Costa Rica’s Electricity Institute (ICE) will inaugurate this Monday, March 27 their new building located in Sabana Norte, 200 meters north from where their headquarters are currently located.

This new 6 floor building will represent a reduction in the expenses of the organization, eliminating ten rentals and associated services and involves the relocation of 600 employees, also allowing for the optimization of resources and physical space.

The construction of the new infrastructure began in July of 2015 with an investment of $43 million USD and savings should be of close to $8.5 million dollars a year according to ICE, between rents, public services, maintenance, cleaning and security, among others. The construction of the building was carried out by the engineering and construction department of ICE. Last year ICE also inaugurated another facility in the area of Rincón Grande de Pavas where they relocated other services also contributing with expense reduction.

This project made ICE the first company in Latin America to obtain the Sustainable Construction certification of the EDGE system (Environmental Design for Greater Efficiency) of the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. The EDGE consists in the application of a sustainable construction evaluation system that measures the efficiency of a building during its design stage, the contribution in the reduction of the climate change problematic and the boost in the country’s prosperity. The design of the building will also allow a 30% in energy savings.

ICE has also managed a significant reduction of a 4% in its payroll this was achieved through the optimization of human resources and the elimination and revision of certain bonuses.