BYK Additives & Instruments opens new lab building in Wesel

As part of the global Marketing & Sales conference and the site’s 50th anniversary, BYK Additives & Instruments is today (May 24, 2012) officially opening its ultramodern lab building in Wesel. Inside of two years’ building activity, 8000m2 of lab space and 130 jobs have been created. Since the end of 2011, some 80 lab staff have already been working there, primarily on developing innovative additives for plastics applications.
In the words of Dr Roland Peter, President Division BYK Additives & Instruments: "This new building is an integral part of our company’s innovation strategy. Because whoever is globally networked and wants to collaborate successfully on application development must create space for effective communication. The new laboratory building constitutes the ideal conditions for this due to its user-oriented planning and generous amount of space.”
Particular value was placed in the planning stage on the efficient use of energy. With the aid of near-surface geothermal energy, heat pumps and heat recovery systems, primary energy consumption can be reduced by 30% against standard buildings. As regards the construction materials used, they either consist of renewable materials or are easily disposed of. Likewise, the insulation and the entire ventilation system are in compliance with the strict energy requirements.
BYK Additives & Instruments has thus been able to meet all the necessary requirements for the LEED precertification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) under the Platinum standard and has received the official documentation from the USGBC (Green Building Council).