New Swiss Post HQ delivers cutting edge green initiatives

In June 2015 Swiss Post officially opened its new headquarters in the Wankdorf City district of Berne. The new building embodies the company’s drive to promote flexible and greener ways of working.

A range of green technologies have also been harnessed to ensure the new headquarters building is highly energy efficient. Using borehole heat exchangers, ground-sourced energy is captured to heat and cool the building, while an automatic system regulates air conditioning and flow of fresh air. The large window facades ensure optimal lighting conditions and blinds are centrally controlled. In addition, various sensors detect the position of the sun and measure the wind, rainfall and external temperature.

These investments of Swiss Prime Site, the owner of the building, saw the Swiss Post headquarters become the first office building in Switzerland to receive a Gold DGNB rating from the Swiss Sustainable Building Council. The DGNB system assesses buildings and urban neighbourhoods that fulfil the broad sustainability criteria, including technical, functional and social aspects, and planning, construction and implementation processes, as well as ecological and economic guidelines. Achieving a gold standard shows that the new building fulfils the highest level of sustainability requirements.

Swiss Post’s sustainability drive even extends to employee mobility: ten electric and hybrid vehicles have been provided to staff for business trips. Staff can also get to external meetings close to the headquarters quickly using Swiss Post’s e-bikes and bicycles or the PubliBike bike rental station, which is also accessible to the public. The headquarters is also very easy to reach by public transport with over 30 connections per hour.