Sustainability

Swiss Post is expanding its warehousing logistics center in Villmergen (Canton of Aargau), which includes construction of Swiss Post’s third-largest solar power system on the roof. The new development will be awarded an exclusive sustainability label.

An area of 7,540 m² – or roughly the same size as a football pitch: this is how big the solar power system will be that is being installed on the roof of the Villmergen warehousing logistics center in Aargau. Swiss Post is currently expanding the center: it will create additional warehouse space for its business customers across five levels. The groundbreaking ceremony for the new development took place in 2022, and works are set to be completed in 2025.

1,300 megawatt hours of electricity each year

30 Swiss Post photovoltaic systems generate over 10.6 gigawatt hours of electricity every year, all over Switzerland. This is about the same amount of electricity used by 2,300 four-person households. The system going on the roof of the new development in Villmergen – the third biggest on all of Swiss Post’s buildings – will generate over 1,300 megawatt hours of solar power a year, which equates to the electricity produced by solar panels on 137 single-family homes.

Swiss Post contributes to the generation of eco-electricity in Switzerland,

and so it will cover the majority of the center’s energy requirements. Any excess electricity generated will enter the electricity grid, and benefit the region as whole. In addition to the roof-based system, the front of the new building will also be equipped with photovoltaic panels. All in all, Swiss Post is making a major contribution to the generation of eco-electricity thanks to its Villmergen site.

Leading role

The new development will be built according to the gold standard of the Swiss DGNB label (the international label of the German Sustainable Building Council). It will be the first logistics building in Switzerland to be certified with this label. But why an international label? “To put it simply: there is still no comparable Swiss label for logistics buildings. This is why we use the DGNB standard, which was adapted to the Swiss SIA standards,” explains Beat Hänni, who is responsible for sustainability in the Real Estate unit at Swiss Post. The Swiss DGNB promotes comprehensive sustainability when it comes to buildings, taking into account not only environmental aspects, but economic and social ones as well. At Villmergen, Swiss Post is installing charging points for e-bikes, installing a heat pump and harnessing the kinetic energy of the lifts, amongst other actions.