Introduction

By 2015, all new construction of houses, offices and businesses in the city of Amsterdam will be climate neutral.

Objectives and target audience

This project aims to reduce energy usage in households, businesses and offices. The main objective is to achieve that four out of ten newly built houses will be climate neutral by 2010 and this standard will apply to all new houses built within the municipality borders by 2015.
The estimated amount of CO2 that can be saved due to Climate neutral new construction is 30Kton per year.
This new standard will also change the way the building sector looks at the building procurement process. New criteria will be used to select parties and award projects.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The main partners involved in this project are the Municipality of Amsterdam and the construction companies.

Process

After a consultation to a large group of parties, the City Council set the ambition to promote climate neutral construction of houses, offices and businesses. As a result, the City Council has developed and is now enforcing a new standard for climate neutral construction which affects to the entire process of land allocation, development and construction of new houses, offices and businesses.
Normally, the selection is based on the highest price offered for a certain plot. In this case, the different plots are offered for a fixed price and the parties are selected on criteria such as energy savings and sustainability. Such measures may include a district heating grid, district cold grid, thermal storage and sustainable energy generation. In addition, during the design of buildings it is important to make beneficial choices regarding the orientation of houses, insulation, sustainable energy and installations.
This process requires great deal, not only from the municipal spatial planning office and the municipal development corporation, but also from developers, contractors and subcontractors.

Results

Even though this initiative is very new, it has already had an impact on the development of certain projects in different districts of Amsterdam. For example:
At the Zuidas location, ABN-Amro, together with other parties, has developed the Dutch Green Building Council. This concept makes it possible to achieve a better sustainability score than is prescribed in the legislation.
A group of eight market parties is working on a proposal to make the Buiksloterham development district as climate neutral as possible. In this context, the Noordwaarts Administrative Consultation Committee has decided that the project will be awarded to the developer with the most sustainable plan, and not necessarily to the developer with the lowest price. To compare the plans with each other, a ‘sustainability meter’ is being used. The first experience with this approach is being acquired in the Buiksloterham. The intention is for many more projects in Amsterdam Noord and other parts of the city to start using this method.
Finally, in the Spaarndammerbuurt, the De Key housing association is starting to build climate-neutral houses and is bringing existing houses to that level during renovation.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

All parties are working together in order to find joint solutions for the problems they encounter on the path to climate-neutral construction. In order to facilitate this work, a leading Group for New Construction will be established later this year.