Danish company Grundfos always highlights that its products are "energy-efficient pumps" and how they help the environment through energy saving.
Its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore has earned the Building and Construction Authority's (BCA's) Gold Green Mark.
The BCA Green Mark is a green rating system to evaluate a building for its environmental impact and performance, and provides a comprehensive framework for assessing the overall environmental performance of new and existing buildings to promote sustainable design, construction and operations practices.
Eco-friendly: Regional business director Anders Christiansen explains how the Distributed Pumping System helps save energy while keeping buildings cool.
As a non-residential building, the Grundfos headquarters was evaluated across a number of areas -- including energy efficiency for aspects such as air-conditioning and lighting, water efficiency, environmental protection, indoor environmental quality, and other green features.
Grundfos invested 40 million Singapore dollars (893 million baht) in its Asia Pacific headquarters in 2012, where the manufacturing facility uses green technologies and smart engineering, said Ki Woong Ahn, country manager, Grundfos Singapore.
Grundfos Singapore achieves more than 40% in costs and saves about 1.8 million litres of water each year, through features such as natural lighting and ventilation on the production floor, solar water heaters, energy-efficient air-conditioning and LED lighting, Mr Ki said.
Air-tight building design, the ultra-low Envelope Thermal Transfer Valve achieved by double walls, double-glazed windows, is part contributing to the building's energy saving.
The Asia Pacific headquarters was Grundfos' first project tapping into this new technology in Singapore and consists of an office and factory block. Over a period of seven months from November 2016 to May 2017, the building achieved 55% in pump system kWh energy savings, Mr Ki said.
For energy efficiency, he points to the air-tight building design and the ultra-low Envelope Thermal Transfer Value achieved by double walls and double-glazed windows, 100% natural ventilation on the production floor, enhanced natural daylight in the office from a high-efficiency lighting system and high-efficiency air-conditioning system.
The company's water-efficient fittings earned it 3-tick certification from Singapore's national water agency PUB.
In terms of environmental protection, its "sustainable construction" was achieved with building materials made from more than 30% recycled content, extensive greenery and recycled compost as well as an extensive energy and water monitoring system.
Indoor temperatures are maintained at 22-25.5 °C using low noise level technology that produces less indoor air pollutants using low volatile organic compounds while fixtures were produced using green-certified carpentry, carpets and laminates, Mr Ki said.
Surrounding water serves various purposes for the building of this pump company including keeping the environment cool.
Meanwhile, the company also boasts of a Distributed Pumping System, which was launched in Asia in September, which contributes to its high energy-saving scores while keeping the office cool.
Grundfos Asia-Pacific regional business director (building services) Anders Christiansen said Grundfos' Distributed Pumping System is a novel system capable of operating in optimised conditions at any time.
It intuitively regulates the water flow based on feedback from temperature sensors, meeting the exact requirements of different building zones, and intelligently controls energy consumption by delivering the right flow at all times.
On top of reducing energy consumption and operational costs, this new system achieves comfort for users of the building by ensuring a consistent building temperature, he said.
Keys to energy saving include 100% natural ventilation in production floor, enhanced natural daylight in office with high-efficiency lighting system and high-efficiency air-conditioning system.