The ground-breaking ceremony for the new Bosch regional headquarters for southeast Asia took place in December 2007. Work is not scheduled to be completed until October 2009, but the building has already received two accolades for being energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The State of Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority awarded the new building the Platinum rating, the highest under its “Green Mark” program. This certifies that its annual energy requirements are at least 30 percent below the permissible limit in Singapore. The building also received the national Clean Energy Program’s “Solar Pioneer Award”.
The corporate construction department at Bosch placed great emphasis on systematically adopting environmentally friendly construction methods for the new headquarters, which have a floor space of around 27,000 m2. The building is one of the first in Singapore to be equipped with mobile external sunscreens. These cut the amount of heat getting into the building by 20 to 25 percent, thereby reducing the energy requirements for cooling – an important consideration in a city located close to the Equator. The building is also being equipped with photovoltaics from Bosch subsidiary ersol – a fact of symbolic significance given that photovoltaics will be a key focus of research at the Singapore location. A number of other factors further boost the building’s green credentials. Recovering energy in the ventilation system reduces the amount of energy required for cooling by a further 20 percent, while condensation from the air-conditioning system is reused in cooling towers on the roof – a measure that reduces the building’s water consumption by 10 to 15 percent.
The green headquarters in Singapore are just one example of how Bosch ensures efficient use of energy in its construction activities around the globe. The company has been adopting environmentally aware and cost-conscious practices for the planning of its locations for some time now. The existing building in Singapore, which dates from 1995/96, already uses around ten percent less energy than the permissible limit in Singapore. A further building with outstanding green credentials is currently being constructed in the Chinese city of Shanghai. For example, the headquarters here will use the structure of the subsoil to supply the building with geothermal energy.
