The Social Hub secures approval for innovative renewable energy solution on rooftop in Eindhoven

Amsterdam, 8 March 2023 - The Social Hub today announces that the Municipality of Eindhoven has granted approval for a ‘PowerNEST’ wind and solar solution to be built on the roof of The Social Hub Eindhoven. The 630 m2 structure is expected to provide 17% of energy needed for the hotel, student accommodation and co-working space. The first conversations between The Social Hub, IBIS Power and the municipality of Eindhoven began in 2021. The City of Eindhoven has now approved a PowerNEST by Ibis Power to upgrade the building to renewable energy.

The Social Hub’s energy transition road map includes considering options to self-generate wind and solar power via roof-spaces and facades. As new property developments already consider green energy goals in their design, The Social Hub is now examining how it can best retrofit existing properties. With a portfolio of 23 hubs situated in predominantly urban areas across Europe, space is at a premium. Therefore, the company is looking for solutions that will reduce reliance on over-burdened electricity grids, lower costs, and provide solutions for the clean energy transition.

Charlie MacGregor, CEO & Founder of The Social Hub says, “We are delighted with this approval – and thank Alderman Rik Thijs for his support. It's an important step on our roadmap to transition our existing portfolio of properties to green energy. We are ready, willing and able to work with solutions, providers and municipalities to accelerate our transition to a Net Zero future. We feel the urgency now – for both our bottom line and doing the right thing for our planet and we want to move faster.”

The switch from fossil to renewable energy sources is one way to combat global warming. The Paris Climate Agreement states that the share of renewable electricity in total electricity production should be 70% by 2030. Sustainable power in urban environments is another way to reach this goal.

Rik Thijs, Eindhoven’s Alderman responsible for climate, energy, soil and greening says, “We hope that this collaboration and innovation application can be an example for other cities to follow. As the city of Eindhoven, we want to be a testing ground for these kinds of sustainable initiatives. As alderman for climate and energy, I see we need to accelerate. We are a smart ‘Brainport’ region (top technology region where technologies are developed that change lives), and we must use this available knowledge to stop climate change."

Alexander Suma, CEO IBIS Power comments: "We need to adopt new ways to make our existing medium and high- rise buildings Net Zero Energy as they are the largest energy users in the city. The way The Social Hub, the City of Eindhoven and our team have worked together is a great and successful example of implementing large scale, impactful sustainable innovations in the urban area. This important approval by the Municipality of Eindhoven is paving the way for future sustainable building transformations.” Construction is due to start in the summer this year. After five weeks of construction the preparations for the effective placement of the PowerNEST on the 630 m2  roof of The Social Hub Eindhoven can officially begin.

The Social Hub is on a journey to be as responsible and impactful as possible and minimize the negative impact on the environment. The Social Hub is currently in the process of setting science-based targets for their greenhouse gas emissions and is targeting an 82% reduction of its Scope 1 and 2 emissions per square meter by 2032 compared to its footprint in 2018-2019.

The Social Hubs in Delft, Bologna and Barcelona which were built in the last three years already have solar panels.

IBIS Power is a scale-up company that develops revolutionary, innovative solutions for renewable energy with a major sustainable impact on society. They invented PowerNEST: a groundbreaking solution that can deliver 6-10x more energy on the limited roof space of medium and high-rise buildings by extracting the highest possible efficiency from wind and solar energy. PowerNEST integrates with the architecture of the building and is called the crown on the building by renowned architects.

Founded in 2012, The Social Hub, formerly known as The Student Hotel, is headquartered in Amsterdam and has more than 800 employees. The Social Hub’s shareholders, namely Dutch pension fund ABP (through its asset manager APG) and GIC (Realty) Private Limited (“GIC”), a global institutional investor, welcome this focus on green energy solutions from the hybrid hospitality company.

All The Social Hub properties offer a mixed-use with accommodation, bars, restaurants, gyms, retail shops, meeting and event spaces and high-profile coworking spaces. With over 11,000 rooms in Europe open and under development, The Social Hub aims to offer unique experiences to its community of international guests and locals.

The Social Hub’s total locations amount to 23, with 16 properties open in Berlin, The Hague, Delft, Vienna, Groningen, Eindhoven, Maastricht, Rotterdam, Paris, Florence, Bologna, Madrid, Barcelona, Toulouse and two in Amsterdam. Openings in 2023 include Glasgow, Porto and San Sebastián and more; by 2025, there will also be properties in Rome, Florence Belfiore, Lisbon and Turin.

The Social Hub is on a journey to be as responsible and impactful as possible – both in how it builds properties and how it engages with communities. Properties are developed and managed in accordance with BREEAM and GRESB standards and through it's event programming we aim to inspire and activate the communities to contribute to a fairer and greener world. The Social Hub will start its journey towards B Corp Certification in 2023.