A HUMAN

THING PUBLIC #5SUSTAINABILITY

VOLUME 01 EDITED BY MARK KELLY

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“ It is estimated that today’s population of approximately 6.5 billion will increase to about 9 billion by 2050, of whom some 8 billion will live in developing countries. This of course presents enormous challenges in terms of meeting their needs in a sustainable way.”

Beatrice Otto, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Contents

02 Global issue. Personal impact.

Mark Kelly

08 Sense and sustainability

Ivan Ross and Nina James

16 Sustainability: Strategy or spin

Jason Gerrard

24 City Central: A sustainable

high performance workplace

Megan Antcliff and Sean Coward

40 A holistic approach to

sustainable development:

The UK regeneration experience

Dan Bulmer

54 Sustainability: Who cares?

A property industry survey

Earle Arney, Chris Mobbs,

Sean Coward and Nicola Brew

66 The future of sustainability

Earle Arney and Chris Mobbs

80 Red to green

Jason Marriott

94 The colour of money:

The business case for

sustainable design

Earle Arney and Chris Mobbs

114 Attitude to action

Susan Stewart

126 S.E.E. Breeze:

The impact of indoor

air quality on education

Sean Coward

138 Harmonious with nature:

The Chinese approach to

building energy reduction

Jiang Yi

148 Vertical Farming

Hsuhan Chiang, Rob Deutscher

and Ian Hau

158 Wanchai 2010:

Towards sustainable

urban transformation

James Acuna

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It is now well accepted that for the first time in human

history more than half of the world’s population lives

in cities. As the globe experiences rapid climate change

and issues of energy and resource conservation are

paramount, the design industry faces an urgent

challenge on how better buildings and cities can

significantly reduce our impact on the environment.

“For decades environmentalists have been warning

that human economic activity is exceeding the

planet’s limits. Of course we keep pushing those

limits back with clever new technologies; yet living

systems are undeniably in decline” (Hawken, Lovins

& Lovins, 2000).

These trends need not be in conflict—in fact there

is opportunity in reconciling them.

The idea has formed amongst academics and

business visionaries that the next Industrial

Revolution has arrived—where natural capital (natural

resources and ecosystem services) will drive future

business opportunity, simultaneously satisfying

customer needs, increasing profits and resolving

environmental issues.

Sustainability as a buzzword of the twenty-first

century has already gained maturity, yet undoubtedly

is still a broad umbrella term with a variety of

definitions. To many, the term simply refers to the

protection of the environment and reduction of

energy consumption, yet to really address the

issue a holistic approach is required incorporating

economic, social and environmental factors.

An approach centred on only one element will

likely counteract any benefits gained by energy

reduction gains.

The trend of a triple bottom line for measuring

organisational and societal success seeks to expand

the conventional financial focus of the ‘bottom line’ to

capture an expanded spectrum of values and criteria,

considering ultimately human wellbeing and optimum

performance (Otto, 2006).

By entering the debate, Woods Bagot acknowledges

that a problem of this magnitude has no single

solution: policy, technology and behavioural change

all have important roles to play in an arena that

traverses the global crisis, impacting cities, industries,

products and ultimately us as human beings.

Public #5: A human thing is one of the ways in which

Woods Bagot is creating knowledge, sharing

information and promoting discussion on this critical

issue. Our objective is to bring sustainability to

the forefront of our practice, rather than it acting as

a selective add-on.

Global issue. Personal impact.Mark Kelly Director of Sustainability

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Industry

Ultimately the purpose of sustainable design is to

enhance people’s lives and make their day-to-day

existence better. This brings us closer to becoming

united in the pursuit to affect serious environmental

change. Architecture has always aimed to produce

buildings and cities that uplift people’s spirits but the

dual focus is now tangible benefits of environmental

consciousness. Historically it has been someone

else’s problem or left up to the next generation

to resolve.

However, the tide is changing and our industry survey

(p. 54) serves as an encouraging witness to this. The

research explores where the industry currently

stands: how they feel about sustainability, what

actions they are taking now and what they might

be prepared to do in the future. For economies as

a whole, energy efficiency and reduction appear

to be the priority.

Globe

Environmental problems and economic development

are closely connected. Since the Industrial Revolution

and our concomitant massive and growing consumption

of mineral and energy resources, human activities

have sometimes exceeded the limit of the local

ecosystems and are now threatening to overwhelm

even the global ecosystem.

Economic development can be interpreted by

utilising the concept of ‘stage of development’, with

the development of one country sometimes taking

an almost identical route as the earlier development

of another country. If the developing countries of

today are to avoid the severe pollution problems

as witnessed in Japan, they may need to consider

the introduction of appropriate technologies and

environmental protection measures, even though that

may mean a slight delay in economic development.

Jason Marriott in ‘Red to green’ (p. 80) explores the

current status quo in China and how the emerging

super power is planning to balance economic

prosperity with environmental regard for the planet.

The consumption of non-renewable mineral and

fossil-fuel energy resources has been indispensable

for economic development, but today we see

the eventual depletion of those resources as a real

possibility. The advanced countries, which are

consuming several times more resources per capita

than the world average, must acknowledge their

responsibility and clarify their intentions to convert

their economic systems to minimise resource

and energy consumption. In fact, history provides

several lessons for how we need to consider future

developments, not only from an ecological

perspective. The UK urban regeneration story (p. 40)

can teach us about the way architecture and

urban design can influence social and economic

sustainability by reflecting on the elements that

influence a city’s success or failure.

Product

Both corporate and personal action to reduce energy

consumption can not only lead to carbon emission

reductions, it can also mean substantial cost savings

for companies and better living for individuals. The

preferred model for designing buildings should involve

research-intensive design processes, which integrate

sustainability within the overall building program

rather than tacking on green features to score points

or advertise environmentalism. Woods Bagot’s

consulting and research teams track the performance

of key buildings to obtain valuable data to plug back

into design methodology, research and development.

By monitoring the building’s performance and

following its operation, we pinpoint the habits of users

and how the features of a building can have dramatic

effects on staff performance and motivation. A case

study of the post-occupancy evaluation undertaken

on City Central (p. 24), a 5 Star Green Star

development in Australia, illustrates this approach.

The Task Force on Environmental Sustainability is

one of ten UN Millennium Project Task Forces that

together comprise some 265 experts from around the

world, including members of parliament; researchers

and scientists; policymakers; representatives of civil

society; United Nations agencies; the World Bank;

the International Monetary Fund; and the private

sector. The UN Millennium Project Task Force teams

were challenged with diagnosing the key constraints

to meeting the Millennium Development Goals and

providing recommendations in order to achieve these

goals by 2015.

Design professionals have become involved through

‘Global Studio’ which began as an initiative of the UN

Millennium Project’s Task Force to ‘Improve the lives

of slum dwellers’, and has been developed by the

University of Sydney, Columbia University and the

University of Rome.

Person

As well as minimising environmental impact, sustainable

design also involves optimising performance and

wellbeing, and the triple bottom line seeks to expand

the conventional economic or financial focus of

the ‘bottom line’ to include social and environmental

calculations.

The past few decades have represented a period

of accelerated economic and financial globalisation,

with direct implications and impacts for many of the

poorest and most vulnerable.

Over the last few decades the amount of water

available to individuals has fallen dramatically; water

pollution now kills 2.2 million annually; more than

seventy-five per cent of the world’s fish stocks are

over-fished and rising sea levels brought on by global

warming could displace tens of millions. All of these

crises have their greatest impact on the impoverished

people of developing countries and are among

the many environmental problems that collectively

present a significant barrier to reducing poverty.

