Old walls, new energy: Our climate-friendly Ringturm
In line with its sustainability goals, VIG has given its company headquarters, the Vienna Ringturm, an environmentally friendly makeover.
The building, which dates back to the post-war period, has been officially EU taxonomy-compliant since October 2023, making it an environmentally friendly workplace for employees of Austrian VIG companies. VIG is thus sending a clear signal that even old buildings do not have to be demolished, proving that resources can be preserved and conserved while still meeting current environmentally friendly EU standards. The office building in the centre of Vienna, which was opened in 1955, was thermally renovated and equipped with district cooling and LED lighting. In addition, two photovoltaic systems on the roof generate around 60,000 kilowatt hours of green electricity per year.
The green community
But it's not just the Ringturm that generates its own green electricity. VIG has also founded Austria's first energy community with domestic energy provider Wien Energie. This community will supply more than half of all Austrian VIG locations with green energy in the future. Wien Energie is providing six photovoltaic and four wind power plants for this purpose. The output of three gigawatt hours per year from solar and wind energy is quite remarkable.
Climate neutral by 2030
This brings VIG an important step closer to achieving its sustainability goals. Among other things, these include making the office operations of its locations climate-neutral by 2030, not only in Austria but throughout the Group. Various measures are being implemented within the Group to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for electricity, heating and cooling. These include intelligent heating control systems, for example, where consumption is controlled by sensors according to temperature and humidity. The Baltic VIG company BTA uses this system and has already reduced its energy consumption by 34%. The Slovakian company Komunálna reduced its outdoor lighting, modernised its office operations and switched to LED lighting to save energy. VIG companies in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania are also modernising their office buildings to reduce their carbon footprint. In 2023, the Group achieved a 5% reduction in electricity consumption and a 7% reduction in heating consumption compared to the previous year. Activities are being expanded step by step to reach climate neutrality in office operations by 2030.