AMSTERDAM—OVG Real Estate and its Amsterdam office building known as The Edge have received the H. Bruce Russell Global Innovators Award from CoreNet Global, GlobeSt.com has learned exclusively. The property, which was completed earlier this year, is billed as the most sustainable office building on earth, with the owner/developer saying it's completely self-sufficient regarding energy usage.

Submissions for the GIA, now in its 16th year, “were all very competitive and demonstrated innovation throughout all aspects of corporate real estate,” Fabricio Lopez, CoreNet Global's VP of marketing and communications, tells GlobeSt.com. This year's awards attracted more than 40 submissions from corporate real estate projects across the globe.

“OVG Real Estate's The Edge ultimately won because it demonstrated innovation on a very large scale and in several different ways,” Lopez says. “Energy efficiency is one of the most significant trends now emerging in corporate real estate.”

The building's design and orientation is based on the path of the sun. The glass façade on the building's north side provides daylight to the workspaces, while solar panels on the southern façade shield the workspaces from the sun. The solar panels covering the roof provide electricity for the aquifer thermal energy storage that generates all energy required for heating and cooling the building, according to CoreNet Global.

Finalists for this year's competition presented to a team of expert judges this summer at Harvard University. The winner was announced during a ceremony at the CoreNet Global Summit North America in Los Angeles earlier this month. OVG and The Edge had previously received the Sustainable Leadership Award presented by CoreNet Global earlier in the year.

Since 2000, Lopez says, the GIA “has created, developed and cemented a platform that recognizes innovation in our profession. The award has grown substantially since inception, number of submissions has increased year by year and interest and attendance to the Awards & Recognition Dinner has skyrocketed over the past three years.”