Real estate certifications

Would you like to take your existing property or development project into the future?

The Wüest Partner Group offers auditing and consulting services for national and international sustainable certification standards for new buildings, existing buildings, and entire real estate portfolios. We support you with our expertise to ensure your projects meet the highest standards.

Although obtaining building certification is voluntary, it plays a crucial role in enhancing the sustainability of property valuations and transactions. It not only objectively showcases the property’s quality to tenants and investors but also increases its overall value. The certification requirements also serve as a guideline for continuous improvements to the building and its management processes. In most cases, they include comprehensive measures relating to the building’s technology and location.

Your added value through real estate certification

1. Energy efficiency, sustainability, and climate protection
2. Property comparability
3. Subsidies and better mortgage conditions
4. Improved long-term rentability
5. Communication tool
6. Higher property value for little additional investment

Choosing the right certification

We will be happy to guide you through the international real estate certification landscape and help you identify the right standard.

The certification processes can differ considerably and, therefore, the verification processes require varying levels of effort. Irrespective of this, you must always request certification from the relevant body. The Wüest Partner Group checks the quality and completeness of your documents and supports you through the verification process, ensuring the building certification is submitted in a timely, resourceful manner throughout the planning and construction phase.

BREEAM

Founded in 1990, BREEAM is the oldest certification system on the market for assessing building sustainability, operation, and use. It considers a wide range of criteria, including energy and ecology. BREEAM takes a holistic approach and can be applied in every life cycle phase – from planning and new construction to operation and refurbishment. The biggest difference to other certifications is the adaptation to national standards by the National Scheme Operator (NSO). If no NSO is available for a country, the international criteria catalog applies. BREEAM is the most widely used certification system worldwide.

LEED

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a globally recognized American label that assesses the sustainability of neighborhoods and buildings. The certification process examines project development, planning, and implementation against eight sustainability aspects. Different system variants enable certification for all building types and construction phases, as well as for interior fit-out, operation, and maintenance. It takes a holistic certification approach, rather than focusing on individual aspects.

WELL Building Standard

The WELL Building Standard can be applied to both new and existing commercial and office properties. It considers three project types: new and existing buildings, new and existing interiors, and building core and envelope. With a focus on optimizing human well-being and health, it evaluates a building’s impact on its users based on 10 concepts: air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind, and community.

Minergie, Minergie-P, and Minergie-A

The Minergie standard forms the basis for climate-friendly construction with a focus on comfort, value retention, and efficiency.
In the Minergie-P standard, the building envelope is insulated and subjected to an airtightness test to optimize energy efficiency and indoor climate.
The Minergie-A standard aims to minimize greenhouse gas emissions during construction and operation so that the building has a negative energy balance year-round, i.e. it produces more energy than it consumes.

Minergie-ECO

Minergie-ECO can be combined with all three Minergie labels and is suitable for both new and existing buildings. A flexible building concept, an environmentally friendly choice of materials, and a focus on water and biodiversity supplement the Minergie criteria. The goal is to construct a building that provides an optimal indoor climate, uses recycled materials, is ecological, and generates low energy costs.

SNBS-Hochbau

The Swiss Sustainable Building Standard (SNBS) certification defines detailed criteria in the areas of society, economy, and environment. It applies to new buildings in the office/administration, residential, and educational sectors.
We also support ongoing projects until completion. These are reviewed and, if necessary, adapted to any updated standard requirements. As SNBS building construction is based on Minergie certification in many respects, dual certification simplifies checks on both labels.

SNBS-Areal

The SNBS-Areal building standard is designed for site development and can therefore be pre-certified during this initial phase. It covers new or existing buildings of all use types in their various life cycles. The SNBS-Areal standard does not certify individual buildings; rather, it views site development as a strategic process and a dimension of spatial development. The verification process is concept-based. Durable, part of the Wüest Partner Group, developed SNBS-Areal on behalf of the Swiss Sustainable Building Network (Nachhaltiges Bauen Schweiz: NNBS). We support you in strategic design and concept development while accompanying you through all stages of the certification process.

Minergie-Areal

Minergie-Areal pursues the objectives of comfort, efficiency, and climate protection. The requirements for obtaining this certification include various factors: The site must have an energy reference area of at least 3000 m², be spatially contiguous, and comprise at least two buildings. A combination of existing and new buildings is possible, whereby the new buildings must be Minergie-certified and meet the requirements for climate-adapted outdoor facilities, mobility, and organization.

2000 Watt sites

Since September 2023, the two new site labels, Minergie-Areal and SNBS-Areal, have replaced the previous 2000 Watt Site label. However, existing certificates can be transferred to one of the new site standards via a simplified procedure.

SGNI

The Swiss Sustainable Building Council (SGNI) implements the DGNB standard in Switzerland. It is considered the most comprehensive sustainability standard in the country and can certify residential, office, and educational buildings as well as hotel, retail, and laboratory facilities. While the SNBS standard focuses on new buildings and conversions, SGNI offers several variants, such as certification for interior fit-out, existing buildings, or building management. In addition, SGNI enables Swiss standards and tools to be used to obtain an international label.

DGNB

Certification by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) is based on a life cycle approach, comprehensiveness, and performance orientation. The certification variant depends on a project’s use and life cycle, from planning through to completion. It assesses the ecological, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of interiors, buildings, neighborhoods, or portfolios over a project’s entire life cycle.

BNB

The Assessment System for Sustainable Building (BNB) of the German Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development, and Building is a real estate certification system exclusively for German federal and public buildings. It supplements the Guideline for Sustainable Building of the Federal Ministry of Construction as a method for the overall assessment of buildings and their surroundings, with the primary aim of optimizing buildings and their surroundings. In addition to the final assessment and documentation of the building quality achieved, the BNB is also used for quality assurance and control during planning and construction. System variants are available for office and administration buildings, educational buildings, laboratory buildings, and outdoor facilities.

Barbara Pataki

Durable
E-Mail
T +41 44 517 00 51

Durable specializes in planning and consulting on sustainable solutions for the construction and real estate sectors. The team combines extensive knowledge of architecture, clean energy, and sustainability. Durable is a fully owned subsidiary of the Wüest Partner Group.

www.studiodurable.ch