The relationship between sustainability and the value of office buildings

There is an increasing body of evidence to suggest that the development of sustainability in office buildings and the acceptance of these buildings in the broader property market is increasing. However a gap still remains between the value of sustainability and the value of the building from an International Valuation Standards Committee (IVSC) definition of market value. Current literature is limited in the investigation of the impact of sustainable criteria on value component when undertaking a valuation of a commercial office building. Whilst substantial advances have been made in sustainable design and construction aspects, as well as reducing implementation costs and enhancing benefits associated with sustainability, there appears to be inherent barriers in adopting sustainability in the valuation process for the property industry.

This paper examines the limited previous research into the elements of sustainable criteria that impact upon property value, and in turn should be reflected in traditional valuation methods. The immaturity of the property market for sustainable building is such that current valuation methods do not appear to have significant evidential proof of increased property value through sales or lease evidence for sustainable buildings. Furthermore, this lack of market evidence makes it inherently difficult for valuers to assess the real market value of sustainable buildings through current valuation methodology. In other words, the level of risk associated with incorporating different levels of sustainability into office buildings appears difficult to measure using a market value perspective in today’s property market. Accordingly this paper examines current research that has been undertaken to identify particular sustainable criteria that potentially affects the value of a sustainable building. For example, previous research suggests that sustainable criteria impact upon the valuation equation through rental growth, depreciation, risk premium and cash flow. This paper also examines how other studies have viewed the impact of sustainable criteria and how they are weighted within the valuation equation. The discussion provides an insight into the rapidly evolving area of sustainability and office buildings with emphasis placed on the valuation process that seeks to assess a hypothetical purchaser’s perspective of this relationship.

Delivering sustainability in office building refurbishment

The effect of climate change and global warming continues to receive attention with many governments and organisations acknowledging the long-term problems associated with the trend, although offering limited realistic solutions. Office buildings have been identified as a contributor to global warming during the construction phase, however during the building lifecycle there is a greater contribution to CO2 omissions. Whilst various building designs and construction techniques have evolved to improve energy efficiency, the focus has largely been placed on new buildings where it is easier to incorporate change and innovative approaches. However, the proportion of new buildings constructed each year is relatively small in comparison to existing building stock, which requires regular capital expenditure to maintain and attract new tenants within a competitive marketplace. Overall the degree to which capital expenditure for an existing building actually includes energy efficiency is difficult to measure, although appears to lag substantially behind sustainable building techniques for a new building.

This study investigates the degree to which energy efficiency is incorporated into office building refurbishment and capital expenditure, with the emphasis placed on a cost-benefit analysis from both the owner’s and tenant’s perspective. Whilst it may be argued that a newly constructed energy efficient office building may be cost prohibitive, various steps may be taken to upgrade the energy efficiency of an existing building. This project identifies differences between varying levels of capital expenditure to ensure an existing building is more energy efficient, with the emphasis placed on (a) the cost of implementation and (b) the potential for tenants to acknowledge the increased energy efficiency via higher rents. In order to develop a research framework, a thorough literature review was conducted of three disciplines being construction technology, building refurbishment and property management.

The relationship between sustainability and housing value

Sustainability has rapidly become one of the most important issues in wider society, where recent attention has been focused on sustainable practices in the built environment such as the design, construction and operation of new buildings. Although detached houses are one of the largest land uses in the built environment, it is surprising that relatively little research has been conducted into the implementation and demand for sustainability. Even though the technology exists for increasing sustainability in housing, it appears that little attention has been given to the added value that sustainability can give to a property.

This paper discusses recent developments in sustainability with regards to housing. It identifies and groups the various options available to a housing owner, although the focus is placed on how much the sustainable features add (or detract) from the value of the home. Consideration is given to the existing valuation methods that are used to assess the value of a residential property and also the ease of implementation.

Gaining representations of children's and adults' constructions of sustainability issues

In this decade of Education for Sustainable Development, it is timely to consider the methodological issues associated with researching this topic not only with adults but also with the young children who, as members of the next generation, will experience the success or otherwise of current environmental sustainability efforts. We argue that it is important when making methodological choices to recognize that both the sustainability issues themselves and the way individuals learn about these issues, are socially and culturally constructed. In this article we are interested in ways of gaining representations of individuals' mental constructions of environmental sustainability issues. We recount experiences from two projects, one which used the approach of analyzing children's drawings to gain representations of how children in Mexico understand environmental issues and the other which employed adult participant-directed photography as the principal data collection method conducted mainly in the north of South Africa.

New village models : examining the sustainability of existing realities and hypothetical visions

Zavoj is a mountain village in the Republic of Macedonia. While the village has become a site of emigration due to the mass exodus of its inhabitants, new house constructions have appeared. Scattered through deteriorating vernacular dwellings are new houses, and new fragments of houses attached to old houses. These new houses and house-fragments are introduced by emigrants returning to the village temporarily, and not by the remaining local village inhabitants. In the new millennium their number has dramatically increased. Migration has produced an incongruous mixture of architectures giving rise to questions about sustainable development in relation to new constructions in traditional environments? New buildings in the village are symptomatic of a much more universal phenomenon that is transforming vast rural landscapes into loosely urbanized regions. In contrast to this existing reality, a program in the Faculty of Architecture, Ss. Kiril & Metodij University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, is exploring alternative visions for the revitalization of the village. Can these offer more sustainable design approaches to the village? This paper examines sustainability in the dialectic between new constructions in existing villages and hypothetical visions for the new village.

