Get Sust! issue 31

FEATURE

Sustainable workplaces — what are we waiting for?

A UK survey says the construction industry is poised to fully embrace sustainability, while two recent international studies have found that construction clients and tenants are putting ‘green’ buildings at the top of their shopping lists. All that’s lacking, it seems, is a leap of faith. Could post-occupancy evaluation (POE) push the two sides together?

A study commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) suggests that the vast majority of construction professionals believe that ‘green’ building is the future for the construction industry.

Of the 850 construction professionals questioned, 94 per cent believe that ‘green’ building is the future for construction, and 86 per cent believe that there are financial benefits to producing energy efficient buildings.

And contrary to expectation, 67 per cent of respondents felt that the current UK building regulations do not go far enough to create energy efficient buildings.

Commenting on the survey results, Michael Brown CIOB deputy chief executive put the lack of up-take of the green message down to “...a shortage of client awareness and education towards the financial benefits for building green projects”.

Curious then, that two recent international studies suggest that clients ARE beginning to take the sustainability issue seriously.

An international survey of real estate professionals conducted for CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle found that a large majority (79 per cent) of companies around the world view sustainability as critical to their business and are willing to pay a premium to help their companies become more sustainable, including 61 per cent of Europe-based respondents.

The CoreNet Global study also found that there is a gap between the real cost of sustainable real estate solutions and the perceived costs — with many companies unaware that the cost of sustainability has come down.

Meanwhile in Canada a survey of commercial tenants commissioned by Colliers International found that 90 per cent agree that it is important for landlords and developers to “green” their portfolios, and – all other factors being equal – 91 per cent of tenants would give  preference to a green building. In addition, 94 per cent of tenants surveyed believe sustainability is an important future component of good business practices, with 63 per cent saying it is ‘very important’.

Commenting on this survey, Thomas Mueller, president of the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC) said: “This survey highlights many interesting points. One significant finding is that people are weighing environmental issues more heavily in the context of a healthy work environment.”

As it happens, the CaGBC has already identified this link, and is involved in the development of the next generation of the LEED rating system. The CaGBC’s ‘LEED Complete’ initiative aims to transform the rating system into a tool that will help landlords evaluate their current portfolios and develop action plans to green and certify their office buildings. The tool is intended to be performance-based and to track results that will inform comprehensive management over the life of the building.

Back in blighty, the British Council for Offices has clearly identified the link between productivity, good workplace design, and energy-efficient and sustainable buildings. It has already published ‘The Impact of Office Design on Business Performance’ and a ‘Guide to environmental management’. The latest addition to its portfolio, however, could help make that key link between the industry and its clients.

The ‘BCO Guide to Post-Occupancy Evaluation’ aims to raise awareness of the benefits of POE and to make it accessible to the occupiers, developers and designers by providing practical advice on how they can instigate their own POE studies.

As well as explaining the history and basic principles of POE, the guide includes eight case studies of the offices occupied by household names such as the BBC, BT, Department of Health and VISA.

Eight case studies is not many, out of the hundreds of thousands of UK offices, although there are more coming through all the time (see Get Sust! 30 October 2007), but the fact that the influential BCO is helping to disseminate hard evidence of the benefits of good quality, sustainable buildings is certainly a step in the right direction – if not quite the leap of faith it seems we need.

Learn more:

	•	The CIOB report ‘The Green Perspective’ is available at www.ciob.org.uk/resources/research.
	•	Details of the CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle study “Sustainability perceptions and trends in the corporate real estate industry” are at www.corenetglobal.org or listen to the press conference that announced the findings http://www2.corenetglobal.org/private/av/teleconf_atl_071029.mp3
	•	Colliers International 2007 Canadian Office Tenant Survey is at www.colliersreports.com
	•	The BCO Guide to Post-Occupancy Evaluation, is written by Nigel Oseland, an environmental psychologist and Director at AMA Alexi Marmot Associates, which specialises in helping clients to redefine their workstyle and create space efficient workplaces that enhance business performance. BCO guides can be purchased from www.bco.org.uk.

© Melanie Thompson 2007