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| Hyundai Engineering and Construction's (Hyundai E&C) Hillstate apartment complexes that are powered by solar panels in Banpo, Seoul. / Courtesy of Hyundai E&C |
By Park Ji-won
Hyundai Engineering & Construction has stepped up its efforts to build environmentally friendly buildings.
The company has introduced management systems that cut energy consumption of buildings and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using energy-efficient construction materials and technologies.
This is part of its strategy to become a Global Green One Pioneer company by 2020.
Under this vision, the nation's No. 2 builder seeks to introduce carbon management systems with an aim to cutting greenhouse gases from construction by 30 percent by 2018.
The builder has developed new energy-saving technologies for buildings and has already adopted them at facilities, including its flagship residential building: Hillstate.
"We developed a smart control system in March that can cut 35 percent energy-use for heating and cooling on average," the company said.
It functions like a living organism that senses a changing environment and adjusts itself.
The system was introduced at the company's research facility in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province in a trial, and produced an energy reduction of up to 50 percent. The facility is a symbol of the company's vision as a "green pioneer builder."
Here the company focuses on developing technologies that can be applied to its Hillstate apartments and residential units. One such advancement was the automatic electricity shutdown system; this shuts down the electricity conduit when not in use, producing an energy saving of up to 20 percent. The company has already introduced this energy-cutting technology in Hillstate complexes in the Banpo and Baekryun mountain areas.
Hyundai has actively used solar, wind, underground heating and various other renewable energy sources for its residential units to save energy costs and cut CO2 emissions.
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