GREEN SOLUTIONS

in the spotlight
Växjö energi
Builds green
data Center of
the Year
The 2012 Swedish Green Data Center
of the Year is in Växjö. The center
belongs to the power company Växjö
Energi and the Wexnet municipal
broadband network company. Data
center supplier Coromatic, which
presents the annual award, described
Växjö Energi’s and Wexnet’s jointly
owned data center as “excellent” from
an environmental engineering
standpoint.
Wexnet’s CTO Lars Wihlborg
12 | GREEN SOLUTIONS FROM SWEDEN
explains that the engineering solution
behind the data center is likely
unique. “Our district cooling network
first sends its coolant to a large
shopping center. The remaining
coolant is then returned by way of
the data center. The excess heat
created there is then used to heat the
playing field of a local soccer club.
So, in that way, the cooling energy
is used three times over,” says
Wihlborg.
green
Buildings
are good
Business
The headquarters of
Swedish construction
company Skanska at
Väla Gård in Helsingborg
was awarded more
points in its LEED certification
process than any other European
building. The building received 95
of a possible 100 points, making it
the third most environmentally
friendly building in the world, as
defined by the LEED program.
“The building is definitely a
shining example of sustainable
construction. Internally, we refer to
Väla Gård as a deep green building,”
explains Agneta Wannerström,
Development Leader for
green buildings at Skanska.
According to the Business Case
for Green Building report, sustainable
construction can also provide
financial benefits. Wannerström
and Skanska share this conclusion.
“Profitability is something we
discussed at length. We are
definitely seeing a continual
downward trend in the cost of
green construction. We have long
placed requirements on our
suppliers, and this is now bearing
fruit. All the products needed for
green construction are available
today. What’s more, they have
both improved and have become
cheaper. At the same time, the cost
of the learning curve for construction
companies has fallen. We have
found solutions that we can re-use
in later projects.
Under the right conditions,
today we can build sustainably
without incurring any additio-
nal costs,” Wannerström
concludes.