One of the founding convenors of Global Studio

is the University of Sydney’s Dr Anna Rubbo, along

with a network of academics from associated

universities across the world. The work of the Global

Studio looks at ways in which design professionals

and a community-based action and research agenda

might be part of the solution. We are at a historic

tipping point and according to the United Nations it’s

likely that the one billion living in slums today could

double by 2020. Global Studio hopes to contribute to

improving people’s lives, and through a ‘globalisation

from below’ approach places people at the centre

of environmental and planning decisions that affect

their lives. Shelter, house and home are central to

aspirations for a more sustainable and equitable

environment.

This year Woods Bagot’s Urban Design Scholarship

was awarded to Mark Tyrrell for his Masters work

on disadvantaged communities in South Africa. His

research is one of the projects of Global Studio and

this year the team returns to Johannesburg to follow

up a number of development projects. Woods Bagot

has invested in relationships with many academic

institutions in our four regions. Supporting continuing

education and the young talent of our industry is an

integral part of our Public Scholarship program and

was a part of our re-positioning in 2006.

At this time we also recognised that sustainability

needed to be a core part of our business. We needed

to get our own house in order before we could

apply sustainability philosophies to our work. This

meant reviewing and reducing the business’ carbon

emissions and creating environmental project reviews

among many other initiatives. And we continue to support our beliefs by establishing an official Public Foundation of corporate responsibility.

Corporate values aside, sustainability starts at the personal level. It starts with the decisions you make, how you use resources, backed up with a sense that you can create a building or a piece of architecture or an architectural community that can be truly sustainable.

Woods Bagot asks staff:

WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITYTO YOU?It is impossible for a person on this planet to not

consume resources or generate waste—so being

able to optimise our impact on the environment is the

best we can aim for. Part of it is changing our lifestyle

to be less wasteful, part of it is making the things we

use more sustainable. Exterior paints impregnated

with photovoltaic crystals or compounds? Gyms that

harness the energy produced? Biodegradable plastic

that can be used for fertiliser? The sooner we can

leave fossil fuels behind, the better.

Kevin Pollard

London

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Several years ago at Woods Bagot we recognised

that environmental sustainability needed to be a core

part of our design approach. This changed the way

we responded to briefs, the way we selected staff,

and the kinds of projects we aggressively pursued.

In 2008, Woods Bagot can now be confident that

our profile has changed and that we are known

for our sustainable design capability and services.

The buildings we design will be around for decades

and can have an enduring impact on our climate.

Initially our sustainability focus was 100% on the

work, but we soon realised that to be consistent

and credible to both our clients and staff we needed

to get our own house in order and reduce our direct

impact on the environment. This article outlines our

journey to date in reducing the environmental impact

of our organisation and operations and our plans

for the future. We hope this may be a useful study

to inform other organisations in their journeys

down this path.

Like many organisations, we struggled initially

with how to tackle this practically and effectively.

Then our staff showed us the way.

The Green Team

In 2005, a small number of Woods Bagot staff began

to feel frustrated that the company was not taking the

issue of climate change seriously enough nor getting

behind the solution for global warming. Small pools

of activity began to muster an interest within the staff

teams, to instigate change in the way Woods Bagot

behaved as an international player. We wanted to

get involved, make a contribution, and feel that at the

end of our working week we were having a positive

impact on the environment.

This group of passionate but frustrated employees

formed what is today commonly known within the

company as the Green Team. It was relatively easy

to build momentum; there were plenty of quick

wins in terms of simple things that could be done

to reduce the environmental footprint of each of our

studios—an objective identified early by the group.

Common sense steps

Out of this challenge, a number of simple but

effective changes were driven through all our global

studios. These included switching to green power,

implementing recycling programs, minimising

printing and ensuring lights and electronic equipment,

including PCs, were switched off at night. Points

were also awarded for items such as the number

of staff obtaining Green Star, BREEAM or LEED

accreditation, delivering local seminars on

sustainability and undertaking related research.

Woods Bagot is an international firm, which prides

itself on the modus operandi of ‘One Studio Global’,

whereby we promote and encourage cross pollination

of ideas between national and international studios.

The Green Team has been an excellent illustration of

how this works on the ground. As staff move between

studios for projects, word passes around about green

initiatives occurring in other studios.

This simple competition had an immediate effect

on the studios. It also allowed us to map the change

quite distinctly. By way of annual comparison of

results, we saw which studios were taking it seriously

and which had fallen behind.

Making a commitment: Going carbon neutral

The Green Teams were intuitive enough to

recognise that they were taking most initiative with

sustainability and that, while they were supportive,

senior management’s contribution had been relatively

minimal. We needed to clearly demonstrate, by actions

not just words, that the board was committed to the

sustainability journey.

The Green Team had already begun an investigation

of how we might offset the environmental impact

that we could not yet eliminate. In mid-October

2006 our Director of Sustainability, Mark Kelly, and

Ivan Ross, Chief Operating Officer, engaged with the

Green Team to determine exactly what was involved

in acquiring carbon credits. Together with a few key

Green Team members, we investigated schemes in

Australia and the UK. We were genuinely surprised

by how little it cost to purchase the offsets, although

we discovered that the UK schemes cost roughly

‘£ for $’, i.e. around 2.5 times more than the Australian

scheme for the same amount of offset (We would

expect that as the markets for trading offsets become

more efficient, these differentials will reduce).

After analysing the costs and benefits, we selected

the Australian scheme. Because Australia was not a

signatory to Kyoto at the time, there were no Kyoto

compliant Gold Standard schemes in Australia to

invest in. As a result our provider, Climate Friendly,

selected a Gold Standard scheme in New Zealand.

The New Zealand location was not entirely ideal as

some of our employees in the Northern Hemisphere

and even in Australia would have preferred the

investment to occur closer to home.

We worked through the numbers with Climate

Friendly and presented to the board which was

unanimous in its support. Within one week, the

contracts had been signed, the carbon credits had

been purchased and we were 100% carbon neutral.

The intangible benefits

As outlined by Spilker and Sheahan in Public #3:

WorkLife (2007), one of the key drivers for Generation

Y is to make a contribution. By engaging with the

efforts of our Green Team in a sincere and committed

way, through supporting their sustainability initiatives

and building on them through the purchase of carbon

credits, we believe this has generated significant

benefits in relation to hiring, retaining and motivating

quality staff.

We were fortunate that the passion of our staff

bubbled to the surface in a very transparent way,

making it easier for our leadership to engage with

them. If this is not transparent in your business then

we would encourage you to stir the pot a little—

create the forums for your staff to engage.

DIY vs consultant support

Going carbon neutral was just the first step, and while

we have neutralised our impact on carbon emissions,

the key is continual reduction of our environmental

footprint. A key question that has to be considered

is whether to acquire credits directly or operate

through a provider. There are a number of trade-

offs in choosing between these two options:

/ Skills – Unless you have the skills in-house, it is far

simpler to use an external provider as they can do

much of the legwork for you. We were fortunate in

that we had collected most of the data we needed

through the studio sustainability challenge, but

it was helpful to have the independent external

input and validation of our process and data.

/ Speed – It took us less than two months to

progress from initial investigations to becoming

climate neutral.

/ Costs – We were hoping to quickly extend the

scheme to our staff to allow them to become

carbon neutral. However, using a consultant can

mean that only 60% of the payment actually goes

towards credits. While for the business this was

a choice between internal time and cost versus

external cost, for an individual it is a more significant

issue. As a result we are investigating the option

to aggregate and trade credits directly as a more

appealing mechanism for staff.

/ Choice – A further issue with using a provider is that

you are limited to the investment schemes that they

offer (although we would note that most consultants

are now offering several investment options to

address this issue).

Either way, we felt strongly that we needed to

better understand our current status in order to

reduce emissions. We needed to identify where

our weaknesses were and where the majority of

our carbon emissions are coming from. A team has

diligently gathered all the data from each office and

has begun the rigorous process of analysis.

