The image shows the Kauf Park Göttingen with markets and parking lot. Above it is set a net with various icons.

Digitalisation for more resource efficiency

From efficient light sources and renewable energy to self-learning systems, there is no silver bullet when it comes to going carbon neutral. Making properties more climate-friendly requires action on multiple fronts. One example of how Deka is using innovative technology to support sustainable real estate management is our retail park in Göttingen.

Innovative strength with a pioneering spirit

With over 60 shops and a sales area of around 45,000 sqm, the Kauf Park retail park in Göttingen has been part of Deka Immobilien’s portfolio since 8 February 2019. Over the past five years, we have worked with the centre management provider Völkel to tackle the issue of climate protection. Together, we have taken a variety sustainability-related measures, such as purchasing green electricity and green gas for all general consumption in the retail park, switching to ecological cleaning and installing 300 kW EV charging stations and bicycle charging stations. But the biggest lever of all has been using innovative technologies to optimise processes and reduce energy consumption.

Sustainability means working on a lot of details. In Göttingen, we worked together with local partners and succeeded in significantly reducing the building’s energy and CO2 footprint using smart technology.

Stefan Leyrer Head of Real Estate Management Retail

Smart metering for all consumption meters

Smart metering was successfully rolled out for all consumption meters back in July 2020. Kauf Park Göttingen is the first retail park in Germany to use the Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) transmission standard for the efficient and sustainable management of commercial space. LoRaWAN is an energy-saving (low-power) network that employs smart radio devices to collect data over a wide area, enabling convenient evaluation. To do so, the total area of the centre, which spans approximately 160,000 sqm, was equipped with various electronic sensors in a complex process. The sensors generate data via two gateways installed on the premises.

Currently, the values of all 150 consumption meters for electricity, heat, gas and water are updated wirelessly every 15 minutes and transmitted to a dashboard that provides insights into current energy consumption. In addition, the dashboard also shows notifications from emergency sensors that detect faults in the supply network and deviations from the standard values for CO2, humidity, temperature and sound volume in rooms and underground car parks at an early stage. The result is greater resource efficiency when it comes to the centre’s management and lower incidental expenses for the centre’s tenants.

AI solution for sustainable management

The wide range of innovative technologies used includes a data-driven AI solution from R8tech. The partnership with the Estonian proptech company specialising in digital solutions for building management systems at Kauf Park Göttingen began in early 2023. The R8 Digital Operator Jenny AI solution is now used to manage more than 13,000 data points at the shopping centre, including 180 controllable components, eleven HVAC units and 14 heating circuits. In fact, managing the building technology according to demand made it possible to cut consumption costs for ventilation and heating by around 20% in the first year of use.

Climate protection in a new light

As you might expect, Kauf Park has also systematically converted its lighting concept to energy-saving LED technology. Replacing the light sources – including the ceiling and shop window lighting, emergency lighting, security lighting and car park lighting – has made it possible to reduce energy consumption by an average of 80%. In addition, a new, digitally controllable and energy-optimised lighting concept with LED technology was developed for the glass block façade at the main entrance, which is almost 300 metres long and 5 metres high. The result: energy cost savings of 80%.

 

Bird’s eye view of the retail park in Göttingen.

The cheapest and most climate-friendly kilowatt-hour is the one you don’t consume. At Kauf Park, technical innovations are making a significant contribution to greater energy efficiency.

Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals

UN SustaThe icon shows the UN Sustainable Development Goal number 7. To the right of the number is written "Affordable and clean energy". Below it in white is a sun with a power button in white against a yellow background.

7 Affordable and clean energy

The use of smart technologies on location makes it possible to record all performance data so that centre operations can be managed much more efficiently in terms of resources.