Sky Parks Development Ltd, Malta International Airport (MIA) plc’s subsidiary entrusted with the development of its €16 million Gudja business centre, has applied for BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) certification.
This assessment process will lead Sky Parks to become the first building in Malta to obtain this certification.
Based in the UK, BREEAM is among the most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building’s environmental performance.
Sky Parks Business Centre is investing in the highest level of energy-efficient systems for air conditioning, air ventilation, heat recovery units and vertical transportation, and plans to maximise energy conservation whilst limiting wastages in lighting systems, water circulations and sanitary ware. Sky Parks intends to ensure an improved internal environment with high indoor quality, the company said.
BREEAM certification would mean the centre obtains high scores in location strengths (situated in proximity to public amenities, transportation, medi-care and leisure activity), performance history (with a focus on quality and transparency), and building efficiencies (structural and engineering finishes, access and exit routing, parking, energy management and scalability for expansion).
MIA chief executive officer Julian Jaeger said it was always MIA’s intention for Sky Parks Business Centre to be developed as a centre of excellence, not only in the services it will offer to its prospective tenants, but also in the way it is conceived as a building.
“This certification means that our business centre will achieve high levels of functionality, flexibility, maintainability and durability, coupled with low environmental impacts and consequently attaining high user satisfaction, quality and control,” Mr Jaeger said.
MIA chairman Karin Zipperer told the annual general meeting last May that excavations on the business centre had started. The five-storey, 30,000 square-metre building next to the air terminal in Gudja, was expected to be completed within the second half of next year.
MIA is in discussions with prospective tenants after striking an agreement with Vodafone last year.