Echo Investment and Veolia, a leading producer of electricity and heat, will build the first residential estate designed in line with a sustainable development strategy of the City of Łódź. As part of the cooperation in terms of the developer's residential and mixed-use projects, photovoltaic installations will be mounted to power the common areas of buildings, ventilation and air conditioning with green energy. Veolia will also provide the energy from RES to residential estate electric car chargers. A pilot photovoltaic installation will be mounted and worked in the Echo Investment's new project, that is planned to be constructed this year in Łódź’s Widzew district.

"Echo Investment is the first developer whose project is part both of the idea of co-creating the city, that is the linchpin of our new strategy, and of the process of pro-ecological changes.The estate to be built will be something more than just a complex of apartment buildings, it will be possibly self-sustainable  buildings, using renewable sources of energy, making use of rainwater, a place which with its functionalities will encourage people to change their habits for the better for the environment. I'm glad that Echo and its partner Veolia are involved in the implementation of the new strategy and the eco-pact for Łódź and want to build together with us a resilient and as self-sustainable city as possible," says Hanna Zdanowska, Mayor of Łódź.

"The combination of our experience in the development market and innovative approach to residential design with Veolia's competencies in green energy supply perfectly fits the development strategy of Łódź as a zero-emission and clean city. It assumes, among others, local energy generation from RES, cycling infrastructure development or gradual decarbonization of transport. As a developer, we actively participate in creating a friendly city of the future - we build open, multifunctional quarters, where we put great emphasis on the quality of social space. We provide residents and users of our projects with access to infrastructure that improves living comfort and promotes pro-ecological behaviors. Thanks to partnership with Veolia, our buildings will be supported by RES, which will increase their energy efficiency. A test photovoltaic installation has been made in Fuzja in Łódź, where it passed the test. We are planning a wider implementation in a new project in Łódź, that will be started to construct this year," says Waldemar Olbryk, head of residential business at Echo Investment.

RES enter apartments

Veolia is a producer of electricity and heat and a co-founder of the Łódź Energy Wave Cluster. It implements a project concerning distributed energy sources in the city of Łódź and Łódź province. Its innovative solutions based on the use of energy from renewable sources are implemented in residential buildings.

"The partnership with the largest residential developer in Poland will allow us to take joint action to improve the quality of life of Łódź citizens. Under the cooperation we will design and launch pilot installations of PV photovoltaic panels, which will allow to generate electricity at place of its use. This energy can be used to power common areas of buildings such as elevators or lighting, ventilation and air conditioning devices or electric car charging stations. The range of our cooperation also includes supplying Echo Investment's apartments with green heat, produced in Veolia's local heat and power plant. In the future, we plan to expand our cooperation by developing and implementing a model of a system of renting and carsharing of electric cars," explains Anna Kędziora-Szwagrzak, President of the Management Board at Veolia Energia Łódź.

Better quality of life

Buildings supported by RES are not the only pro-ecological solutions implemented by Echo Investment. Within the scope of infrastructure made available in its projects, the developer encourages to use bicycles by offering, among others, bicycle racks and hangers or bike repair stations. The company also supports the development of electromobility and sharing economy by installing chargers for e-cars or providing separate parking spaces for electric vehicles and carsharing. Another enterprise is the use of retention water for watering green areas. Moreover, more efficient management of electricity and heat consumption in each apartment is enabled by the Echo Smart system, which buyers receive as standard.