Indra, the only Spanish Company Certified as U.S Green Building Council’s Education Delivery Partner in Sustainable Buildings

Indra, the premier IT Company in Spain and a leading multinational in Europe, started a cooperation agreement with U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The entity acknowledges Indra as an Education Delivery Partner of sustainable buildings, which makes of the company an exclusive international delegation among others distributed across the world. Thanks to this, Spain’s professionals of the sector will be able to attend the USGBC courses without having to fly to USA and obtain LEED (Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design) certified training. The certificate comprises design and construction of the world’s most sustainable, power efficient and higher performance buildings.

The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a non-profit organization committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for USA through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. It was born in the mid 90’s and in 1998 the LEED system was developed. This certification system has grown at a fast pace becoming an international reference with applications from the most representative buildings due to its sustainability nature.

In addition to being a member of the USGBC and of the Directors Board of the Green Building Council España (GBCe), Indra attended the annual meeting in representation of the Spanish division in November, 2010 held in USA. Indra is one of the few Spanish-speaking and European companies who employ USGBC (LEED® AP) technicians specialized in the design of sustainable buildings and with experience in certified projects. In fact, the Spanish company employs the only European professional considered USGBC Faculty™, that is, an expert practitioner among 75 worldwide, who are the only individuals officially authorized by USGBC to deliver USGBC education.

Within the globalization strategy, USGBC has recently appointed a new committee, with representation in 19 countries, in order to facilitate certification and to export the LEED systems courses. In the case of Spain, Green Building España (www.gbce.es) was chosen by USGBC to participate in this international committee in order to turn LEED® in to a global accessible system. Due to the closer collaboration between both parties, Indra was chosen by USGBC as an exclusive Education Delivery Partner. The agreement not only applies to Spain but to other countries as well.

The first courses will take place in May in Barcelona, coinciding with CONSTRUMAT international trade Fair. The event offers two workshops on the 17 and 18 of May:  ‘LEED 101: Green Building Basics and LEED’, and ‘LEED 201: core concepts and strategies’. At the end students will receive a certificate of attendance granted by USGBC which entitles them to pass the examination to become a LEED® Green Associate.

Experience in LEED projects

Indra has broad experience in consultancy and counseling services for companies in sustainability and certifications. Among other projects, the company directed the certification process of the first LEED building in Paraguay, the BBVA headquarters (a project by local architects Fabrizio Bibolini and Mauro Remonato) which obtained the LEED silver class on November 22nd, 2010. Besides this, the company is in charge of the certification of the new headquarters of the bank in Spain, a project by Herzog & Meuron, which envisages the construction of one of the most complex and biggest buildings at world scale. On the other hand, University Carlos III also awarded the company the design of its new centre in Getafe.
Furthermore the project of Advanced Neighbourhood Nº5 by Toledo, undertaken by Lumo Arquitectos along with Indra’s counselling, was also recently granted the LEED® Gold Pre-certification and has become the first residential building to obtain such distinction in Spain.

Committed to sustainable construction

Sustainable construction suggests aiming at more efficient buildings, with less impact on the environment and features for the benefit of the people who live or work inside. This approach is not feasible without employing technology in order to guarantee efficient use of the premises with monitorisation and control in real time of the energy and resources which will help improve the life or work of the people thus facilitating sustainable lifestyles and a more flexibility in their work.
Indra contributes to sustainable development by applying innovation to solutions and services which improve the quality of life in sectors such as healthcare and transport, the management and enhancement of the environmental conditions and which promote accessibility to new technologies.

Buildings have a significant impact on the environment as they consume 40% of energy and a 13, 6% of water. In spite of this, people spend a 90% of their time inside buildings; that is why consideration to sustainability is so important.

In this sense, Indra’s commitment to sustainability and smart buildings has produced new technologies oriented to energy efficiency with smart infrastructures and networks to promote sustainability. Proof of this is the EU’s 3e-HOUSES project currently underway in cooperation with Gas Natural Fenosa and the city council of Sant Cugat (Barcelona). The project seeks to reduce up to a 20% of energy consumption in households by means of domotics systems and ICT.

Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to investment in R&D with nearly € 500 M during the last three years. In 2010 revenues reached € 2,557 M of which a 40% came from the international market. The company employs more than 31,000 professionals and has clients in more than 110 countries.