The Green Team instigated a great idea to drive these

quick wins, as an inter-studio ‘sustainability challenge’.

A simple sustainability scorecard was developed and

the studio that improved the most over a defined

period was awarded a prize. The objective was to

instigate a cultural change within Woods Bagot, to

inspire our teams, to arm them with the knowledge

and confidence to be bold in their approach to

sustainable design.

The response from the wider staff base was

overwhelming and illustrated two key two points.

Firstly, that the staff already knew a lot about reducing

their ecological footprint, and secondly, that there

was already overwhelming support behind the cause.

Interestingly, the majority of responses came from

younger members of staff indicating the generational

differences in the views on this issue.

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Big picture

We have encouraged each other to get our own

house in order, re-using, reducing and recycling

to minimise our ecological footprint. However, with

these tasks being addressed, we have looked for

more significant objectives and road maps to really

focus on how Woods Bagot can contribute globally

to sustainable development and climate change.

Together we have developed big picture objectives:

/ Targeting staff individually—to encourage

them to live their lives in a more environmentally

friendly manner

/ Changing the way we deliver our product, processes

and methodology in creating working and living

environments

/ Bringing sustainability to the forefront by making

it a core focus of our practice and ensuring that

sustainability is no longer a selective addition,

but is an integral part of our product

Below/right: Woods Bagot engages in a range of

sustainability initiatives including: a. Volunteering

at National Tree Day, Australia; b. Recycling, cycling

to work, Environmental Project Review Checklists

Collaboration and knowledge-sharing tools

With thirteen studios spread across four continents,

operating as One Global Studio can present a

significant conflict with our sustainability objectives.

While we have neutralised the impact of our flights

around the globe, we recognise that we must take

key steps to reduce this impact.

We are driving key initiatives, which will allow our

project teams to collaborate virtually across the

globe. In order to do this, we are beginning by

completely rebuilding our entire global IT network

infrastructure so it can support the level of data

flow this collaboration will require. The key issue is

for us to be able to interact with design images and

documentation. We are currently trialling interactive

whiteboards that allow individuals in different studios

to interact with the same image in real time. We

are also planning to investigate other tools such as

graphic tablets and online virtual collaboration spaces

similar to SecondLife1. Video conferencing is being

investigated for its capability in allowing us to interact

with images.

The primary goal of these initiatives is to allow

knowledge, research and experience to be exchanged.

Finally, our intranet is being restructured to allow

knowledge to be easily codified collected and shared

in our system, easing access around the globe. This

includes the emerging Web 2.0 formats of forums,

blogs, wikis, podcasts and sophisticated databases.

Project application

Green Teams have analysed design development

processes and methodology and concluded that

there was a lack of accountability when it came

to ensuring environmental initiatives were being

delivered consistently across all projects. Our

challenge is to install a new mindset in every

project team whereby sustainability is a constant

focus and not an addition. In response to this we

have added sustainability processes to our existing

quality assurance program. We developed checklists

of relevant questions and references to local

standards to be included in peer design reviews

at significant project phases.

These Environmental Project Reviews are uploaded

to our intranet and tested on projects in other

studios. These reviews are a fantastic way of keeping

the whole project team involved in the process,

and more importantly, to make sure the right

questions are being asked at the right juncture of

project development. The simple checklist means

that it is immediately evident when basic

environmental initiatives are not being explored.

It is the responsibility of the project directors and

leaders to ensure these checklists are incorporated

and used effectively. In that way, it is a simple,

measurable tool to assign responsibility and

accountability.

The green standard

To take this review and QA process to another level,

we are in the process of further enhancing our QA

systems to achieve accreditation under the ‘green

standard’. Our practice is quality accredited under the

ISO 9001 standard. We are currently integrating the

requirements of the ISO 14000 Environmental Quality

Standard into our practice management processes

to ensure a sustainability focus is embedded in all our

processes and we are systematically reducing all the

environmental impacts within our control.

Accreditation

Woods Bagot has committed to the global accreditation

of all staff where possible. All studio staff are enrolled

in the local program (GBCA, BREEAM, LEED) and

then encouraged to sit and pass an exam successfully.

On a studio-by-studio basis, mass training days are

convened to ensure all staff receive the minimum

training for accreditation. There is now a common

language between project teams, when discussing

sustainable design solutions and responding to

local sustainability rating objectives. Furthermore,

to demonstrate senior leadership’s commitment

to this issue, the board has committed that every

Woods Bagot director must be accredited under

their relevant local program by the end of this year.

Magic time

As a professional services firm, all our staff and

principals have to be conscious of how they charge

their time. Internal sustainability activities are not

billable work and as a result these are often done

in ‘magic time’ i.e. time outside normal working

hours, in the evenings and weekends. There is an

ongoing risk that after this initial burst, that these

activities will diminish under pressure from client

projects and busy lives. It also does not support our

corporate responsibility of providing a sustainable

work-life balance.

Fortunately, we have a mechanism to support

much of our critical sustainability activity through

our research fund, Public. Any member of staff can

submit an idea for research to the Public Editorial

Committee who review these ideas and approve

those that meet the criteria. Every research idea

is required to provide an outline of the expected

benefits and deliverables to our company, our clients,

the industry, and/or the wider community. Research

in the area of sustainability is something we have

strongly encouraged and the output of some of

those projects is in this publication.

Green is good, but how to be great

In summary, we have learnt a number of things

along our sustainability journey so far:

1 Tap into the passion in your staff. They will be

a great source of ideas and energy in reducing

your environmental impact.

2 If you do that, it is critical that you demonstrate

leadership support for the environment.

Demonstrate your commitment through actions,

not just words, supporting staff initiatives and

placing resources and money behind the change.

Don’t do it if the commitment is not sincere, your

staff will see through it and you will do more

damage than good.

3 Furthermore, these days with most businesses

struggling to find and retain good staff, engaging

with your employees in an effort like this is a great

way to increase their motivation and commitment

to the firm.

4 Reducing your own environmental footprint should

be the first step to an ongoing effort of continuous

improvement. We have found that creating a

competitive element internally has helped to

intensify this effort.

5 If you are a predominantly white-collar business

then you may find that going carbon neutral is

a lot less expensive than you expect.

6 If you take the step to partially or fully offset your

remaining environmental impact, you will need to

work through the trade-offs between whether to

drive it internally or use external consultants to

validate your numbers and acquire the credits.

7 Our next endeavour is to insist on environmentally

sustainable design accountability and responsibility

across the business. To achieve this, we are

installing a formal review structure, starting with

directors and filtering down to project professionals

in each studio. Environmental project leaders will

be appointed in each studio to sit in on standard

project reviews and ensure the delivery of the

Environmental Project Reviews developed in 2007.

We aim to have measurable targets included in

all annual staff reviews, so that all staff will be

held accountable for pursuing environmentally

sustainable design. If we are able to achieve this,

the Green Team will no longer need to exist in their

original form as sustainability will be embedded

across the entire organisation.

In our experience going green doesn’t have to

be too complex. There are a number of simple,

common sense steps that can be taken. The costs

are not substantial and the benefits in relation to

talent acquisition, retention and motivation of

staff are significant.

It simply makes good sense.

a.

b.

a.

b.

Below: Woods Bagot sustainability initiatives:

a. Moreland School Voluntary Day, UK; b. Clean

up UAE Day, Dubai

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Humans need to cease seeing the earth as the ‘other’ and celebrate that we are all interconnected.

Louise O’BrienHong Kong

11144

Why would we not balance our time with a sense that this place will be here a long time after we have gone? It is not ours to use and destroy; we are merely preparing it for the next generations and to gain lasting respect we must leave it in a better state than when we took control. We need to collectively understand the objective and work together to create a lasting difference.

