications of the most authoritative Green Building protocols.

The Chiesi Group and the Davines Group are companies that have chosen to include among their priorities attention to the impact of their buildings, supporting the adoption of protocols certified by independent third parties, such as the US Green Building Council.

Together with Chiesi, starting in 2020, we have developed the Better Building programme for its Parma site and for all the Worldwide affiliates, with the aim of measuring the impact of the entire portfolio of buildings on communities and ecosystems and adopting Eco-friendly design (design aimed at improving/protecting environmental aspects) and People-centred design (design aimed at improving Wellbeing) practices in new and existing sites. 

The programme also aims to contribute to the diffusion of a sustainable culture on the use of resources, as well as on Wellbeing linked to the characteristics of buildings and offices: for this reason, Active Leaders have been identified, i.e. reference figures from the local communities of the Chiesi Group, which has 31 Subsidiaries worldwide, and who are constantly involved in the assessment of impacts and the design of improvement actions, considering both the specific needs of each site and the transversal objectives of the Chiesi ecosystem.

The areas of impact considered in Better Building include energy, water, waste, materials used, indoor air quality, thermal and acoustic comfort, home-work transport, physical and mental wellbeing, as well as the supply of commonly used products such as food, office or cleaning products, taking as reference the best practices suggested by the LEEDand WELL international sustainable building protocols. 

Each year, the project culminates in a plenary meeting between site representatives, who share goals and challenges, sharing solutions to be implemented. 

Judith, Active Leader from the Netherlands: “Better Building raised awareness about the importance that Chiesi act together as an ecosystem and take sustainability into account in everyday decisions.”

Among the sites involved in the Better Building project is the Parma Research Centre, the largest laboratory in the world to have received Gold LEED O+M (Operations and Maintenance) certification for the sustainable management of existing buildings with the latest version of the standard (v.4.1). This is a site where the company’s main R&D activities are carried out, and as a scientific laboratory, it presents unique challenges in terms of integrated design of sustainability and functionality, given the complex systems housed, the stringent regulatory requirements on health and safety, the need for flexibility and adaptability, and the consequent intensive use of energy and water expected for its operation. In fact, a typical laboratory consumes three to eight times more energy than a similar office building. 

In order to achieve this result, it was necessary to activate a co-construction process that stimulated the GBCI certifying body to refine its own tools for measuring consumption deriving from production systems, which are now available to all companies wishing to measure themselves. This has led the Parma site to become the first laboratory in the world in terms of size to have achieved certification.

The evaluation framework was updated and thanks to the use of the Better Building multi-year programme, LEED Gold certification was also achieved by Chiesi’s production site in Blois (the first in France to achieve it), which includes both existing structures and new buildings.

In particular, “Chiesi’s commitment to reducing emissions related to climate change through the self-production of renewable energy, the use of certified green energy and the efficiency of production and air-conditioning systems has been recognised; a ‘responsible operation’ of the site, which includes requirements for green cleaning, virtuous management of outdoor green areas, pest control with low use of chemicals, integrated design of facility maintenance processes, controlled procurement of foodstuffs and many others; minimisation of drinking water consumption thanks to a green area with native essences with very low water requirements; control of light pollution and hydrological impact on the site the well-being of people thanks to high indoor air quality and a periodic air monitoring system’.

In addition, the Fontevivo logistics site in Parma, also received LEED Gold according to the O+M v4.1 protocol, thanks to the close collaboration with the R2M company, which followed the entire certification process from the initial refurbishment stages, was awarded for the building’s complete independence from fossil energy sources. In addition, it was positively recognised for the self-production of renewable energy, for the reduction of drinking water consumption thanks to highly efficient systems, for the attention to people’s well-being thanks to the use of materials with low content of potentially harmful substances during construction, and for the environmental comfort constantly monitored over time, thanks to air quality control.

As NATIVA, we also supported the Davines Group towards the recognition of LEED Gold O+M v4.1 certification for its Head Quarter and production centre: the Davines Group Village.

Built on an area of 77,000 square metres, the complex covers about 11,000 square metres and includes spaces dedicated to offices, training, R&D laboratory, production plant and warehouse. Developed from the concept of ‘home’, the structure of the Village reinterprets the archetypes of traditional dwellings in rural Italian areas in a contemporary key, emphasising the company’s family roots. The beating heart of the company’s life is the large glass structure in the centre of the complex, a luminous “greenhouse” distinguished by its modern and light architecture. 

The Davines Village is distinguished by three key initiatives: 

• KilometroVerdeParma: the owners of the land that runs along the 11 km of the A1 motorway in the Parma area have committed to planting trees that are naturally predisposed to combat harmful emissions from cars. Among the promoters of the project is the Davines Group, together with Chiesi, who have already completed the planting on their land.  The initiative, desired to combat pollution caused by the nearby Autostrada del Sole motorway, is based on the studies of Professor Stefano Mancuso, Director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology at the University of Florence.
• Zero Plastic: the Davines Group Village is free of single-use plastic. Plastic cups, cutlery and water bottles have been replaced by glass, porcelain, steel and the supply of flasks to all employees to benefit from filtered tap water. In addition, the Davines Group has sought to eliminate all other indirect sources of single-use plastic generation: vending machines have been replaced by fresh snacks without packaging, while there is no use of tea, coffee or other beverage pods.
• Green Energy: 100% of the electricity used in the Davines Group Village production site comes from renewable sources. This energy policy is expressed through the integration of communication and control systems to minimise energy consumption and the use of artificial lighting. The company’s objective is to ensure that the Group’s foreign sales offices also use electricity exclusively from renewable sources, increasing from the current 99.7% to 100%.

Today, therefore, in the face of the current context, more and more companies are becoming aware of the need to use environmental and social sustainability criteria from the earliest design stages of their buildings and to adopt recognised performance measurement tools in the management phase.

An integrated design process, which brings together technical requirements, the use of evolved standards and the company’s vocation, ensures a reduction in impacts on communities, people and the planet, while optimising economic resources during operation and increasing the asset value of the buildings involved.

In addition, the adoption of dynamic protocols such as the three-year LEED O+M allows the certification perimeter to be constantly updated by intercepting the internal and external transformations of the most complex production sites, and to stimulate the use of all those good practices that give feedback in terms of improved performance once measured and the possibility of reporting on it.