World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development is daily present at VK

For our sustainability team every day, is the day of sustainable development. The team of experts works every day on innovative solutions to make building projects more sustainable We strive for a total approach that is regenerative. This means that in our projects we contribute to recovery for people and the earth, rather than just reducing the negative impact. In doing so, we create a positive impact on the earth, society and human health.

Sustainability goes beyond energy efficiency anyway. The impact of materials in construction, water consumption and the well-being of people are central to our projects.

We can calculate the impact of embedded energy from the use of materials through the VKaLCA tool. With this tool, we quantify the environmental implication of design choices through a life cycle analyse.

To realise the ambitions, the sustainability experts work interdisciplinary with architects and engineers in engineering, stability, facade, acoustics, fire safety and infrastructure. They work on a digital conceptual design and deliver a project with a digital twin with the digital engineers. Our story does not end at completion.

As sustainability coaches, we stay involved even after delivery and during the operational phase of the project. We monitor, evaluate and track asset performance so that sustainability ambitions are effectively realised.

The sustainability team monitors trends on a daily basis and helps to develop strategies and tools. For example, VK architects+engineers developed its own tool with which we can calculate the impact of the embedded energy of the use of materials with the VKaLCA tool.

Our VKaLCA tool, acronym for "VK - Calculation - LCA - tool," quantifies this environmental impact of various design choices. Life Cycle Analyse (LCA) is an assessment methodology that identifies the environmental impact of products throughout their life cycle. Thus, it can also be used to calculate the total impact of renovation and new construction projects. By clarifying the ecological implications of design proposals, we help clients make a sustainable choice of building materials in relation to embodied and operational footprint. It also helps demonstrate ecological benefits from the reuse potential of building elements, the containment of construction and demolition waste, and the application of environmentally friendly maintenance programs.

VKaLCA tool versus Totem tool

The Totem tool is the Tool to Optimise the Total Environmental impact of Materials for the Belgian sector and also calculates the environmental impact of buildings using LCA. However, there are some important differences and advantages to the VKaLCA tool. For example, the TOTEM materials library is fixed and limited while that of VKaLCA can be adapted and expanded by ourselves. Moreover, there are certain material properties or processing scenarios that cannot be adjusted in TOTEM (e.g., transport distance to site, maintenance frequency, mass, lambda value, etc.) which is possible in VKaLCA. Furthermore, a more accurate determination of operational energy and water consumption is possible. In conclusion, VKaLCA allows the user more modeling freedom compared to TOTEM.

The VKaLCA tool is recognised for BREEAM International New Construction, International Refurbishment and Fit Out certification, but not for GRO certification.