Mark KellyMelbourne

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Sustainability:Strategy or spinJason Gerrard

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Critics of sustainability argue that it is an ill-defined

concept that is not useful to business. “Ignore it” they

say, “it will pass”. This seems a spurious argument.

Robust technical definitions of sustainability do exist,

and generally revolve around profitably improving

environmental and social outcomes.

Nor does the lack of a universal definition necessarily

reduce a concept’s importance. In fact, fundamental

societal issues such as equity and justice are often

hard to define. What is equitable? What is just? The

answer is obvious; concepts such as equity and

justice are only meaningful when they are applied

to specific situations. Sustainability is no different.

Definitions aside, most people tend to know when

what they are doing isn’t sustainable.

So what are the business benefits?

There is now a lot of evidence that organisations that

embrace sustainability do as well as, or better, than the

rest of the market (e.g. the Dow Jones Sustainability

World Index has outperformed the market over the

past five years). And why wouldn’t they? Let’s not

forget that businesses exist to meet the needs of

society. These needs change, but include food, health

and shelter as well as additional needs satisfied

through employment, such as fulfilment, social

interaction and meaning. Sustainable companies

will meet these societal needs more effectively.

Will sustainability just be a fad? How important is it to industry? And what should businesses be doing about it? Sustainability is the new business buzzword, but companies need to do more than pay lip service to it.

Sustainability is essential to any organisation’s

long-term prosperity. Here are a few of the benefits:

greater resource productivity, brand value, reduced

risk profile and lower waste management costs. There

are also human resource benefits such as improved

staff retention and easier recruitment. More and

more, employees are requiring that the values of

the organisations in which they work align with their

own values. A regular pay cheque just isn’t enough.

Just ask Gen Y.

Organisations that don’t heed the call should be

prepared to face increasing regulatory pressure,

decreased societal support, poor staff engagement

and difficulty in branding their products as premium

goods. Token efforts will not pay off. If sustainability

initiatives are implemented poorly or are viewed as an

add-on or branding exercise, they can, and probably

will, hurt your business; resulting in increased costs

and few rewards.

Sustainability is about opportunity not just risk

mitigation and cost reduction. New legislation in

Australia and overseas (such as carbon trading,

pollution taxes and extended responsibility

legislation) and new technologies (e.g. renewable

energy, biodegradable plastics) are altering markets.

Consumers are increasingly searching for sustainable

products and services and are willing to pay extra

for them.

CEOs need to think big! Don’t just focus on the

small quick-wins. Truly sustainable solutions must

be systemic. Sustainability is fundamentally about

what goods and services a company produces and

how it does so.

A company needs to assess opportunities across its

value chain. Sustainable solutions require products

to be designed differently, produced differently,

delivered differently and collected so that they

can be re-used, remanufactured or recycled.

Organistations like packaging company Visy have

reaped huge rewards from capturing opportunities

such as recycling.

The key is to take sustainability seriously. This

means having a vision of the future and ensuring

that initiatives are driven by a coherent sustainability

strategy that is aligned with the corporate strategy.

The board, the CEO, staff and customers must buy-

in to the organisation’s values, goals and plans.

Companies are becoming increasingly aware that

sustainability can be a defensible competitive

advantage. Proprietary sustainability solutions

supported by science, rigorous analysis, ongoing

learning, knowledge management, excellent execution

and focus can keep a company ahead of the pack.

Don’t do it because it’s trendy. Do it because

you believe it and because it’s good business.

Organisations that embrace sustainability as the

way forward will be the great companies of the

not-too-distant future.

those who doprosperity

opportunitylower waste cost

reduced riskbrand value

those who don’tregulatory pressure

poor staff engagementdecreased societal support

increased costfew rewards

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Don’t do it because it’s trendy. Do it

because you believe it and because it’s

good business.

The world doesn’t need us. It has been through the Ice Age, meteor showers and other extreme elements. It is ourselves who we need to save.

Abdullah KhanAbu Dhabi

Sustainability is the only way forward.

Rosina Di MariaLondon

24 25

Megan Antcliff Sean Coward

City Central:A sustainablehigh performanceworkplace

26 27

The role of post-occupancy evaluation

For most designers their involvement with a building

ends with the opening festivities, yet in many ways

this is just the beginning. With the building constructed

and the doors open for business, the sustainability

performance of the facility depends on two very

influential elements: occupant behaviour and building

operations. Mendler and Odell (2000) cite research

showing that the average tenant can reduce energy

costs by twenty per cent simply by operating the

building as intended by the designers (keeping in mind

that energy use is only one part of the sustainability

equation). Indeed, designers are aware of the need

to support occupants in understanding how their

building works. Building user guides are a start,

but it is also important that occupants understand

why sustainability is a key objective, how the design

solution meets this objective, and how new

technologies have been used to support the

design vision.

Ideally, this communication should be a two-way

street, with occupants given the opportunity to provide

feedback concerning the building. Post-occupancy

evaluation is a key element of this dialogue and a

valuable learning tool, both for building managers

seeking to ensure the successful realisation of design

and sustainability objectives, and for the design team

in understanding the needs and responses of occupants

(as well as determining their team’s capacity for future

projects). Furthermore, post-occupancy evaluation

is useful for client groups looking to review and

validate strategic decisions about their workplace, as

well as for building owners seeking to manage their

portfolios and procure future office accommodation.

As part of the post-occupancy evaluation of Tower

1, Woods Bagot employed a proprietary assessment

tool, the Workplace Evaluation Survey, and extended

it to capture information directly relevant to the

sustainability initiatives of City Central.

Are green offices good for business?

The City Central development in South Australia

is one of Woods Bagot’s most recent achievements

in the field of sustainable built environments1. The

16 800 m2 site contains two towers and a plaza area

combining new buildings with refurbished heritage

works. Tower 1 houses predominantly commercial

office space and was completed in 2007, with Tower

2 scheduled for completion in 2008. The broader site

masterplan includes a five star hotel and multi-storey

apartment complex.

From the outset of the design process Woods Bagot

was guided by the Australian Green Star rating tool in

setting sustainability targets. The Green Star building

accreditation system assesses the environmental

impact of building design, construction, commissioning

and management by awarding credits across the

categories of management, indoor environment

quality, energy, transport, water, materials, land use

and ecology, emissions, and innovation. Following

the lengthy and rigorous accreditation process, the

Green Building Council of Australia has awarded Tower

1 a 5 Star Green Star rating (indicating Australian

excellence), with plans for the remainder of the City

Central development to maintain this standard.

While the environmental performance of their

workplace is becoming increasingly important to

tenants, what most of our clients want to know is

whether green buildings provide a positive working

environment. It is therefore crucial to understand the

effects of any sustainability initiatives on occupant

job performance and general wellbeing during

the operational stage via the process of post-

occupancy evaluation.

The present study involved three analyses. First, a

current City Central tenant completed an online survey

designed to measure the extent to which various

workplace features impact on job performance, with

their scores then compared to a baseline derived

from a database of previous results. Second, a

different organisation completed the same measure

both before and after their move into City Central,

allowing us to track the performance of a single

company. Finally, an additional set of questions

completed by both tenants sought to reveal

employees’ attitudes and knowledge regarding the

sustainable design features of Tower 1. By examining

how the sustainability initiatives integral to the design

of a 5 Star Green Star building are impacting the

tenants of Tower 1, we seek to, in effect, ‘close the

loop’ on the City Central sustainability story.

Performance is a function of two independent individual attributes: ability and motivation.

