New challenges and new business parks
AKNO‘s more than 50 years of experience with logistics facilities is constantly being renewed with new challenges and new business park projects that combine excellence in designing beautiful and functional structures with respect for the environment and attention to eco-sustainability.
We have closed two crucial construction sites in this period, in Broni (PV) and Settala (MI). Every time we complete major orders like these, we pause to consider the path we have travelled, to evaluate the problems we have overcome, the aspects we still need to improve and thus prepare ourselves for the new challenges we will undertake from now on.
Indeed, building a logistics park is a complex undertaking in which the logistics requirements for companies must be considered from every point of view in all their complexity and variety. Finding the best location from the point of view of road and rail connections is, for example, a vital factor in making the logistics hub we build truly barycentric to production sites and retail markets.
From this point of view, both the Broni business park and the AKNO business park Settala are in truly strategic positions in which we have been operating for years and which guarantee the network of fluid and intense connections that is the key to successful industrial logistics.
Eco-sustainability is another aspect that AKNO considers crucial in a business park project. Building in an environmentally friendly way means facing two very complex challenges. Firstly, the sustainability of the construction site and, just as importantly, the sustainability of the building in operation.
The design of a logistics park, for us at AKNO, cannot disregard the canons established by the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) protocol, and this means paying great attention to a series of issues such as:
- the choice of construction materials;
- the disposal of construction site waste;
- minimising energy and water consumption during the construction stage;
- the introduction of solutions for energy self-production and rainwater recovery in the project;
- the focus on energy saving in the life of the building, both for air conditioning and heating and lighting.
Logistics in Broni and Settala
The first building site we have just closed is the extension of lot 5 of the Broni Business Park. This project involves more than 20,000 square metres and enhances one of the most important hubs for Italian logistics, where companies from many sectors, with different needs and business structures, get together.
In working on this expansion of our logistics park in Broni, we have mainly addressed the challenge of environmental impact, which has become, without any doubt, the big issue that every builder must face and solve today to remain in the construction market competitively. Building structures that have a low impact on nature, that save energy, and that sustainably manage their waste, is not only a moral imperative, linked to safeguarding the planet for the sake of future generations. Indeed, it is also an economic challenge that leads to significant savings in the running costs of our business parks.
For example, the extension of the Broni logistics park is equipped with a latest-generation photovoltaic system that allows a rather significant self-production of electricity, thus saving on bills and impacting a little less on the future of our planet. The innovative water supply system and the green waste disposal system also go in the same direction, making a concrete contribution to addressing two other major environmental issues.
The new logistics facility in Settala (MI) comes is in addition to the two previous business parks already built by AKNO in this area. Our construction site was responsible for building a logistics park of no less than 53 thousand square metres, also recovering an area with pre-existing disused structures. This new work, built using the most advanced techniques to offer, as is AKNO‘s custom, a functional and efficient place to work, will mainly deal with logistics for the pharmaceutical sector.
This extension of the Settala business park is intended to take advantage of the site’s extraordinary location in relation to the major communication routes in northern Italy, to which the new Paullese superhighway has recently been added. This one will move goods to and from this state-of-the-art logistics hub even smoother and easier. There is no doubt that the pharma sector is particularly crucial for the economy today, and the need to dedicate an entire logistics park solely to companies in this sector was felt more than ever, especially in the Milanese industrial area.
We are satisfied to have closed these construction sites and delivered two state-of-the-art, eco-sustainable and functional facilities to our customers. However, AKNO never stops and, as we have done for the past 50 years, we are already preparing for new challenges and projects.
