Sustainable construction

The stories of buildings can best be told by the people who planned, built or designed them. Three BASF customers from Europe, North America and Asia explain how they see sustainability in building projects around the globe.

For Jean-Denis Mege, the people who live in a building are the key to its sustainability. He works for the social housing company Foyer Rémois in Reims, France. He believes building sustainably means that housing must remain affordable without losing sight of environmental considerations and the quality of living conditions.

In New York City, Michael L. Gentoso and his team from U.S. Concrete supplied the concrete for the historic rebuild of One World Trade Center, in which sustainable design played an important role. The owner of the building aimed to considerably reduce the carbon emissions from the concrete and thus lower the environmental impact of New York’s new landmark.

For Xie Yuanjian, environmental friendliness is also a major goal in China: He is Vice President of Landsea Group, a construction company that specializes in using environmentally friendly building technologies. Xie Yuanjian knows just how important China’s sustainable development will be for the future. Newly constructed buildings in China already have to comply with strict rules on energy efficiency. Xie Yuanjian does not want to just meet these targets – he wants to exceed them.

The Foyer Rémois housing company manages around 18,000 units in France. Jean-Denis Mege works for the organization as a development manager. For him, a home is ideal when the residents can’t imagine living anywhere else. Therefore he believes it is important to meet the people in the buildings he manages.

Right now he is managing the Ogeval renovation project in the French city of Reims. This project has to meet the highest standards for energy efficiency. But quality has to be a priority as well to secure the return on investment. Jean-Denis Mege is working with BASF to meet these requirements: BASF’s Neopor^® insulation foam has made a significant contribution to the success of the Ogeval refurbishment.

With every metric ton of cement produced, around one ton of CO₂ is also released into the atmosphere. Reducing the amount of cement used in the construction of One World Trade Center was therefore a key requirement of the owner. The company U.S. Concrete, which supplied the concrete mix for One World Trade Center, used the Green Sense^® Concrete program from BASF. This technology allows BASF to optimize its customers’ concrete mixes to improve environmental friendliness and performance while lowering production costs.

A BASF Eco-Efficiency Analysis showed that, as a result, more than 15 million kilograms of CO₂ emissions were avoided in the construction of the first 40 floors of One World Trade Center. How does it work? With the Green Sense^® program, a concrete mix can contain a higher proportion of recycled materials. U.S. Concrete’s Vice President Michael L. Gentoso and BASF monitored the building of the concrete structures. Pumping the concrete to the height of the upper floors posed a particular challenge as the 541-meter-tall One World Trade Center is the highest building in the United States.