Making sustainability measurable – Rhein-Galerie certified with Gold status

© ECE

Located in Ludwigshafen, Germany the 220 million euro Rhein-Galerie Shopping Mall is a building at the cutting edge of sustainable construction and operation.

PE INTERNATIONAL was involved in the planning phase and as advisory support throughout the certification process which led to the Rhein-Galerie receiving its Gold status for sustainability.

A life cycle assessment (LCA) screening study was undertaken for the pre-certification stage followed by a detailed calculation upon completion of the building. The assessments were carried out using GaBi 4 and GaBi Build-it, the new PE building LCA tool.

The German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) certification scheme defines sustainable buildings across six fields with a catalogue of some 60 criteria, weighted in accordance to their importance. Points are granted against each criterion according to the performance of the building. In order to reach Gold status, buildings must score at least 80 percent. The building LCA results can contribute as much as 13 % of the overall rating.