Did you know that our office is located in the Bussum water tower? Besides the fact that this water tower is a special location, it is also a sustainable office building. In April 2010, this building was proclaimed the most sustainable office building in the Netherlands at the time. But what does a sustainable office building mean?
To make the water tower a sustainable building, the choice of materials was taken into account; a relatively simple and cheap concrete prefab construction with glass facades was chosen. A lot of glass immediately gives the building a transparent appearance with views of the wooded surroundings from the building. Inside, the construction of the building is clearly visible, and savings were made on finishing materials.
The water tower has no gas connection, but uses various thermal technologies such as thermal storage, heat pumps and cogeneration. The combined heat and power system is fired with vegetable waste oil and - together with the concrete core activation - provides the entire building with heat in the winter months. In the summer months, this cogeneration - together with an absorption chiller - cools the building.
The electrical energy needed in the building is generated by the water tower using wind energy, PV cells and the combined heat and power system. There is a small windmill on top of the water tower that generates about 8,000 kWh per year and there are about 30m2 of solar cells on the roof of the office space.
In addition to having no gas connection, the building also has no sewerage connection. A helophyte filter purifies the water. The pure water is reused for flushing all toilets in the building. In this way, we save 80% of drinking water. This creates a small water cycle with a small replenishment of drinking water.
All this makes the building energy-neutral/climate-neutral and gives it a MIG score of 1028 points. MIG stands for Environmental Index Building and is the result of a life cycle analysis of the building. If you want to know more about our building, please see http://www.watertorenbussum.nl or drop by for a cup of coffee!