City Central Tower 1, Adelaide, Australia

28 29

An employee needs to both possess the skills required to complete a task and be motivated to execute these skills effectively.The Workplace Evaluation Survey

A wide variety of methods have been employed

in an attempt to gauge the impact of the physical

environment on work output. An accurate indicator

of workplace effectiveness offers managers a means

of evaluating the suitability of their office for

supporting profitable business practices. In perhaps

the most cited formula in organisational psychology,

Vroom (1964) claimed that performance is a function

of two independent individual attributes: ability

and motivation. In contrast to the traditional view

that performance is primarily determined by ability

(e.g. Dunnette, 1973, cited in Mitchell, 1982), Vroom’s

formula reflects the influence attributed to work

motivation in more recent accounts (see special

issues of the Harvard Business Review, 2003, Vol.

81, Iss. 1, and the Academy of Management Review,

2004, Vol. 29, No. 3; both of which are dedicated

to the discussion of work motivation). In short, an

employee needs to both possess the skills required

to complete a task and be motivated to execute

these skills effectively, and the environment is

capable of influencing both of these attributes.

City Central tenant breakout space: Department of Further

Education, Employment, Science and Technology and

Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure

Using this theoretical position as a methodological

foundation, Woods Bagot’s Workplace Evaluation

Survey (WES) assesses a wide range of workplace

features in terms of how they impact on employees’

ability and motivation to perform their work. These

complementary indices of performance are rated by

the employee using two seven-point Likert scales,

ranging from -3 (indicating an extremely negative

impact) to +3 (indicating an extremely positive

impact). Additional questions or topics can be

included for investigation, thus tailoring the survey

to the specific needs of the client. The results of the

survey provide a diagnostic assessment of the impact

that an organisation’s current workplace has on staff

performance, and can be contrasted with pre-move

results from the same organisation or with baseline

values extracted from a database of previous studies.

This information enables the consultant to identify

features of the current workplace that facilitate work

performance, as well as those that are inhibiting the

effectiveness of staff.

30 31

The overall average ability (1.24) and motivation

(1.14) scores for Company A were both larger than

the baseline averages (0.36 and 0.31 respectively),

and both of these comparisons returned medium

effects. This finding can be interpreted to mean that

Tower 1 facilitates staff performance more than non-

Green Star rated facilities, and that this advantage

is moderate in magnitude. Rather than breaking

down these overall scores in order to analyse every

component item, only those workplace features

relevant to Green Star rating criteria will be analysed

in this paper. The WES items of relevance, and their

corresponding Green Star Credit categories, are

as follows:

/ Acoustic access to others (as related to

communication distraction/privacy). This item

relates to the Green Star credit IEQ-12 (Internal

noise levels).

/ Access to an outside view. This item relates to

the Green Star credit IEQ-8 (External views).

Aim

In a situation which serves to demonstrate how

the WES is typically employed in terms of a single

measurement, a corporate tenant of Tower 1 was

approached to participate in the study. This tenant

completed the WES five months after moving in,

with the results compared against average scores

taken from a database of non-Green Star rated

offices. Thus, Analysis 1 tested whether a 5 Star

Green Star rated office building exerts a more

positive influence on work performance than

do non-accredited facilities.

Method

The analysis involved a simple contrast of scores

from Company A with baselines extracted from the

WES database. The survey was made available to

thirty-two employees of Company A in October, 2007,

with sixteen respondents completing the survey

(50% response rate). Baseline scores were provided

by averaging the results of 1048 previous WES

respondents (all of whom were occupants of non-

Green Star rated buildings).

Analysis 1: Comparing City Central with the average workplace

Results

All analyses in the present study involved the

calculation of effect size (Cohen’s d)—for both the

ability and motivation scales comprising each item—

by contrasting average scores from each sample. In

short, this statistic provides a measure for deciding

whether the observed difference is large enough to

be considered meaningful (a large difference between

average scores, combined with a high degree of

agreement between respondents, will return a

large d value). Cohen (1988) provides the following

conventions as a guide to interpreting this statistic:

/ d ≥ ±0.2 = small effect

/ d ≥ ±0.5 = medium effect

/ d ≥ ±0.8 = large effect

Ability (baseline)

Motivation (baseline)

Ability (Company A)

Motivation (Company A)

* small effect

** medium effect

*** large effect

Figure 1.

Average ability and motivation

ratings concerning the impact

of Green Star relevant variables

on work performance. Whiskers

signify the probable error present

in these scores, and effect sizes

are indicated according

to Cohen’s criteria

-1

0

1

2

-3

3

-2

Impact on p

erf

orm

ance

****

****

******

***

*** ******

******

******

Outd

oor

vie

ws

Tem

pera

ture

Air q

ualit

y

Daylig

ht

Art

ific

ial lig

ht

Exte

rnal nois

e

Contr

ols

Off

ice n

ois

e

/ Indoor temperature. This item relates to the Green

Star credit IEQ-9 (Thermal comfort).

/ Indoor air quality (e.g. movement, freshness).

This item relates to the Green Star credits IEQ-1

(Ventilation rates), IEQ-2 (Air change effective-

ness), IEQ-11 (Asbestos), IEQ-13 (Volatile organic

compounds), IEQ-14 (Formaldehyde minimisation),

and IEQ-15 (Mould prevention).

/ Daylight. This item relates to the Green Star credits

IEQ-4 (Daylight) and IEQ-5 (Daylight glare control).

/ Artificial lighting. This item relates to the Green Star

credits IEQ-6 (High frequency ballasts) and IEQ-7

(Electric lighting levels).

/ Noise from external sources. This item relates to

the Green Star credit IEQ-12 (Internal noise levels).

/ Environmental controls (e.g. blinds, doors, windows,

etc.). This item relates to the Green Star credits

IEQ-3 (Carbon dioxide monitoring and control),

IEQ-10 (Individual comfort control), and IEQ-16

(Tenant exhaust riser).

As can be seen, the WES items selected relate

exclusively to IEQ (indoor environmental quality)

credits, and it is hereby assumed that this Green Star

category is primarily responsible for any variance in

work performance. Figure 1 shows average ratings

for each of these items,2 along with an indication

of the effect size for differences between Company

A and baseline.

Figure 1 shows that the workplace in Tower 1 offers

significant improvements over baseline in the majority

of features linked to environmental sustainability, and

that these features serve to both assist employees’

ability and enhance their motivation to perform their

work. Interestingly, while outdoor views was one of

the best performing categories, Woods Bagot did not

submit for any points within the corresponding Green

Star credit category. Only environmental controls failed

to score differently from baseline (once again, the

designers did not submit for either of the points on

offer within the relevant Green Star category).

32 33

Analysis 2: Before and after: One company’s relocation to City Central

Sustainableoperations

Energycosts

Aim

Analysis 2 demonstrates how the WES is used to

contrast pre- and post-relocation data from a single

company. This method offers more reliable findings

than those obtained using the previous method as

the company under review provides its own baseline

prior to the move, thus eliminating a range of

confounding variables. Analysis 2 tests whether the

benefits identified in Analysis 1 are maintained when

pre- and post-relocation scores are obtained for a

single organisation.

Method

Company B completed the WES while still in their

previous tenancy, and repeated the procedure

following their relocation to City Central. The analysis

for Company B consisted of a simple comparison

of these two samples of scores (i.e. pre- and post-

relocation). The WES was sent to thirty-eight staff

pre-move, attracting fourteen responses (37%

response rate). Seven months after moving into

Tower 1 the survey was made available to forty-two

staff, with thirty responses (71% response rate).

Results

Post-relocation averages for ability (1.15) and motivation

(1.03) were both superior to those acquired prior to

the move (0.61 and 0.38 respectively). The difference

in ability ratings was calculated to be a small effect,

whereas the contrast of motivation ratings is classified

as moderate according to Cohen’s standards. While

Company B appears to have received smaller benefits

overall than did Company A, it must be remembered

that Analysis 2 provides a more reliable indication of

how a given organisation is likely to improve in

relation to its own prior performance.

