Panattoni, the European industrial real estate market leader, is supporting the green transformation of industry. This year, the developer has completed the first zero-emissions factory in Danfoss’s global portfolio. Danfoss is a producer of energy-efficient components and technological solutions for sectors that include cooling and air-conditioning, heating and electric motors.
Panattoni has proven to be a superb partner for a company that not only supports many different sectors but one that has also declared that it will achieve zero emissions by 2030. The development that has arisen in the industrial campus in Grodzisk Mazowiecki marks a milestone in reaching this target.
“Without zero-emissions buildings we are not going to achieve carbon neutrality,” says Emilia Dębowska, the Sustainability Director at Panattoni. “Furthermore, an environmentally-friendly development delivers measurable savings in a building’s costs and in its operations, while also ensuring additional returns in the form of the preservation of the environment. BTS (build to suit) buildings, and in particular the Danfoss factory, are an excellent example of this.”
The new factory has been built in a way that saves as much energy as possible while also using heat gains from production, water chillers and air compressors to efficiently heat the building and its offices as well as to also provide hot water. During transitional and winter periods, heat pumps are the primary heating source, which are supported by the addition of heat recovery from the aforementioned sources. The heating, cooling and ventilation systems, as well as the production machinery are all powered with green electricity.
All of the technical installations in the development in Grodzisk are controlled by an advanced BMS (building management system), which additionally improves the entire building’s energy efficiency as well as its operational usage. The building’s production hall and its warehousing facilities were constructed for the mounting of solar panel installations.
The developer has also added more insulation to the production halls to limit heat loss. Panattoni has also implemented measures to limit water usage including the installation of electric cut-off valves and touchless taps in the social areas.
Efficient development walks hand in hand with sustainable development. This development was the responsibility of the BTS division within Panattoni, which is the longest-operational, bespoke development team in Poland. Throughout the CEE region, the company has already completed over 100 of this type of development.
The construction of the Grodzisk Mazowiecki development was perfectly suited to the operations of the company’s business campus and did not disrupt production in the neighbouring factory. It enabled the transferral of 45 production lines, warehousing facilities, a laboratory and maintenance operations from Denmark. As part of the development an R&D centre was also created, which is to play a key role in Danfoss’s business both in Poland as well as globally. The centre developed by the Panattoni BTS division has also been equipped with advanced automation and robotics technology to guarantee products of the highest quality.
“We met many challenges while working on this development,” says Marek Foryński, the BTS Managing Director at Panattoni, and he adds: “These include the short construction time, the development of the first stage in the winter and the construction of the centre next to a pre-existing factory without disruption to its operations. Faced with such challenges, our experience proved to be worth its weight in gold.” The packed schedule also included additional planning procedures.
Michał Chodecki, the BTS Development Director at Panattoni, also adds: “We made certain that, despite the pandemic, the construction team was continually at work and we also ensured that the designers produced the construction documentation in good time. Moreover, the factory was built on the site of a car park, which required a change in the site conditions. Despite the challenges, the first production line was already under construction within seven months.”
“Right now business must play an extremely significant role in fighting climate change and ESG is one of the tools that makes this possible. Those companies that take action in this field will be the leaders of future change. The new production plant in Grodzisk, which we have built together with Panattoni, represents our first step towards net zero emissions, but a very important one for Danfoss” stated Adam Jędrzejczak, the President of Danfoss Poland.
