Greenhouse Solna strand - Big CO2 savings with reuse!

Greenhouse Solna Strand - modern offices with a focus on reuse

Right next to the subway station in Solna strand, the development of the office property Greenhouse is currently underway, where the property owner Humlegården has a great focus on sustainability in the form of small and large initiatives that make a difference to the climate footprint. Here, a dynamic environment is created with flexible office premises adapted to modern working methods and service beyond the ordinary. In Greenhouse, the own office is extended by the fact that customers can also use the property's common areas for meetings and events when the need arises. A café and bistro as well as a gym and yoga studio are also offered here. Green, healthy environments are the focus, for example in the form of a leafy courtyard and verdant roof terrace with orangery. Moving in will begin around the turn of the year.

 Reuse of baffles, lighting and suspended ceilings 

With new solutions for need-based control of lighting and indoor climate, we can create long-term solutions that give us and our customers more flexibility while minimizing the climate footprint, material requirements and also costs for future renovations for our customers. In addition, energy consumption is reduced. The operating staff can easily monitor and optimize the indoor climate and energy use. Our customers also benefit from the investment in the new technology through lower costs for their own electricity consumption.

Clas Boudrie,
Project Director at Humlegården Fastigheter

To use new energy efficient technology often requires an replacement. If existing solutions can be combined with new technology the CO₂footprint is significantly reduced - the energy savings must be weighed against the " CO₂cost" of throwing existing technology. In the Greenhouse, the technology solutions have been developed to keep the luminaires and baffles, so it has been possible to keep the entire suspended ceiling. The suspended ceiling tiles have been dismantled and plasticized for later reuse, and the supporting structure has been kept in place. It is about 11,900 square meters of suspended ceiling and this alone is a saving of 31 tons of CO₂.

 The luminaires account for a material saving of 7.1 tons and a CO₂ saving of 75 tons. Regarding the indoor climate solutions, a discussion was held with LINDINVENT about developing a product to make existing CAV baffles as smart as possible, as new VAV baffles are expensive and there will be a clearly negative CO₂ load with throwing the existing ones. The existing baffles were controlled locally by the operating technician coming out on site and setting the desired room temperature via a remote control. When the attendance rate dropped very drastically during the pandemic, this solution draws a lot of energy for little benefit. 

Smart baffle control for mounting on existing baffles - DCV-B.

LINDINVENT accepted the challenge and has developed a solution to control air, heating and cooling with a number of sensors in order to maximize the information and the decision-making basis for how it is controlled. In order to minimize the CO₂ load, suppliers who have a clear circularity mindset have also been used for interior design and, for example, brick from one of Humlegården's own properties has been reused when cladding the walls at the main entrance.

 Energy saving with smarter technology AND greater flexibility

With more dynamic use of the offices in the future, it will be a must to control the indoor climate, lighting and sun shading based on need. With post-pandemic attendance measurements, the attendance rate is clearly lower in the offices, and then it becomes even more important to control as needed. The sensors also provide the opportunity to follow how the premises are used to further optimize surfaces and occupancy.

Just activating the presence-controlled economy/comfort mode saves approx. 10-15% and then clearly reduced air volumes in the baffles in absence will contribute to lower property electricity and less heat use. It also provides information so that the surfaces can be used smarter by filling surface after surface instead of sitting a little everywhere.

 More than 400 tons of CO₂ saved thanks to upgrading the installations instead of replacement

If you add up the savings made possible by keeping the installations in the false ceiling, you end up with more than 400 tons. In addition, installation times have been radically reduced. There is a lot to learn from working with recycling. "-It is important to see the potential and see how existing products can be returned and invite the various entrepreneurs to their own ideas and thoughts, says Clas Boudrie, Project Director at Humlegården Fastigheter." For example, the existing duct system is used as much as possible instead of the ventilation contractor buying a new one and the electrical installer re-using existing vp pipes - only the saved 2500 m of vp pipe.

 All the sensors and integrations provide even more insights and profits 

To work with the connected product DCV-B, the LINDINSPECT web interface is used, which can be compared to a digital twin. It provides opportunities for total control of all actual values, setpoints and parameters. This provides great analysis opportunities for energy use and how the indoor climate works, but also how the premises are used: how many people are in the premises, staff attendance rate, which rooms are used least and most and how many people are in the meeting rooms to evaluate size and degree of utilization. By connecting presence with Active Directory, we can also check how the meeting rooms are used: booked and used, booked and not and spontaneously used or empty.

We have a total solution that controls energy optimally and gives the operations department all the data and analysis possibilities they need to optimize their properties in a sustainable way. This is a must if we are to make real estate Sweden climate neutral in the future.

Thomas Lindborg,
Head of development, Lindinvent