Stora Tullhuset is the city’s first “Green Building”

The City of Stockholm is striving to achieve environmental certification in conjunction with all major refurbishments and new constructions and ensure that the city’s buildings are environmentally sustainable. The Stora Tullhuset building, managed by Ports of Stockholm, has become the first City of Stockholm property to achieve “Green Building” certification.

“During the renovations we purposefully worked with the goal of achieving a reduction in energy use for the 105 year-old Stora Tullhuset building and we are very pleased to receive confirmation that we succeeded in our efforts,” says Johan Castwall, Managing Director of Ports of Stockholm.

Ports of Stockholm carried out extensive renovation work on the Stora Tullhuset building at Stadsgårdskajen quayside. The beautiful former customs house, built in 1906, was very dilapidated and partially empty when the renovation work began in 2006. Today the building houses a cruise centre, offices and the “Fotografiska” museum of photography, offering exhibitions, courses, seminars and events, as well as cafeteria facilities.

In 2011 the Stora Tullhuset building received several awards and recognitions, including being accorded heritage building status by the organisation Samfundet S:t Eriks, as well as being designated the best renovation project in the city by the association of building contractors BF (Stockholms Byggmästareförening).

Green Building certification is an EU initiative that was introduced in 2005 with the objective of raising awareness and interest in reducing the energy use of buildings. The requirement for certification is that the building should use 25 percent less energy than previously or in comparison to the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning regulations for newly constructed buildings. Following the renovation, the Stora Tullhuset building uses approximately 29 percent less energy than was previously the case.