Building your own office in the polder

The Pearl in the Polder project is an atypical challenge for De Vries en Verburg Bouw. Why? Because it is itself the client and main contractor. "That does make us extra critical," explains plan developer and sustainability manager Timo Stuij. "We work here with 200 people, all experts in their field, so the bar is set incredibly high. That doesn't matter, because it's our own office."

De Vries en Verburg holds sustainability in high regard. "Not only because of changing legislation, our customers are also asking for this. We have been profiling ourselves in the sustainable market for some time. We prefer to be ahead in this, and building our own sustainable office is a fantastic way to show that."

Beautiful surroundings

The new office will be located at the edge of the polder. On one side is the business park, on the other is the Stolwijksevaart. "Across the water we have two pastures," Stuij says. "We're going to build a bridge so employees can cross. There is an orchard there, which we will restore. Neighbors throughout the business park can take a stroll there, too, of course!"

The highest demands

"We have ourselves to thank for the challenges in this project. We want to achieve the highest level of certifications BREEAM-NL and WELL, and with the interim measurement we were indeed at BREEAM-NL 'Outstanding' and WELL Platinum." But that's far from all. De Vries en Verburg has decided that it wants to apply the Whole Life Carbon principle. "That approach looks at the CO2 emissions of a project over its entire lifespan. Not just during use, but also during production and construction. Then suddenly you have to start asking whole new questions: what is the environmental burden of the materials we apply? Does the additional environmental burden of triple glazing outweigh the energy savings in the use phase?"

To comply with the Paris Climate Agreement by 2050, there is a descending limit on the amount of CO2 emissions per square meter. For an office built in 2025, this should be a maximum of 200 kg of CO2. By 2030, that may still be 158 kg. "That's not an official requirement now, but more of an above-legal standard. We are now at 185 kg and we are extremely happy with that. This does not include the storage of 280 kg of CO2 in the wood construction."

How high is the bar?

At the very beginning of the sketch design, De Vries en Verburg laid down all ambitions. "You often see that those ambitions are then diluted after the first sketch. We therefore involved the design team in all ambitions for the building. Now we see that we are achieving all the goals, from sustainability to being a good employer. So this approach really works. Working together on an equal level instead of tightly hierarchical: we are showing with this that this is how you achieve the best results."