Investing in green building practices has paid off for Volvo Construction Equipment, with the company winning one of the highest accolades for promoting sustainable development.
Volvo Construction Equipment has been awarded Latin America’s first Platinum SustentaX Seal, the highest accolade in the region, for creating a sustainable exhibit stand at this year’s M&T Expo in Brazil.
The SustentaX Seal can be applied to products, services and trade fair stands and recognizes a commitment to sustainability. This includes social and environmental responsibility, quality, savings, safety and health. Volvo Construction Equipment’s impressive 5,000m2 exhibition arena took two months to prepare and meets over 100 criteria required to achieve the Platinum rating, including energy conservation, wise water consumption and the use of recycled materials.
“We like to come up with a challenge for each public event we attend to show the market and customers that when Volvo talks about safety, quality and environmental care, we mean it,” says Yoshio Kawakami, president of Volvo Construction Equipment in Latin America. “This was one of our biggest challenges yet.”
SustentaX was the first company in South America to certify a Green Building under USGBC (United States Green Building Council) standards following LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) criteria. To merit the award, Volvo adopted a series of criteria when building its stand that included a waste management plan. It used only legal wood of certified and proven origin, recycled materials, as well as local materials, in different parts of the stand.
The landscaping was prepared with native species, the cleaning products used were sustainable and efforts were also made in the social-environmental area. “It was a challenge to find and use recycled material, and other adequate products suitable for this purpose,” says Mr. Kawakami. “We also adopted an architecture that benefited from natural light – and eliminated the use of paper and plastic cups,” he says.
Mr. Kawakami believes customers are beginning to realise the long-term benefits of sustainable building practices, despite the current climate. “There is a misconception that environmentally sustainable buildings cost much more to build, but in fact it’s only an additional six or seven per cent initially, and the buildings will be cheaper to run and cost much less in the long run,” says Mr Kawakami.
Market optimism
M&T Expo, held every three years, is the largest construction equipment exhibition in Latin America. Industry players are hailing the 2009 event a success, with more than 350 exhibitors and 42,000 visitors attending the five-day show in June. Volvo saw interest rise considerably at the 2009 M&T Expo from the previous 2006 show due to the launch of several new products and the impressive exhibition stand. One Brazilian construction company bought 10 pieces of Volvo machinery to support his green building efforts to construct two LEED certified distribution centres outside the city of Sao Paulo.
Brazilian developers are starting to gain an appetite for green building. “About 80 environmentally sustainable commercial buildings have been built in Sao Paolo in the last two or three years, but I would expect this to increase in the future,” says Mr Kawakami.
For further information, please contact:
Bill Law
Director, External Communications
Volvo Construction Equipment
Tel: + 32 498 924326
Email: bill.law@volvo.com
Newton Chagas - Volvo do Brasil
Comunicação Corporativa - Assessoria de Imprensa
Tel: +55 41 3317 8296
Fax: +55 41 3317 8403
newton.chagas@consultant.volvo.com
Brian O’Sullivan
SE10
Tel: +44 77 333 50307
Email: osullivan@se10.com