Colombia. Abacus Real Estate recently announced that the OXO69 project, a Business and Hotel Center located in Bogotá, obtained LEED Platinum certification, becoming the first office and hotel project to reach this level in Colombia.
LEED, is a voluntary certification created in the 90s by the USGBC - American Council on Sustainable Construction, in order to determine what is really sustainable construction.
Some of the characteristics that made this certification was granted were:
- 1. Materials and Resources
- 2. Energy
- 3. Water
- 4. Quality of the environment
- 5. Sustainable place
Additionally, with the aim of promoting the recycling of cardboard, paper, glass and plastic, containers were installed for each of these wastes to facilitate the separation of other waste and prevent these materials that can be recycled from ending up in unwanted places or in landfills where they cannot be reintegrated into the production chain or reused.
These activities are monitored and must be subject to the waste management policy implemented by the building. In the same way, the building seeks to serve as an education tool for users, therefore it has signage so that the occupants and visitors of the building know the sustainability criteria with which the project was conceived, and understand the benefits of having a sustainable building.
For Andrés Zarate, from Abacus Real Estate, obtaining a LEED Platinum certification for the building is a source of pride "for us it is very satisfying to develop high quality projects for our clients, they are innovative models of real estate investment that offer good financial returns and preserve the value of the property over time. OXO 69 generates benefits for users and is a project more aware of the future challenges in energy and water consumption. It is a global trend and more and more buildings are being built and certified with these sustainable characteristics in the city," he said.
For Jairo Agudelo, Manager of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Financial Zone Hotel, located in the OXO 69 Building "to design and invest in this type of real estate projects is to think about the progress of Bogotá, to ensure the well-being of the residents of the building, in our case our guests and our collaborators and to contribute to the environment, which is everyone's responsibility," he said.
