OP | Honkanummentie

Profitable energy investments can also be made in new buildings. OP Real Estate Investment converted an office and production property in Vantaa to geothermal energy and shared the benefits with the tenant.

Lower costs, carbon footprint and energy price risk. These are the reasons why OP Real Estate Investment decoupled a commercial and production property in Vantaa from district heating. Geothermal heat was chosen as the new heat source, for which six energy wells were drilled to a depth of 300 metres.

“We achieve higher energy self-sufficiency when we use geothermal heat from our own plot,” says Jarl Virala, Real Estate Manager at OP Real Estate Investment. “Our dependence on fluctuations in external energy prices is reduced, because less money is needed for electricity bills for geothermal heat than for district heating.”

Kiinteistö Oy Vantaa Honkanummentie was built in 2013. The property is owned by Pohjola Vakuutus Oy and managed by OP Kiinteistösijoitus Oy. The building has an area of 4 400^m2.

After LeaseGreen’s energy renovation, 74 megawatt hours of electricity will produce the same amount of heat that the property previously received from 230 megawatt hours of district heating. The electrification of the heating system cut the emissions from the use of the property to zero, as the electricity for the building is purchased as zero-emission electricity.

According to Jarl Virala, OP Property Investment shared the benefits of the energy renovation with ETS Nord, the tenant of the property. ETS Nord accepted a moderate increase in rent, but in return will receive significant savings on their energy bill.

“We both benefit economically and we both get a green feather in our cap,” says Virala. “We took the initiative for the investment, but ETS Nord welcomed the idea with open arms. Very rarely do we come across a situation where a customer doesn’t want geothermal. It has become mainstream.”

The fourth objective of the energy renovation was a smooth transition to the new system. This was carried out in January in a staggered two-day process. Heating and hot water outages lasted only a few hours.

“I would certainly have received feedback if the switch to geothermal had caused problems for the Vantaa unit,” says ETS Nord partner Markku Mattila (pictured). “But everything went fine, exactly as we had been told in advance.”

ETS Nord is a building services company specialising in ventilation and air conditioning, with operations in Estonia, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. According to Markku Mattila, the value of minimising emissions from business operations will increase as new professionals enter the workforce from educational institutions. More and more, they want to work for companies that strive to operate as responsibly as possible.

“I believe that this aspect is even more important for us than the direct economic impact of energy renovation. People want to do work that has meaning and that has a positive impact on society and the environment. OP Real Estate Investment handled the energy renovation smartly in our direction, and it was easy for us to make a good decision.”