Case Study

Vodafone brings village life to the city

Using eco-technology at its core, the Vodafone Village in Milan is designed to bring the benefits of community and a healthy environment to its employees.

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Vodafone brings village life to the city

Challenge

Creating clean air and energy from sheltering roofs

Sustainability is as much about people as it is about the environment. Designed to invoke the sociable atmosphere of an old Italian village square, Vodafone’s headquarters in Milan centres around a community building that can welcome all 3,000 of its employees under its roof. The cluster of four buildings in the Vodafone Village all needed to match advanced technical and environmental requirements, helping to enrich the lives and support the wellbeing of the people who work there.

Solutions

Being sited on the edge of a major city has its advantages, but air quality can suffer. The integration of a Siplast NOx-Activ® waterproofing solution from BMI Group across 3,000 square metres of roof not only provided vital protection from the weather, it also created a permanent self-cleaning, de-polluting seal. A simple formula is behind this clever problem solver, harnessing solar energy to react with the harmful nitrous oxides that accumulate in the atmosphere from traffic and transforming them into benign nitrates that are then washed away by the rain.

Not only do the rooftops work with the sun to improve the surrounding air quality, BMI Group’s expertise also helped with the creation of a ‘photovoltaic garden’ using state-of-the-art solar panels to generate clean energy. Working hand in hand with the daylight rich design of the offices, this allows the buildings to operate efficiently with low carbon energy, and the people within them to enjoy a healthier working environment.

Results

Vodafone has a longstanding commitment to social responsibility. The progressive thinking behind the design and construction of the Vodafone Village led to it becoming the largest LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building in Italy in 2012. This remarkable achievement was a recognition, not only of the positive environmental effects of energy efficiency and pollution reduction, but also the very real consideration that has been given to the comfort and wellbeing of all the employees.