Finland. Helsingin Lyyra KY
| Date of agreement: | 17 Dec 2021 |
|---|---|
| Country: | Finland |
| Customer: | Helsingin Lyyra KY |
| Amount in EUR: | EUR 40 million |
| Maturity: | 7 years |
| NACE sector / loan type: | Construction |
Financing from NIB Environmental Bond proceeds
NEB-eligible share: 100%
NEB category: Green buildings
Amount disbursed: EUR 31.6 million
Note: For loans in other currencies than EUR, the equivalent in EUR is based on the exchange rate effective for the disbursement. Read more about the NIB Environmental Bonds
Project
NIB has provided the loan for the construction of a building complex named Lyyra, at Toinen linja 7 and Siltasaarenkatu 13 in the eastern downtown area Hakaniemi in Helsinki. The building complex seeks to achieve LEED Platinum certification.
The loan project is eligible to be funded by NIB Environmental Bond proceeds.
The project commenced in January 2020 with the demolition of old buildings, and construction is ongoing for new hybrid-use facilities on the Lyyra city block. The office building is expected to be completed in early 2023, and the residential, retail and hotel building by the end of that year. Combined, the two buildings will have 18,400 square metres of leasable area split into offices (38%), a hotel (29%), retail space (24%), and residential apartments (9%).
The limited partnership company Helsingin Lyyra KY is owned by Ylva (55%), the asset manager of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, and the Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company (45%).
Fulfilment of NIB's mandate
Productivity
The new Lyyra building complex will improve and renew the urban environment of Hakaniemi, Helsinki, by offering modern, sustainable, and flexible facilities for offices, hotel, retail, and housing.
Replacing and demolishing an outdated city block with high sustainable new construction significantly densifies the already established urban structure.
Expected productivity impact related to the investment:
- Project cost: over EUR 110 million
- Number of apartments: 57
- Office facilities: 7,000 square metres
Environment
The Lyyra building complex is designed to be energy-efficient and aims to achieve LEED Platinum, the highest level of the LEED green building certification scheme.
In addition to the green building certification, Ylva has completed a lifecycle assessment of the building complex’s carbon footprint. Ylva is also committed to achieve net-zero-carbon operations in its building portfolio by 2025, in accordance with criteria set by the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings-commitment. The commitment entails that buildings need to be highly energy efficient and powered by renewables.
The lifecycle assessment for Lyyra shows that over an estimated lifetime of 50 years, the annual total carbon footprint of the building complex is equivalent to 11.6 kg CO2e per m2. Up to 80% of this footprint is from the construction phase, 14% from the use phase and 6% from building decommissioning. The use phase footprint is relatively low due to own renewable energy generation as well as purchase agreement for low emission electricity, heating, and cooling.
Ylva also intends to reduce the carbon footprint for the construction phase by an additional 10% via careful selection of materials. Ylva has also conducted preliminary studies to compensate the remaining part of the footprint.
Reduction of the carbon footprint in the use phase includes, besides energy efficient construction, installation of solar photovoltaic cells with an estimated annual energy generation of approximately 30 MWh. The project owners are also assessing options for implementing energy recovery via heat pumps, thus reducing the need for purchasing energy.
To show that demolition of buildings can be made more sustainable, Ylva set an ambitious target of 95% for material recovery rate of the demolition and managed to even exceed it with final material recovery rate being 97%. The achieved target is beyond what Ylva is committed to via signing up to the “Green Deal” agreed between The Finnish Ministry of the Environment and the Finnish Real Estate Association (RAKLI) of achieving more than 70% material recovery rate in refurbishment and demolition projects.
Expected environmental impact related to the investment:
- Material recovery rate for demolition waste: 97%
- LEED Platinum certification 27,970 gross square metres
- Estimated annual onsite renewable energy generation: 30 MWh
- Relative annual carbon footprint: 11.6 kg CO2e/m2
Sustainability summary
External assessment of ESG compliance, technical and contaminated soil risks analyses of the construction project were completed in 2021 and showed no significant issues.
