*First HSBC building in the Middle East to receive certification*
HSBC Bank Egypt Global Service Centre becomes the first US Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified project in all of Africa. It is also the first HSBC building in the Middle East to receive the certification.
The 21000 sq ms LEED Gold Certified HSBC Bank Egypt Global Service Centre is a four storey building Ground floor plus three typical floors (3000 sq ms each) and two underground parking floors (4500 sq ms each) located in Giza, Egypt's Smart Village Cairo master-planned development.
The building serves as a HSBC Global Service Centre providing a Regional Contact Centre 24/7, Regional Collection Centre and French back office operations as well as providing local operations (Network Service Centre, Credit Management Unit, and Card Processing Centre) and a Bank Branch.
The building was completed in December 2009 and HSBC staff began to move into the facility in January 2010. The building will accommodate 1200 employees over the next three years.
LEED is an internationally accepted benchmark for the design and construction of high performance green buildings. The US Green Building Council promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: Sustainable site development, Water savings, Energy efficiency, Materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
HSBC Global Service Centre's gold rating is the result of a range of green features including:
- Energy consumption cost saving by 9%
- Chilled water consumption cost saving by 39%
- Domestic water consumption cost saving by 47%
- 84% of construction waste diverted from landfill.
"We are honored to receive the LEED gold recognition from the U.S. Green Building Council," says Abdel Salam Anwar, Chairman and CEO, HSBC Egypt. "Strategically we view sustainability as an imperative for long term success of our business. When we decided to have our building certified, we faced many challenges as there was no previous model to follow in Africa. We are pleased with the energy-saving features that earned the certification and will help HSBC be more environmentally responsible as well as save costs."
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HSBC Bank Middle East Limited (HSBC)
HSBC is the largest and most widely represented international bank in the Middle East. HSBC Bank Middle East Limited has 46 branches throughout the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Algeria and the Palestinian Autonomous Area. In addition to the branch network the Bank maintains representative offices in Tehran, Iran and Tripoli, Libya. This extensive regional coverage is strengthened by another member of the HSBC Group, HSBC Bank Egypt SAE; and by its associated companies; The Saudi British Bank; British Arab Commercial Bank Limited; HSBC Saudi Arabia Limited; SABB Securities Limited; SABB Takaful Co.; and Dar Es Saalam Investment Bank.
© Press Release 2010
