Alfacubo S.r.l.IT
For us, sustainability is a design criterion: it guides technical decisions from the very first choices. It is measured in real works — buildings brought back into use, electrified systems, photovoltaic fields in production — and in international certifications genuinely achieved.
Demolishing and rebuilding wipes out a building's embodied carbon and generates new carbon. That is why much of our work is bringing the existing back to value — to internationally recognised standards. We have led and designed refurbishment works on corporate headquarters of tens of thousands of square metres — without ever interrupting their operation — conceived to achieve the leading sustainability certifications: LEED, BREEAM and BREEAM In-Use. Alongside these, historic and listed buildings given new function without erasing their history. Refurbishing an occupied building without halting its activity is the form of sustainability we practise every day.
We proceed in order. First we cut demand — envelope, replacement of systems with high-efficiency machines, regulation and control; then we cover it with clean sources. We have electrified entire buildings, taking them from gas to electric alongside photovoltaics. On the generation side we act as owner's engineer and designers of utility-scale photovoltaic plants, and we delivered the EPC of the field that powers the electrolysers of one of Italy's first private Hydrogen Valleys: over 300 MW of photovoltaics analysed and developed in Italy. We also design BESS storage systems, which store the energy generated from renewable sources so it is not wasted and help stabilise the grid. From the efficiency of the single building to the energy park, along the entire investment chain.
We choose materials and construction solutions with the whole life cycle in mind. We built, on our own capital, 25 residences in XLAM structural timber — a material that stores carbon instead of emitting it. In projects for public clients the Minimum Environmental Criteria are not a formality but a design constraint, documented in the CAM report of every commission: low-impact materials, disassemblability, construction-waste management, recycled content.