A quarter of the large Dutch offices are not economical enough. In total, 27.5 million square meters of office space lack the right energy label, according to an inventory by real estate consultancy Colliers.
From 2023, owners are required to have energy label C or higher. This means that an office may use a maximum of 225 kWh of fossil energy per m2. Owners of properties without a label or with a label that is too low risk fines or even closure of their property from 2023.
About a quarter of the buildings still consume too much fossil energy. The owners of these have to reduce their consumption with, for example, better insulation or solar panels. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency previously warned that the greening going too slow.
Enforcement?
“We hear from owners that they are not yet sustainable because they expect that the government will not enforce,” says Frank Verwoerd, head of research at Colliers.
Municipalities must check compliance with the label obligation. Offices without an energy label or with an inefficient label can receive a warning or fine. Municipalities may also close offices. Verwoerd: “In practice this means that one municipality will probably be stricter than the other.”
The municipality will not have to enforce much in Utrecht. There, 80 percent of the offices already have a C label or better. This makes the Utrecht office market the most sustainable in the Netherlands, says Colliers.
NAM office energy guzzler
Hengelo and Assen are facing a bigger challenge. Only a third of the offices there already have a good energy label. In Assen, this is partly due to the head office of the NAM, which has an E-label. In Hengelo, the old city office is one of the major energy guzzlers.
“We have insight into which sustainability steps we need to take to obtain the C label”, a spokesperson for NAM said when asked. The company will eventually leave the premises in Assen, because the organization is getting smaller.
In general, it is noticeable that many government buildings are not yet economical enough. 40 percent of town halls are not ready for the obligation by 2023. The same is true for about 60 percent of police stations and fire stations. The ministries in The Hague do score well.
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