White Papers
By Beatrice K Otto
- SUSTAINABLE OFFICE DESIGN & BUILDINGS
- WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
- WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR?
- AIR
- LIGHT
- ENERGY
- WATER
- MATERIALS
- GOVERNMENT RESPONSES
- OVERVIEW OF SUSTAINABILITY
- WHERE CAN I DIG DEEPER?
- GLOSSARY
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
PERFORMANCE & PRODUCTIVITY
A minimal upfront investment of about two percent of construction costs typically yields life cycle savings of more than ten times the initial investment.
California Sustainable Building Task Force
The chief, tempting benefits of making your office more sustainable are:
- lower running costs - due to virtuous circles of energy and material savings
- rising productivity - due to happier and healthier employees
They go hand in hand though productivity gains often dwarf reductions in running costs. There is growing evidence that even where the initial costs are higher than conventional design, the payback, for example through reduced energy bills, can be fairly fast. When gains in productivity are factored in, the payback can be very fast - staff costs usually hugely outweigh energy costs, so a small gain in productivity can translate into a heftier financial gain.
We started using the building in June 1993. Eighteen months later the absentee rate for employees working in the new facility was 40% lower than for those performing the same jobs in an older VeriFone building next door, and productivity was up more than 5%. Workers in the new building proclaimed the demise of end-of-day headaches and end-of-week sluggishness. They loved the natural light and said the air was so fresh they felt as if they were working in a forest.
William R. Pape, co-founder of VeriFone
In addition, there are reduced liabilities from current or projected environmental legislation, such as the Landfill Tax or Climate Change Levy. There are government issued carrots as well as sticks, such as the Enhanced Capital Allowance Scheme which allows businesses to claim 100% first year capital allowances on investments in energy saving products or technologies.
The growth of green building is driven partly by energy efficiency and other cost savings but also by the need of businesses to attract the best employees. These buildings can make very attractive workplaces.
Christine Ervin, President & CEO, US Green Building Council
WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE?
http://www.galtglobalreview.com/careers/office_design_part2.htm
'Why office design matters', looks at the link between office design and human productivity.
http://www.arc.cmu.edu/cbpd/iw/index.html
The Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace project is a 'living laboratory' of what it takes to make an office work for you, rather than against.
HOW DO I BEGIN?
TEN TOP TIPS
CHOOSE A CHAMPION
Sustainability is a cross-functional idea touching most key business functions, yet is quite a hazy notion to those who haven't been exposed to it. To prevent its wafting through people's minds without engaging them it needs a champion, someone who 'gets it', and has the status, authority and persuasiveness to bring people on board, such as the CEO or head of communications, for example.
SHIFT MINDSETS
Indifference to sustainable design is usually based on misconception that sustainability is somehow about suffering and cost. Properly done, it's quite the opposite, but whether you are the designer or the client, you may have to draw on some shining examples to demonstrate that it can improve quality of life and work.
CREATE A DREAM TEAM
Whether you're a designer or client, start with a team. Sustainable design needs a range of skills and perspectives. At a functional level, daylighting and dimming systems need great coordination to work properly, and so it makes sense to involve lighting designers, contractors, equipment manufacturers and building operators. At a business level, an office redesign is a great opportunity to invite the productivity giant in - burgeoning evidence points to leaps in well-being and productivity while drastically reducing energy and other costs. Not for nothing are sustainable buildings also called 'high performance buildings'.
PAINT A PICTURE
Sustainability, once people know what it is, is a rare beast because it can inspire them in unexpected ways. Scandia, the Swedish hotel chain, took 5,000 employees on a sustainability trip and were astounded at the effect it had in galvanising overall enthusiasm for performance improvement.
So what have we learned? Within the company, we're learning the extraordinary motivating power of a constructive environmental stance. We're learning that there is no trade-off between profits and pollution.'
Sir John Browne, Chairman of BP
If you are the client, involve all employees in the design (or redesign) of the office. Give them a glimpse of what a sustainable office can look and feel like. There are some wonderful examples of workplaces which have fresh air, natural lighting and are a delight to work in.
JOINED UP THINKING
See your office as a whole system, not a series of components. Integrating systems, such as lighting, heating and cooling, is key. If you consider air conditioning without looking at lighting, you will miss the chance to reduce air conditioning. Look for what shouldn't be there, as well as what should.
THINK BEFORE YOU LEAP
Some 80% of design costs are determined at the design and concept stage. By spending more time in the thinking zone, you could save costly rethinking later. Think twice, what to design in: integration, synergies, multi-functionality, and what to design out: superfluity, complexity, compound inefficiencies, waste.
The design concept, as William McDonough puts it, had "taken the filters out of the pipes and put them where they belong - in the designers' heads". Everything that shouldn't be in the process had been eliminated by design.
Hawkens, Lovins & Lovins, Natural Capitalism
MEASURE YOUR FOOTPRINT
Look at your current ventilation and thermal control, plus lighting and energy use. Also think about the impact of work patterns - if most employees drive or use public transport, for example. Use carbon calculation tools to get a better sense of your overall environmental footprint. Reducing the footprint often means reducing costs.
TRACK YOUR FOOTPRINT
Designing an office with sparkling sustainability features may miss a trick if you don't follow through on maintenance and monitoring. Even with energy efficient systems, it has been found that more regular monitoring and tweaking of controls can yield surprising additional cost savings.
INVITE IDEAS
Companies with internal competitions for sustainability ideas have usually reaped far more in savings and other benefits than they aimed for. Dow Chemical began an annual competition for wringing out new efficiencies that would save money and resources. They set tough criteria with short paybacks, but found that the number and quality of projects increased over time as employees got into the swing of generating and implementing ideas.
KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID
People can be overwhelmed by the quantity and complexity of sustainability concepts (not to mention the jargon). Choose or create a definition that works for you and stick to it. Procter & Gamble struggled to engage managers until they adopted the UK Government's definition around creating quality of life for all, now and in the future. It was something people could relate to and act on.
WHERE CAN I SURF MORE?
COST SAVINGS
PRODUCTIVITY
INCENTIVES