Fulfilment center achieves BREEAM certification for continued progress

3050 Gateway Commerce Center Drive, Edwardsville, IL is a 717,250 sq f distribution and fulfilment center owned by DEKA USA Property TWO LP on behalf of the open-ended fund Deka Immobilien-Nordamerika.

The client has an integrated sustainability strategy to manage investor capital using an economic, environmental, and socially sustainable business approach. As part of that strategy, it is continually increasing efforts in the field, including pursuing green building certifications such as BREEAM In-Use.

The company aims to be climate neutral by 2050. With more than €40 billion in real estate assets worldwide, DEKA USA Property TWO LP seeks to provide a major contribution to global environmental sustainability.

Like many industrial facilities, this distribution centre faced challenges due to its rural location with reduced surrounding amenities. The tenant was gracious enough to provide information and accommodate multiple site visits. These were carried out within the context of heightened security and operations protocols, which were established to protect the health and safety of the tenant’s employees as well as the efficiency of the services provided.

The tenant understood that for DEKA USA Property TWO LP, the systematic pursuit of certification strategy is an essential part of their commitment to sustainability.

BREEAM Part 1 certification, which assesses the performance of a building, was well suited to this site. It was also feasible for the building to achieve, given the nature of a distribution center and limited access to whole-building utility information available.

The building achieved 15 out of 33 credits available. For a warehouse/distribution centre it is impressive to see that the asset has implemented a number of features to enhance the overall health and wellbeing of its occupants.

In addition to helping meet the goal of certification at their properties, the BREEAM assessment helped Deka measure and report on sustainability practices and performance at the asset, including:

• Public transportation within 0.3 miles of the building via safe pedestrian route with a 30 minute service frequency at peak times (TRA02)

• All toilets and urinals fitted with low flush technologies (WAT02 and WAT03)

• A minimum of 2 separate waste streams (WST01)

• All internal lamps using LED bulbs (ENE25)

• 49.6% of the site planted with vegetation, meaning this site earned nearly all of the credits offered for Land Use and Ecology category.