With the 50,000 square metre office project RIVERGATE, Tyrolean investor and CEO of SIGNA Holding, René Benko, succeeded in creating a trend-setting Green Building. After the Green Building certificate, RIVERGATE now strives to receive gold status according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the exacting US-American standard for ecological building. The LEED certification method assesses an especially wide range of different sustainability aspects, which in turn will prove that many different areas of sustainable building were covered at RIVERGATE. A further goal is to receive the ÖGNI certification by the Austrian Sustainable Real Estate Management Council (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Nachhaltige Immobilienentwicklung), which was established in Austria in the fall of 2009 and aims at setting national standards. RIVERGATE is set to be certified as one of the trend-setting pilot projects.

The Green Building certificate does not only confirm RIVERGATE’s pioneering role in Vienna’s office market with regard to ecological building; it is also of economic relevance for its future tenants: “Thanks to the trend-setting design, we will be able to offer our tenants a building with high ecological standards, and what’s more, a highly competitive operating cost of 3.50 EUR per m² and month, all services included,” says DI Herbert Putz, SIGNA Development’s person in charge of the RIVERGATE project. This creates a distinct competitive advantage for RIVERGATE compared to other office projects on the market. “By using the natural resources of geothermal energy and ground water, we can achieve savings on primary energy costs of approximately 35 percent and reduce CO2 emissions by 280 tonnes per year,” Putz explains. Over 100 safe bicycle parking spaces inside the building complement the existing connection to the City of Vienna’s bicycle route network and are a further contribution to protecting our environment.

Green Buildings are significantly more efficient in their energy and water consumption and are characterized by a better quality of life for their users. They exceed the common energetic and ecological standards for sustainable building and are well prepared for the shortage of energy resources worldwide. Among other factors, this includes more effective noise control, a modern floor plan concept, light conditions and air quality, as well as building materials that are gentle to the environment and our health.