Figure 2 shows average ratings for each of the

Green Star relevant items, along with an indication

of the effect size differences between the pre- and

post-move scores.

Figure 2 again reveals generally positive results,

with some variability in effect sizes between the

performance indices of ability and motivation. Acoustic

conditions within the new office produced a small

improvement in employees’ ability to perform their

work, and artificial lighting, while improving ratings for

both measures, also produced a comparably greater

facilitation of ability. By contrast, staff motivation

was the variable most improved by both noise from

external sources and environmental controls.

Impact on p

erf

orm

ance

-1

-2

-3

0

1

2

3

Off

ice n

ois

e

Outd

oor

vie

ws

Tem

pera

ture

Air q

ualit

y

Daylig

ht

Art

ific

ial lig

ht

Exte

rnal nois

e

Contr

ols

**

*

*

*

***

***

******

***

***

******

***

***

* small effect

** medium effect

*** large effect

Figure 2.

Average ability and motivation

ratings concerning the impact

of Green Star relevant variables

on work performance. Whiskers

signify the probable error

present in these scores, and

effect sizes are indicated

according to Cohen’s criteria

Ability (prior tenancy)

Motivation (prior tenancy)

Ability (City Central)

Motivation (City Central)

34 35

Supplementing the standard WES format, the

survey administered to both Company A and B also

contained an additional set of questions addressing

specific aspects of Tower 1. These questions were

grouped under the headings building operations,

indoor environment quality, energy and water, recycling

and transport and health and wellbeing. In the interests

of brevity all responses for these additional questions

have been collapsed across the two companies.

Figure 3 presents a list of statements that were

scored by respondents to indicate their degree

of agreement.

While the majority of statements attracted responses

that reflect positively on City Central, a small number

of items indicate areas for improvement. Content

analysis of these statements suggests that staff

do not believe that they have received sufficient

information regarding the operation or performance

of the building. This finding is consistent with the

results reported earlier in relation to the building’s

environmental controls. Taken together, it seems that

each company would benefit by providing staff with

more information concerning their workplace.

Analysis 3: Staff attitudes and knowledge concerning City Central

Figure 3.

Average agreement ratings for

each statement pertaining to

City Central. Whiskers signify

the probable error present in

these scores, and effect sizes

are indicated according to

Cohen’s criteria

* small effect

** medium effect

*** large effect 3

Figure 4 shows occupants’ mode of transport to

work both before and after their move to City Central.

As can be seen, the move coincided with a decrease

in the use of personal motor vehicles and small

increases in more environmentally responsible

commuting practices. The one exception to this

trend is that the use of public transport decreased,

despite the fact that City Central attained all five

points available for the credit Tra-4 (Commuting Public

Transport). Finally, respondents were presented with

seven features from Tower 1—daylight/views, café,

sandwich bar, showers, bicycle facilities, external

courtyards, and lobby/entrance spaces—and were

asked to select the amenity that adds the most value

for them. Figure 5 depicts responses to this question,

with the café rated as the most popular feature.

Prior tenancy

City Central

Figure 4.

Percentage of respondents

indicating their regular mode

of transport to work, both at

City Central and during their

previous tenancy

I have a clear understanding of the sustainability

design intent/initiatives of the building

I have received adequate information about how the building works,

including a comprehensive induction by the building management

Emergency consumption for our office is

monitored and communicated to staff

My office makes use of the zoned lighting available in

City Central (ie. only occupied areas are lit)

My office is serviced by

adequate recycling facilities

During my time in City Central I have experienced greater

satisfaction with my work than during my previous tenancy

During my time in City Central I have felt healthier and

more energetic than during my previous tenancy

The water-saving features in the tenancy (eg. flow restrictions

in the toilets/kitchen) have a negative impact on water access

I am aware of the dedicated exhaust riser in the

print/photocopy area and use it as intended

General air quality in City Central is superior

to that in my previous tenancy

I notice a difference in indoor temperature

depending on the conditions outside

I am familiar with the building’s user guide and

am able to access a copy if required

-1-2-3 0 1 2 3

NeutralStrongly disagree Strongly agree

***

***

***

***

*

***

***

***

3%

39%

12%8%

6%

15%

17%

Daylig

ht/

view

s

Sandw

ich b

ar

Show

ers

Bicycle

facil

ities

External courtyards

Lobby/entrance spaces

Café

Perc

enta

ge o

f sam

ple

20

10

0

30

40

50

own car/

motorcycle

car pool bicycle walk public

transport

Figure 5.

Percentage of respondents

indicating their most valued

feature of City Central

City Central tenant breakout space: Department of

Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology

and Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure

37

Summary and conclusions

The results of Analyses 1 and 2 provide persuasive

support for the notion that the sustainability features of

Tower 1 have a positive effect on the job performance

of occupants. Analysis 1 found that City Central

performed well above baseline levels extracted from

a database of all previous WES results, both overall

and when Green Star relevant features were analysed

separately; and Analysis 2 revealed that similar

advantages can be seen with a single company

tested before and during occupation in City Central.

Outdoor views, daylight, temperature and air quality

were rated to have the most positive impact on job

performance, with responses to office acoustics and

artificial lighting generally indicating smaller benefits.

In both studies environmental controls were generally

indistinguishable from the comparison groups,

suggesting either that the controls are not seen as

particularly effective or that occupants do not fully

understand how to operate them.

Considering that Woods Bagot did not submit for

credit allocation in IEQ-10 (individual comfort control),

it might be argued that the building is characterised

by a distinct lack of environmental controls. However,

data collected using the additional set of questions

designed for Analysis 3 provides support for a lack of

adequate instruction. It is therefore possible that staff

performance could be further improved with greater

training in the use of Tower 1’s features. (It is worth

noting that occupants appear to understand and

utilise both the zoned lighting and recycling facilities.)

With respect to wellbeing, staff reported that both

their health and job satisfaction had increased

significantly following their move to City Central. The

most popular of the building amenities surveyed

is clearly the café, and the location and facilities

have generally resulted in more environmentally

responsible commuting practices.

In obtaining a 5 Star Green Star rating, the designers

and developers of Tower 1 demonstrated a clear

commitment to environmental sustainability. It is,

however, important to remember that a primary

purpose of the City Central development is the

provision of high-quality commercial office space.

With this goal in mind, the present study offers

compelling evidence that Tower 1 is capable of

enhancing the work performance of staff and that

occupant work satisfaction and wellbeing appear

to benefit from the superior environmental quality

on offer. Based on these findings, one might

suggest that Green Star certification—particularly

when achieved via a high proportion of indoor

environmental quality (IEQ) credits—should serve

as the new benchmark for organisations seeking

optimal triple bottom line results.

and environmental

performance

Betterbottom lines

go hand in hand

The results of Analyses 1 and 2 provide persuasive support for the notion that the sustainability features of Tower 1 have a positive effect on the job performance of occupants.

You very quickly reach a point where you realise that simply putting a solar panel on your roof isn’t the issue. The issue is bigger than climate change even. It’s fundamentally about respect for people who we can’t see and appreciating how our actions impact on them.

Luke WebbLondon

It means a better life for us and our grandchildren who will occupy the earth after us.

Salaheldin Mohamed Yasin Dubai

40 41

A holistic approach to sustainable development: The UK regeneration experienceDan Bulmer

In the 2005 World Summit Outcome, the United

Nations explained the three components of

sustainable development—economic, social and

environmental—as “interdependent and mutually

reinforcing pillars” (United Nations, 2005). This

holistic approach is fundamental to sustainable

cities in order to provide for their current and

future generations. The experiences of the United

Kingdom following the Second World War clearly

demonstrate a need for a holistic approach to

sustainability. The economic and social decline

experienced in post-war Britain and the

subsequent urban renaissance provides valuable

insights into the best and worst practices of urban

development. Using the UK urban regeneration

story, the following article examines how

architecture and urban design can influence social

and economic sustainability by considering the

following elements that influence a city’s success

or failure: community, economic diversity, health,

crime and employment.

