Excess is taboo, and green is in vogue. These converging trends will alter the office landscape in new and more productive ways combining connectivity, creativity and environmental stewardship. Even owners of such iconic properties as the Empire State Building and Chicago’s Sears Tower are investing aggressively in high-performance renovations to remain competitive in the market. They know everyone from the developer to the tenants benefits.
“Doing more with less have become real estate buzzwords for a lot of companies, given that real estate is often the highest overhead, next to employees,” says Greg Kindred, senior vice president with commercial real estate brokerage firm Richard Bowers & Co.
Sandwich shops and a small athletic club have been eclipsed by conference areas, LEED certification, wireless Internet connectivity and lavish tenant lounges. A 2008 CodeGreen survey showed 79 percent of respondents would pay 5 percent more rent for a LEED-Silver rated building.
Like many current cultural and economic trends, technology enables the mobility and spatial efficiency current work patterns demand. Off-site data and application storage reduces office space needs and energy consumption. Now workers perform effectively wherever they are needed most.
John Alston, CEO of ClubDrive Systems, notes servers consume the same energy no matter how much capacity is tapped – a figure that rarely exceeds 20 percent. Data-center virtualization allows servers to be pushed to capacity while using less electricity than a traditional deployment. The United States Postal Service reduced one data center’s spatial and power requirements from 700 servers to 350 using this analysis. “Businesses run on applications, but applications and users are moving farther and farther apart. It’s now possible to drastically reduce the physical infrastructure required to support the technical requirements of organizations of all sizes,” Alston says.
Increasing the number of employees supported by the same space improves profitability. But how are organizations and their employees adapting to these new environments, and what else defines a high-performance workplace? Today’s employees span a wide spectrum of technological familiarity and skill. Many young professionals have never known a life without mobile phones or the Internet, while Boomer colleagues require the most user-friendly devices and programs available. High-performance workplaces must accommodate these differing work styles along with a blurring of professional and personal lives.
“People really need a sense of connection to people and things around them,” says John Cantrell, interior designer and LEED AP specialist with HOK Atlanta. “We can’t separate the economic from the environmental.”
Moreover, the global economy demands collaboration among geographically disparate teams. Cisco WebEx Internet video conferencing service claimed 28,000 customers, including 81 of the Fortune 100 companies, in 2008. Sustainable design also offers long-term savings in flexible, collaborative places. Cost savings can actually improve the working environment.
Contemporary office environments often bear little resemblance to sterile “cube farms.” High-performance workplaces abound with gathering places for collaboration. Nodes accommodate expanding and contracting work groups for spans as short as an hour or as long as several months. Tools to support idea generation and problem solving reside close at hand. Often, design elements reflect the corporate brand and dedication to sustainability.
“[Sustainability has become a large part of most companies’ statement of values and core operating principles,” says David Rush, interiors design director for HOK Atlanta. “The workplace is starting to become a three-dimensional extension of the brand.”
Companies extending or striving for green credibility will insist on greening their office space. Since 2006, LEED EB certified buildings grew 170 percent, 273 percent and 137 percent annually. “Simple lighting retrofits (including motion sensors) and water-saving techniques often produce the fastest ROI,” Kindred says. “18 percent of total U.S. energy consumption comes from commercial buildings and 30 percent of operations costs come from energy consumption. Effectively reducing energy consumption with new lighting systems and motion sensors alone can create a win-win between stewardship and profitability.”
Many high-tech companies, such as Google, famously led this trend, merging lifestyle and entertainment elements with sustainable corporate design, augmented by non-traditional work patterns such as telecommuting and flexible hours. More traditional industries are now following suit, as the lines between work and living blur, while options for a more productive and sustainable working environment continue to evolve.
— Julie B. Hairston and Paul D. Snyder work at Atlanta-based A. Brown-Olmstead Assoicates.