Businesses are no longer expected to simply comply with environmental and sustainability legislation – they are expected to take the lead in implementing sustainable practices.
The benefits to businesses of maintaining sustainable offices are clear. The British Council for Offices’ recent research paper Improving the environmental performance of offices found that not only does improved energy efficiency represent a saving of as much as £50 per sq m, but that occupant satisfaction is affected by an office’s environmental performance.
In order to realise the benefits of a sustainable office, occupiers are looking for transparency and an engagement not just with their employees, but also with their landlord, in order to reduce their energy consumption.
Yet, despite organisations such as the Better Buildings Partnership providing a sustainability toolkit, in reality there are very few landlords offering a sustainable property management service.
Occupiers and managing agents need to work closely together to ensure buildings are managed in a sustainable way.
At PwC we have a no waste-to-landfill policy. Any waste is sent for alternative treatment such as recycling. As a result, we have had to work with our managing agents to enable us to introduce our own methods of waste collection.
It is this approach, with landlords being flexible and treating their tenants as individuals, which will enable businesses to achieve sustainability targets.
It is encouraging that Capita Real Estate’s recent Sustainable property management guide has been endorsed by GE Capital Real Estates.
Landlords and managing agents should also seriously consider incorporating sustainability service level agreements when agreeing new leases.
Ultimately landlords need to ensure that they are knowledgeable and open to discussions with their occupiers on sustainability.
Managing agents should follow suit to ensure they are driving and improving the operation of office buildings in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
• Richmond is chairman of the BCO Occupiers Group. Click here to find out what is on at the conference next week.
Chris Richmond, head of real estate, PwC