42 43

Communities have played an important role in the

design influence of towns and cities throughout the

UK. Recent research has highlighted the importance

of community in addressing social problems of crime

and health. The existence of local networks of mutual

support and trust is crucial in the health and mental

wellbeing of a population. Conversely, the absence

of neighbourliness can exacerbate problems of

isolation and social exclusion.

A large proportion of housing in Britain was

traditionally laid out along high density streets of

terraced housing with windows and front doors

leading off the main street. The street became the

main focus for community interaction and children

played on streets not dominated by cars. The building

of new homes in the 1960s and early 1970s was very

rapid and often families were moved in large numbers

to new locations with very little choice regarding

housing type or who their neighbours were. The net

result was that local communities who had been

together for many years were dispersed causing

high levels of dissatisfaction and alienation.

The community spirit which had been present for

years was lost almost overnight. New housing that

replaced terraced houses often had little regard for

the community that would inhabit the buildings, with

some notable exceptions from this period including

the Barbican in London, which provided a varied

mix of community and healthcare uses and meeting

places for a community to take ownership upon.

Towards the 1980s, the importance of street life

was being diminished with the spread of low-density

identical suburban estates. Modern, planned new

town and suburban developments showed little

thought towards how communities could evolve.

Crucial to recent sustainable development in

the UK is the creation of and support of existing

communities, a traditional ethos ingrained in the

mentality of British people.

Bradley Stoke Housing Estate

The planned town development of Bradley

Stoke near Bristol has become synonymous with

the characterless, soul-less, identical housing

developments built during the 1980s worldwide.

The original plan for 25 000 homes was designed

predominantly with car use in mind and created

a confusing, impermeable network of distributor

roads. The lack of housing diversity in terms of size,

tenure and appearance has created a homogenous

environment with only one prevailing middle class

family demographic. The car-dominated roads,

large distances and indirect walking routes to local

services have resulted in little or no pedestrian

activity. Coupled with a lack of public space and

no central focus to the town, the result is little

opportunity for interaction between residents and

the development of community. Recent plans have

centred upon attempts to provide a new town centre

with central public space upon land currently home

to a supermarket.

Hulme, Manchester

In less than half a century, the housing area of

Hulme in Manchester has undergone three different

iterations and attempts at modern living requirements.

During the 1960s, the industrial era terraced housing

of the area was considered overcrowded, unsanitary

and ultimately unliveable. These slums were cleared

to make way for a modernist inspired public social

housing project, arranged in a series of tower blocks

in crescent formation with deck access—‘streets in the

sky’. High levels of crime, facilitated by unsupervised

public spaces, were often accompanied by a number

of issues including safety, build quality, insulation

and damp.

So for the second time in a century the area was

cleared and rebuilt. The crescents were demolished

to make way for a more traditional redevelopment

scheme with social sustainability and community

at its heart. Different housing types of varying sizes

and tenure were built in perimeter block layouts on a

network of pedestrian friendly streets. Housing is now

of a human scale, providing privatised rear defensible

communal spaces and active fronts to public space,

which encourage community interaction between

blocks. Additionally, new public parks, schools and

streets have increased the opportunity to nurture

the community.

Lessons learnt

/ Strong communities can help reduce local crime

and anti-social behaviour

/ Streets are a traditional location for communities

to engage and interact

/ Short walking trips rather than using the car

encourage people to meet and converse

face-to-face

/ Higher density living places more people in

close proximity to each other to interact

/ Provision of public open spaces and parks allow

communities to congregate

/ Involvement of communities within the design

process can create stewardship and sense of

ownership over a locality

/ Windows and doors leading onto the public realm

increase the opportunity for local interaction

/ A central focus in towns—the local pub, shopping

centre or community hall can all provide gathering

places for residents

/ Displacement of communities can often undermine

any intended benefits of regeneration

Left: Bradley Stokes Housing Estate

Top/right: Before and after, Hulme, Manchester

Community

The London Olympics 2012

Modern regeneration projects throughout Britain

have aimed to reduce the physical barriers restricting

access into the city by providing alternative transportation

methods and increasing the permeability of routes

into the city. The success of the London 2012 Olympic

bid was based upon a strong legacy regeneration

plan that aimed to improve accessibility issues as a

direct method of reducing unemployment rates in

a disconnected and socially excluded area of the

city. The Games are intended to be a catalyst for

economic and social regeneration to transform the

economically depressed London borough of Newham,

which features Stratford and the Lower Lea River

Valley. The organisers hope the plans for the Games

will help transform the Lower Lea Valley into one

of the best connected areas in the capital, bringing

economic and social benefits that go far beyond

2012, and far beyond sport (Legacy, n.d.).

A range of transport improvements are proposed

or already completed including: an extension to

the Docklands Light Railway; increased capacity

on the Jubilee Line; upgrade of the Stratford

Regional Station; and various other cross-city

transport improvements in London. In addition

to the new railway and new cycle lanes, walking

routes will connect the converted Olympic Park

into the wider London networks in an attempt to

make London ‘a walkable city’. Such improvements

to the infrastructure have already greatly improved

accessibility for residents previously cut off from

the many benefits a global financial city such

as London can offer.

Unemployment is one of the key social and economic

issues facing countries and cities. Although a wide

range of factors can directly affect unemployment

rates, the planning and design of the urban

environment can directly influence how people

access employment.

The collapse of the industrial and manufacturing

industries in the UK during the 1960s resulted in

high levels of unemployment, especially in Britain’s

traditional industrial towns and inner city areas. This

loss of employment, which often provided income for

three generations of families, sent many areas into

a spiral of decline that lasted until the late twentieth

century and was typified by wide-scale social unrest

and rioting in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s Britain had

more children growing up in unemployed households

than anywhere else in Europe (Batty, 2002). Around

this time, British academics began to investigate why

some people were restricted access to vital economic

and life support services within urban areas, as poor

accessibility has contributed towards areas of social

exclusion. They identified and coined the term

‘permeability’ as a measure of the number of routes

through an urban environment. The more permeable

a location, the increased level of accessibility for all

people to vital life support services such as employment.

44 45

a. Police hold back pickets at the Grunwick

photo-processing laboratory employment

dispute in Willesden, London

b. London Olympics legacy

c. Artist’s impression, London

Olympics 2012

d. Improved public transport connections

have already been completed for the London

Olympics

e. Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002

f. Regeneration of a city, Ducie St,

Manchester. Designed by Woods Bagot

Unemployment

f

whole area into the city that now provides numerous

employment opportunities.

Lessons learnt

/ Access for everyone to the city should be provided

by a choice of walking, cycling and public transport

/ Widescale zonal planning often places certain

employment opportunities out of reach of some

communities, especially without high car ownership

/ Permeability: providing a choice of routes through

an area creates direct and active routes through

cities and encourages walking

/ Mixed use developments provide a wider range

of local employment opportunities for a community

with varying education levels and skill sets

/ Sporting, arts or other major events have proved

to be a regeneration catalyst as long as they are

linked to a long-term strategy to continue benefits

after the event finishes

/ Economic stability is key to ensuring job creation

is sustainable

/ A reduction in social exclusion by an integrated

and balanced mix of housing tenure, sizes and

social class will reduce ‘ghetto’ mentalities

Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002

A proven success of how sports events can be

used successfully as a tool for regeneration was

the 2002 Commonwealth Games hosted by

Manchester. Located in northern England, this

first industrialised city in the world has undergone

a dramatic rise and fall in economic and social

conditions. The process of urban regeneration

began in the 1990s when the city was forced to

rebuild following an IRA bomb that tore apart

the retail core of the city centre. The successful

process of rebuilding continues to this day,

creating a new enthusiasm and an influx of

investment and population back to the city centre.

