Stimulating a green office environment
Published on 2020-08-11 12:09:26Sustainability

Stimulating a green office environment

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As part of IDA Foundation’s sustainability journey, our headquarters in Amsterdam were renovated in 2018 according to the highest green standards. As the area around our office is currently undergoing many changes, requiring our parking lot to be moved, IDA is taking the opportunity to also turn our office terrain into a climate-adaptive green zone that will benefit the local environment.

Climate adaptive terrain by using wadis

A wadi is a pond filled with gravel or sand that can both retain and infiltrate water. With a wadi system, the water from roofs and roads does not flow into the sewer system, but into the wadi via above-ground gutters and / or ditches. With the construction of wadis, our construction partners Sturm and Donker Groen are making the IDA Foundation site climate-adaptive. Heavy rainfall is increasingly common in the Netherlands. A wadi system buffers and infiltrates rainwater, and as a result, the system minimizes overflow, improves surface water quality and limits desiccation.

Grass tiles for a green environment

Grass-concrete tiles were chosen for the redesign of the car park. These are tiles with wide openings in which grass can grow. The openings in the grass-concrete tiles create a water-permeable surface that can serve as an infiltration and buffer system for rainwater. In addition, grassy concrete tiles provide a pleasant and green environment. By stimulating a green environment, IDA also aims to keep the environment attractive to insect life. 

Want to know more about IDA’s thoughts on sustainability? Read our Communication on Engagement 2020 or see our Sustainability page.

Read the article as published by Sturm (in Dutch) here