Corporate sustainability : greenwash or a path to sustainable capitalism?

The problems of unsustainable development and the increased-awareness of corporate power in the global era have contributed to an agenda of corporate citizenship. This thesis explores the meanings and practices that fall under the banner of the triple bottom line of corporate citizenship through forty-two in-depth interviews with representatives from the corporate sector and NGO sector (including trade unions) in Australia. This purposive sample includes a specific range of corporate industries and NGO types, all of which have involvement with various areas of sustainability. Interviewees described their feelings and experiences in relation to the concept of the triple bottom line, the potential and limitations of this type of sustainability and the purpose and impacts of partnerships between NGOs and the corporate sector. On the basis of this research, this thesis argues that corporate citizenship is at best, a set of initiatives for making minor adjustments to the way companies perform their day-to-day operations and at worst, a program for improving corporate image rather than performance and for shifting the agenda of sustainable development toward corporate interests. While radical steps are required to achieve a sustainable society and environment, the terms of corporate citizenship offer very limited opportunities for change. The self-regulatory and market based model of citizenship does not challenge the impact of consumerism or the legitimacy of particular industry types and their products, except where threats are perceived to the longevity of the companies involved. Furthermore, while the exploitation of the environment and society has occurred as a result of corporate self-interest, corporate citizenship is justified on the same basis. The self-interest rationale and the tyranny of the economic bottom line in particular, substantially limit the fields of responsibility that can be included in the citizenship paradigm. While there are undoubtedly some well-intentioned corporate representatives who are working toward attaining a more sustainable corporate culture, the discourse is primarily used to shift the sustainable development agenda toward corporate paradigms and interests.

Sustainability in online communities of practice : the case study of a group of Secondary School Educators in Victoria

This paper reports on Information Technology (IT) secondary school educators in Victoria and their involvement in an online community of practice. It examined the social effects of the online mailing list technology on their participation and factors that influenced their collaboration with other colleagues. In mapping these elements, the motivations of educators and the effects on online communities of practice can be distilled and then used to build and sustain other architectures of participation. It was found that mailing list subscribers seem to trade a currency of support, thoughts, ideas and answers, which helped them in their day-to-day teaching. Online communities of practice provide a convenient way to keep up professional networks while continuing to stay abreast with subject specific knowledge and skills. The findings of this case study may be generalised to other educational mailing lists to guide designers and managers and inspire educators to join and ultimately benefit from these text based online environments.

They talk the talk, but do they walk the walk? sustainability acceptance is low in German and New Zealand firms

Through the International Sustainability Acceptance Measurement (ISAM), we intend to better understand the level of acceptance of sustainability as a practical management tool in business around the world (www.worldreply.com). It was observed by others that sustainability concepts often stay on a rather general level where it is hard to identify specific indicators and the potential for future development.i In an effort to contrast the level of sustainability in the ISAM countries, the participating universities analyze their respective country data and then co-operate to benchmark and compare this information around the globe. This makes the ISAM work one of the few world-spanning efforts to look at the practical implementation of sustainability.

The sustainability of Fiji's budget deficit : an econometric analysis

The sustainability of Fiji's budget deficit is examined here within the framework of inter-temporal budget constraint theory, where government revenue is modelled as a function of government expenditure. An error-correction mechanism test for cointegration finds that government revenue and expenditure are cointegrated, which provides some support for the position that Fiji's budget deficit is sustainable in the long run. It is argued that more government expenditure on capital investment will ensure a broader revenue base and reduce the risk of a budget deficit explosion.

Using building adaptation to deliver sustainability in Australia

Purpose – This paper seeks to establish the rationale for existing office building adaptation within Melbourne, Australia, as the city strives to become carbon neutral by 2020. The problems faced by policy makers to determine which buildings have the optimum adaptation potential are to be identified and discussed.

Design/methodology/approach – This research adopts the approach of creating a database of all the buildings in the Melbourne CBD including details of physical, social, economic and technological attributes. This approach will determine whether relationships exist between attributes and the frequency of building adaptation or whether triggers to adaptation can be determined.

Findings – This research provided evidence that a much faster rate of office building adaptation is necessary to meet the targets already set for carbon neutrality. The findings demonstrate that a retrospective comprehensive examination of previous adaptation in the CBD is a unique and original approach to determining the building characteristics associated with adaptation and whether triggers can be identified based on previous practices. The implication is that a decision-making tool should be developed to allow policy makers to target sectors of the office building stock to deliver carbon neutrality within the 2020 timeframe.

Practical implications – Drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are required to mitigate global warming and climate change and all stakeholders should be looking at ways of reducing emissions from existing stock.

Originality/value – This paper adds to the existing body of knowledge by raising awareness of the way in which the adaptation of large amounts of existing stock can be fast tracked to mitigate the impact of climate change and warming associated with the built environment, and in addition it establishes a framework for a decision-making tool for policy makers.