Last week, MECC Maastricht’s newly renovated conference centre received the BREEAM-NL In Use certificate, an initiative of the Dutch Green Building Council, receiving a score of ‘very good’. BREEAM-NL is the integrated certification method for making existing commercial buildings and homes more sustainable. As a recipient of the BREEAM-NL In Use certificate, MECC Maastricht is able to highlight its sustainability policies.
Corporate social responsibility and sustainability feature prominently in MECC Maastricht’s mission and vision. This is also the reason investments were made to obtain the ‘BREEAM-NL In Use’ certificate for the newly renovated conference centre. The objective of the thorough upgrade and expansion of MECC Maastricht’s conference centre is to serve organisers of multiple-day national and international conferences and events even better. This will lead to more international conferences and events and a larger spin-off effect for the city. After two years of renovations, architectural firm cepezed’s design was built and completed by contractor Mertens and installation firm Spie in mid-2021. The 3-star rating (very good) applies to the Forumpassage, the conference centre, the Expo Foyer and the Brightlands Meeting Point, aka Bar Bistro SAAM.
Hannah van der Leij, BREEAM-NL Assessor at Build2Live B.V., presented the BREEAM-NL In Use plaque to John Aarts, Alderman for Mobility, Urban Management, Sustainability and Hospitality at the Municipality of Maastricht, and Rob van de Wiel, Managing Director of MECC Maastricht.
‘We are proud of MECC Maastricht. Not only is it a catalyst for the region commercially, but also in terms of sustainability. In addition, the very good BREEAM score shows that MECC Maastricht contributes to the sustainability of our region,’ said John Aarts, alderman for Mobility, Urban Management, Sustainability and Hospitality at the Municipality of Maastricht.
‘Sustainability drives all our activities. Together with our employees, our customers and our environment (the city and region), we are fleshing out our sustainability story. As “team MECC”, we are taking care of later now; our employees are the backbone of our sustainability journey. Together with our clients, we are ambitious; a sustainable venue is our responsibility, and we try to act as a role model in this. We are generating and supporting an economic and sustainable spin-off effect for the city and region. In addition to the Green Key Gold certification we acquired in 2010, we are also proud to have received the BREEAM-NL In Use certificate for our renovated conference centre,’ says Rob van de Wiel, Managing Director of MECC Maastricht.
BREEAM-NL
BREEAM-NL has been the certification method for a sustainably built environment since 2009. This method offers a way to assess projects for integrated sustainability. BREEAM stands for Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method and is used in over 80 countries worldwide. The method was originally developed by the Building Research Establishment (BRE). Dutch Green Building Council made the method suitable for the Netherlands. BREEAM-NL In-Use provides demonstrable evidence of an existing building’s sustainability performance and rates these buildings in nine different sustainability categories: management, health, energy, transport, water, material flows, resilience, land use, and ecology and pollution. Each category contributes a portion to the total score. This score is expressed as a rating, with ‘outstanding’ being the highest. MECC Maastricht received the score ‘very good’.
Photo from left to right: Rob van de Wiel, Managing Director of MECC Maastricht, John Aarts, Alderman for Mobility, Urban Management, Sustainability and Hospitality at the Municipality of Maastricht, and Hannah van der Leij, BREEAM-NL Assessor at Build2Live B.V.
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