SkyParks receives highest international environmental accreditation

SkyParks Business Centre has become Malta's first Grade A office park on obtaining a Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) certification.

BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building's environmental performance. As the world's leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings, a BREEAM certification places SkyParks in a league of its own.

The BREEAM standard aims to mitigate the impacts of buildings on the environment and to enable buildings to be recognised according to their environmental credentials. With this certification in hand, SkyParks Business Centre, has scored high marks for the location of the development, its performance history, with main focus on quality and transparency, and finally building efficiencies. The latter refers to structural and engineering finishes, access and exit routing, parking, energy management and scalability for expansion.

"This accreditation gives us all great satisfaction. Even when this development was at a conceptual stage, it was our ambition to work towards such an award," Alan Borg, General Manager of SkyParks Business Centre, said.

"We have invested in the highest level of energy efficient systems for air conditioning, air ventilation, heat recovery units and vertical transportation, and plan to maximise energy conservation whilst limiting wastages. In doing this we not only intend to ensure a high quality indoor environment for our tenants but also hope to raise the bar locally, and set the standard for best practice in sustainable design."

Overall the building has obtained high credit rating in the category of Water, specifically for water recycling with a large rain water reservoir built for rain water catchment as well as a low-water irrigation system which will be used for landscaping.

In the Transport category SkyParks scored well due to proximity to amenities both within the business centre and at the airport terminal, including child care services, fitness centre, pharmacy, post office, perfumery, stationery, digital store, eateries, medical centre.

The carefully thought out space available for tenants both within the building and outdoors further boosted the building's credit achievement in the health and well-being category as did the glare control shading systems for the windows. Finally, the development achieved a good credit rating within the management category as the management team worked constantly to keep the general public well informed at all stages of the development. In fact updates on every aspect of the development are posted regularly on www.skyparksbusiness.com. SKYPARKS Business Centre is scheduled to open by the end of this summer and already boasts 70% occupancy.