Lely achieves the highest sustainability level for its new corporate premises

Maassluis, 17 September, 2012 – The Lely Group, an international producer of leading innovative products  for the agricultural sector, has made a first significant move towards recognition of their future corporate premises. The Dutch Green Building Council  (DGBC) has granted the new building design certificate BREEAM-NL to Lely. The design of Lely’s production hall was honoured with the highest achievable recognition ‘Outstanding’ (the maximum of 5 stars). For a building with an industrial function, this is a unique achievement  for the European mainland. The recognition ‘Excellent’ (4 stars) was granted to the office section of the new corporate premises.

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is an assessment method for judging the sustainability of buildings. In that context, buildings are assessed on the basis of nine categories: management, health, energy, transport, water, materials, waste, land use & ecology and pollution. On the basis of a mutual weighting system this leads to a final qualification of 1 to 5 stars. The sustainable measures that Lely has taken for the production hall and the office section yield an energy saving of no less than 343 tons of CO2 per year.

An inspiring example
Chairman of the DGBC board Jaap Gillis and Stefan van Uffelen, director of the Dutch Green Building Council, handed the certificate on Monday, the 17th of September in the RAI Elicium in Amsterdam to Lely’s CEO Alexander van der Lely. The ceremony took place in the presence of Prince Willem-Alexander, who opened the Dutch Green Building Week officially. “The innovative power of the Lely Group is also visible in the new industrial building. A well-nigh impossible five star achievement, unequalled in Europe, has been realised. In doing so, the Lely Group has set an inspiring standard of sustainability”, said Van Uffelen.

Alexander van der Lely emphasised that agricultural entrepreneuring and care for the environment are inextricably interlinked: “The development of products with a long lifetime and the lowest possible use of energy has been key to Lely for decades. However, it takes more and we assume responsibility for that surplus as well. Our focus is on extending our product range enabling dairy farmers to operate in an energy-neutral manner. Therefore, we feel it is only logical that we apply sustainability in our corporate premises as well. And just like with our products, we set high standards.”

Lely Campus
In Maassluis, Lely builds an industrial complex for innovation and achievement: the Lely Campus. The new corporate premises are necessary due to the growing market demand, increase of staff as well as the company's ambition to develop and produce products within a sustainable environment. Thanks to the new corporate premises, all office staff and production workers of the Lely companies in Maassluis and Rotterdam will be working together under one and the same roof. The Rotterdam-based architect bureau ConsortArchitects has worked out the concept and they will guide Lely in the process leading up to BREEAM certification. Main contractor Dura Vermeer Bouw Rotterdam has been entrusted with the execution of this new building project.

The total surface of the new company premises will be 7.5 hectare. The office buildings will comprise 10,500 m2, while the production area will be 22,500 m2. Commissioning of the new premises is scheduled for the middle of 2013.

About the Lely Group
Lely, founded in 1948, directs all its efforts towards creating a sustainable, profitable and enjoyable future in farming for its customers. Lely is the only company worldwide to supply the agricultural sector with a complete portfolio of products and services ranging from forage harvesting to automated feeding systems, barn cleaners and milking robots. Lely is also working on business concepts to ensure energy-neutral operations in the dairy sector. Since many years Lely is the undisputed market leader in the sales and service of automated milking systems. The company has a strong position in forage harvesting products and with over 60 years acquired knowledge in the agricultural cycle Lely has an unrivaled position. The Lely Group is active in more than 60 countries and employs some 1,700 people. The annual turnover is around 500 million euro. More information: www.lely.com.

Editorial note
Information and photographs: www.lelyinhetnieuw.nl.
Information about the new Lely corporate premises in relation to BREEAM:
http://www.breeam.nl/projecten/project/nieuwbouw_lely_maassluis_kantoren
http://www.breeam.nl/projecten/project/nieuwbouw_lely_maassluis_bedrijfshal1

For further information, please contact Els Versluis, International Marketing and Communications Manager Lely Group, eversluis@lely.com, + 31 (0)10 59 96 500.