Russian sustainable buildings taking the LEED

Russia has opened its first LEED-rated office and it is hoped the sustainable buildings sector is set to boom in the country in the coming years. The country has its own national green building standards and is adopting energy efficiency legislation, which is beginning to create an impetus behind sustainable building in the country.

The building in question is the new Siemens headquarters located in Moscow, and with lots of green awards available, and fuel prices steadily increasing, it is becoming more attractive to build green in the country.

"Russian buildings are not very energy efficient as the cost of energy has been very low since Soviet times," says Ksenia Bruk, an expert on green building from St. Petersburg. "[But] the Russian government now plans to make the cost of energy and gas equal for domestic and international customers, making efficiency more important."

The zero energy buildings market is set to increase to around $1.35 trillion in the next 25 years, and Russia is likely to be a key growth area. The country suffers from particularly poor energy efficiency, which has largely been put down to Soviet era building design.

Many Soviet era buildings are built in a similar way, whether in warmer areas of the country, or in Siberia. It means that there is little insulation on many buildings which could benefit hugely from it. The general coldness of the country, relative to other areas of the world, means there are many opportunities to create huge efficiency improvements.

Construction companies in the country are also seeing more of an interest in sustainable building, relative to just a few years ago. Not only is retrofitting with better insulation important, new builds are being built with sustainability in mind. This can only bode well for the future.