How your office space strategy can support your green agenda
As the pandemic subsides and the climate crisis captures more of our attention, how can businesses use their office space to support their net zero targets?
4 minutes to read
We interviewed almost 400 global business leaders to understand how they’re adapting their real estate strategies for the years to come. The below insights are based upon their responses. To discover the data behind the story, get the full picture in (Y)OUR SPACE.
At present, growing business ambitions towards sustainability are not as aligned to real estate strategies as they could (or should) be. There is an opportunity to move faster. Education, greater awareness and the exchange of best practice will all be required to narrow the dangerous gap between ambition and action. With the clock ticking, there is no time to waste.
The business benefit of green buildings
Indeed, as David Goatman, Department Head of Knight Frank’s Energy, Sustainability and Natural Resources explains: “Beyond being simply the ‘right thing to do’, there is now growing evidence that a strong emphasis on ESG fundamentals enables companies to differentiate themselves, gain a competitive advantage, and accrue financial benefits. The real estate choices an occupier makes will either facilitate their net zero carbon journey or impede it.”
We’re seeing this become more widely acknowledged. When we asked almost 400 leaders from across the world: “What do you regard as the main benefits of occupying ‘green’ accredited real estate?”, 53% said it supports ESG strategies – including net zero carbon targets, 49% said it enhances their brand, and 40% said it improves their business’s attractiveness to clients and customers.
How your office can support your green agenda
The plethora of rating systems can cloud the green building adoption process for many and understanding exactly how your office can support your carbon targets is a key step.
Working closely with businesses, David Goatman has identified some of the most in demand green features: Building designs that minimise energy demand through thermal storage; integrated renewables; smart lighting and sensor usage; mobile apps that help customise environments (such as lighting and temperature); built-in e-mobility solutions, internal green spaces and external ecological corridors.
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Examples of green offices across the world
There is an extensive range of green offices that not only meet these demands, but pioneer a greener future.
Almaden Tower, California
Colloquially dubbed the ‘greenest building in America’, Adobe Systems’ headquarters certainly sets the bar high. The global software company – operating in a sector renowned for its energy-intensiveness – has been improving its San Jose facility since 2001. It now holds a LEED Platinum accreditation, and in 2009, the business installed 20 wind turbines to generate renewable energy from the wind between its three office towers.
Tekko Building, Japan
Tekko Building is the first large-scale, mixed-use building in Japan to be powered entirely by renewable electricity. With environmentally conscious lighting, clean energy, thermal load reduction and HVAC technologies, it’s putting sustainability at the forefront. On top of this, it’s column-free office space provides businesses with the utmost flexibility to design their workspaces in the way that suits their needs most. Windows also include solar-tracking automated blinds for optimal lighting as well as natural ventilation systems.
SCGZero+, Shanghai, China
Designed to be the first ‘5Zero’ office building, the SCGZero+ project in Shanghai, China, is set to be zero carbon, zero energy, zero water, zero waste, and zero formaldehyde. Writing in The Fifth Estate, Duncan Murray explains: “To achieve their sustainability goal, the building’s designers have incorporated prefabrication methods in structure and façade assemblies, as well as robotic fabrication techniques, the use of innovative low embodied energy materials such as recycled steel, low carbon concrete, CLT and CLB (Cross Laminated Bamboo) and implemented fine-tuned rainwater and solar energy capture systems.”
Roots In The Sky, London
Roots In The Sky, led by investment manager and developer Fabrix, is a next-generation workspace of 385,000 square feet. The radical reimagining of the former Blackfriars Crown Court includes a 1.1 acre rooftop forest with over 100 trees and 10,000 plants – its water irrigation systems support wildlife and biodiversity in central London. Plus, a glass-floored, infinity-edge swimming pool is warmed by the building’s unused heat.
Jonny Lee, a Partner in Knight Frank’s London Office Leasing team, explains: “It’s a scheme that will support businesses’ carbon commitments, focus on all ESG services – especially sustainability – and improve employee wellbeing.”
60 St Thomas Street, London
With its twin goals of sustainability and wellbeing, 60 St Thomas street is designed to be the first multi-tenant building to achieve BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Platinum accreditations in London.
As one of London’s most responsible towers, 60 Thomas Street includes pocket gardens to light the ground floor space, cycle storage which encourages active transport, and a hybrid of structured timber and post-tension concreate that gives the lowest embodied energy. Plus, according to developer EDGE, the base building carbon in use is presumably the lowest in London – with only 23 kilowatt hours per square meter.
To explore what the future of work means for your business and understand how you can optimise your real estate strategy, step into (Y)OUR SPACE, or get in touch with a member of our team.
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