BPL Pensioen, the pension fund for Dutch agriculture and horticulture sector workers, has made its first investment in timber construction with the acquisition of a residential project in The Hague.
Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance, investing on behalf of BPL, has acquired the 213 apartments in the One Milky Way project on the Binckhorst. 30 of the units are being built using cross-laminated timber. Building the 30 units on the Binckhorst with this technique results in a savings of 460 tons of CO2.
The One Milky Way project is being developed by VORM, and the residential units are being built by Waal. The project is scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2026.
Mark Rosenberg, board member of BPL Pensioen, said: “Our ESG policy already focuses on making existing residential units more sustainable and acquiring sustainable and affordable rental units in particular.
“With this new acquisition in The Hague, we are also adding biobased materials in new construction, which leads to a further reduction of CO2 emissions. This underlines our ambition to be a green fund for the green sector.”
Boris van der Gijp, director of real estate at Syntrus Achmea, said: ”We are proud that BPL Pensioen is now our second client to invest in timber construction.
”We’ve been promoting the use of more bio-based materials in construction for some time now, as it greatly reduces CO2 emissions as well as construction time. It’s great that we can turn our clients’ intentions into actual projects built with wood.”
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