The new BMW Group Campus

Two large buildings, suffused with light, with a green inner courtyard and associated parking areas, form the new BMW Group Campus in the city of Salzburg. What will really make the difference will ultimately be the 450 people who work there. At the moment it is still very quiet – because of Covid, only about ten percent of the workforce is on site. So the meeting place that the campus was planned to be will have to wait a little longer. However, the concept is already clearly evident: Work can take place in a variety of ways – people who need space away from the open-plan office can digitally book themselves into one of the many meeting rooms directly on site at any time. At 26 rooms, their number has more than doubled. Whether beanbags or bar tables, for four or alone – a room, a terrace or one of the many small lounge islands in the midst of the conventional office desks is always ready for any need.

Values as a point of attraction for professionals

For the BMW Group, this is part of the diversity it strives for. This is also confirmed by Egon Mutschlechner, who was responsible at BMW for monitoring work concepts and their implementation in the building: “Positioning towards sustainability is central to BMW. This includes ecological topics but also social ones, such as lived diversity.” The fact that this campus exudes both is part of the concept. “We are all in a situation where we need to be attractive to skilled workers. This includes not only an attractive working environment, but also living values such as sustainability in many areas,” Mutschlechner explains.

As far as ecology is concerned, the operators here rely on photovoltaics: a third of the energy comes from the roof and from the horizontal panels on the parking garage. That covers about a third of the campus’s total electricity consumption. The CO2 savings that can be realised from that come to some 232 tonnes per year. In addition, a water recovery system was installed as part of the rebuild of the in-house car wash. Previously, 180 litres of drinking water were required for each vehicle wash – with the water treatment system, only 20–30 litres of drinking water are now required per new wash cycle.

Salzburg – a location with advantages

28 million euros were invested in the new 12,000 square meter building. The fact that this was done specifically in Salzburg comes as no surprise to Mutschlechner. “We have a good connection here to the Eastern European markets and to the Western markets. In addition, the company also wants to position itself with these values, and the environment also plays a major role. And there is this – Salzburg itself is not a big city, but it has the right connections to reach Munich or Vienna quickly as well. With Innovation Salzburg, we have a very competent point of contact that has also supported us, for example, with a funding strategy for these huge projects.” In the “war for talents,” life also plays a major role for employees: “The city and the region here offer a special quality of life. I came here from Italy ten years ago and started a family here. Designing life outside of work is a big plus for expats like me.”