© Lukas Zwiessele | Leo Dörfler

Sustain­able from the base­ment to the roof

The new admin­is­tra­tion building of IT specialist Bechtle thinks for itself and inde­pen­dently controls lighting and climate. This is smart and conserves resources: a perfect match with the company’s ambi­tious sustain­ability goals. One impor­tant compo­nent involves water chillers and heat pumps with natural refrig­er­ants.

March 2023

Climate neutrality by 2030

What will the working world of tomorrow look like? How can func­tion­ality, cost-effec­tive­ness, and sustain­ability be combined? This is a ques­tion that Bechtle, Germany’s largest IT systems inte­grator, is also addressing. Bechtle set itself an ambi­tious target for the expan­sion of its head­quar­ters with a third building section. There is plenty of space for 600 employees across four floors.

„We want to be successful on a sustain­able basis“

Arthur Schneider, Sustain­ability Manager at Bechtle, on goals and measures

Solar energy plus geot­hermal heat

Bechtle already has a lot of green energy in place at its head­quar­ters in Neckar­sulm, Germany: 60 percent of the heating capacity comes from 130 geot­hermal bore­holes, with district heating from the city of Neckarsulm’s combined heat and power plant covering further capacity. 7,000 photo­voltaic modules on all possible roof surfaces supply around 1.9 megawatts of elec­tricity.

„We focus on an intel­li­gent mix of energy“

Bernd Doll­mann, Managing Director KREOR Südwest, on the new building

A green approach using propane

If geot­hermal energy and district heating reach their limits, two air-to-water heat pumps and two water chillers on the roof provide the required energy. These systems by Skadec are using the natural refrig­erant R290 – in other words, propane.

„Propane is future-proof“

Dennis Kratschmayer, Managing Director Skadec, on the advan­tages of R290

Ideal condi­tions for working

In this smart office, building automa­tion controls almost every­thing, espe­cially lighting and temper­a­ture. Sensors record pres­ence, daylight, and room light as well as room temper­a­ture. A BUS system links all the elec­trical func­tions together, from the lighting elements to the blinds and heating/cooling ceiling panels. Auto­mated systems ensure ideal lighting condi­tions in the rooms, for example.

„No need for the last person out to turn off the light“

Bernd Doll­mann on the smart office

The video in full length
to Youtube

Concerns about using propane?

Completely unfounded, says Christo­pher Hammel, Tech­nical Manager at SKADEC GmbH. Read why he advo­cates propane as a natural refrig­erant and also relies on ebm-papst fans in this inter­view!

“Fear has always trumped reason”

Required fields: Comment, Name & Mail (Mail will not be published). Please also take note of our Privacy protection.

Additional product information can be found here:

Axial fan HyBlade®

HyBlade® axial fans: incredibly quiet, unbelievably efficient