The city has been hailed as a European leader in

urban regeneration and this success was made

apparent by the city being chosen to host the

Commonwealth Games.

The Games were based upon a regeneration plan

that intended to improve economic and social

conditions to the deprived east side of the city. The

Games have brought new hope to this previously

forgotten area and changed perceptions nationally

and locally. The Games have been a catalyst for

new investment, including high profile housing

developments such as Holt Town Waterside and

New Islington. The sporting venues have now been

converted and continue in use, such as home to

world championship cycling and a premier league

football club. Improvements to the infrastructure

were made to improve public transport into the

city and a new light rail system will connect the

e

d

b

a

c

During the latter part of the twentieth century,

Britain’s main economies of manufacturing and

industry were moving from Britain typically to

countries in Asia. As a result many European cities

experienced large levels of economic instability. Many

of the traditional industrial towns of northern England

were sent into decline due to a lack of economic

diversity as their economic and employment base

was heavily reliant on one type of industry and

in some towns on one particular company. Since

the 1990s, Britain has managed to diversify its

employment base with the development of other

service industries. However, many traditional British

cities are now facing problems of an outdated

infrastructure and building stock that is unsuitable

for modern commercial requirements. This led to

large city districts and even whole cities and regions

becoming increasingly restricted in the competitive

market to attract national and global companies.

The subsequent social problems demonstrate how

the design and planning of cities needs to take into

account economic sustainability whilst balancing the

objectives of social and environmental factors.

Birmingham Eastside

During the Industrial Revolution the city of

Birmingham in the Midlands of England was known

as the ‘City of a Thousand Trades’. This diversity

of employment opportunities allowed the city to

weather the storm of industrial decline far better

than other cities. Modern regeneration schemes

in the city have sought to continue this economic

legacy. The Eastside project is one of the largest

regeneration schemes in Europe and hopes to

attract UK£6 billion in investment to the east of

the city. Eastside has a commendable sustainability

agenda that ensures a holistic approach to long-

term development addressing social, economic and

environmental sustainability. Key to the economic

sustainability principles of the regeneration scheme,

is the encouragement of business and land-use

diversification. A fine grain of smaller building units

is encouraged within the framework to attract smaller

businesses with varied unit size and affordability.

The scheme also recognises small businesses as

a sustainable economic model in that they create

jobs for local people and benefit local competition.

Liverpool

At the turn of the nineteenth century, forty per cent

of the world’s trade was passing through the Port of

Liverpool in England yet by the 1970s the docks had

become almost obsolete due to modern container

freight methods. The city’s entire economy was based

upon the trade through its port and the rapid loss of

this income source brought massive upheaval and

job losses. The city has only recently begun to recover

from the massive economic and social upheaval. Like

its neighbours in Manchester, modern regeneration

schemes within Liverpool, including innovative re-uses

of its ports and warehouse buildings, have sparked

new interest and investment and allowed the city to

attract a more diverse employment base. However,

the city is still home to a number of old warehouse

buildings that are protected by heritage listing

and unsuitable for modern conversion. This has

highlighted how the adaptability of building

structures is essential for cities to adapt better

to changing employment markets in the future.

Economic diversity Lessons learnt

/ Over reliance on one form of employment can

place cities and residents at risk

/ Mixed use developments are beneficial to the

city and also provide a more stable portfolio for

developers

/ Provision of smaller and more affordable building

units encourages small business to provide local

employment and a balance of business types for

economic stability

/ Smaller industries reduce an area’s dependence

on fewer large enterprises which have the capital

to be transient in their choice of location

/ A reduction in zoned urban planning creates

flexibility in terms of accommodating different

land uses

/ Flexible and adaptable buildings can cope better

with new employment uses in the future

/ Flexible masterplanning and frameworks adapt to

change over the evolution of a regeneration program

46 47

Below: Albert Docks, Liverpool

Regeneration and diversification of a city

Above: Selfridges, Birmingham

Left: Birmingham Eastside

48 49

Poundbury, Dorchester

The New Urbanist movement has been gaining

momentum in recent years and fundamental

to the movement is the creation of compact

walkable communities where local services are

easily accessed without the need for a car. Within

the UK, Prince Charles has famously worked with

the masterplanner Leon Krier to develop a compact

walkable neighbourhood extension to Dorchester

in Dorset. The 168 hectare housing scheme has

been built to relatively high density with each house

having a private garden space and parking provisions.

Housing density has been graded around a central

public space that also provides retail and community

provisions for residents meaning the whole population

is within an easy five minute walk of local services.

Traffic is calmed and public streets and spaces are

activated by people and overlooked by housing

or retail frontages making the walking experience

more pleasurable and safer.

Birmingham City Centre urban design strategy

The experience of the redevelopment of

Birmingham’s city centre is an excellent example

of how a successful urban design strategy can

focus investment to create an attractive walking

environment with new and improved city squares

and interconnected streets. During the eighteenth

century, the city had developed as a significant

industrial town, growing rapidly with the streets and

squares arranged in an irregular grid pattern. Contrary

to some other British cities, Birmingham underwent

a high level of redevelopment to reconstruct highly

bombed city centre areas during the 1960s. Due to

the corresponding increase in car ownership levels,

the city centre planned to accommodate high levels

of vehicle access. Historical areas were cleared to

erect a series of inner and outer ring roads with large

elevated sections circling the city centre. Birmingham

became known as the ‘Motor City’ not only because

of its car building industry but due to the ring of

elevated roads that constricted the city centre’s

growth by effectively acting as a ‘concrete collar’. The

ring roads sliced through the traditional urban blocks,

leaving a fragmented urban structure and a confused

public realm.

In the 1990s a city centre design strategy was

proposed amongst other initiatives to reduce

the dominance of the constricting concrete

collar and provide greater permeability between

the city centre core to the proposed redeveloped

quarters surrounding the city. Cars were pushed

underground and new walkways crossed the

inner ring road. To the east of the city the elevated

ring road section was demolished and cars were

redirected at grade with pedestrian crossings. This

has now effectively allowed the city to grow to the

east, which was previously disconnected to the

existing CBD, with new investment and business

opportunities. Birmingham now has a successful

connected series of pedestrian routes and urban

squares allowing the walker to traverse from the west

to the east of the city completely uninterrupted by

traffic. These streets and spaces have been made

active by an increasing city centre resident population

attracted by the improved urban environment and

renewed confidence in the city.

Lessons learnt

/ Encourage walking by increasing permeability;

provide more direct routes to local services

/ Reducing barriers to movement within the city

can improve the interconnection between city

quarters and improve city wide investment and

regeneration opportunities

/ Reduce extensive use of cul-de-sacs to prevent the

restriction of direct walking routes to local services

/ Place services within walking distance through the

use of mixed use developments and high density

/ Provide safe, extensive and continuous cycle

and jogging routes, preferably segregated from

vehicular traffic

/ Street design features to consider:

/ Seating to provide rest areas for walkers

/ Cycle racks for cyclists

/ Safe pedestrian/cyclist segregation from

vehicular traffic

/ External architectural design features to consider:

/ Provide active ground floor frontages

/ Create main access from streets (as opposed

to from car-parks)

/ Mitigate microclimate conditions such as

wind tunnel effects

/ Provide shade, shelter or warmth at ground floor

level for pedestrians

/ Internal architectural design features to consider:

/ Provide showers and changing facilities for

cyclists

/ Encourage the use of stairs instead of elevators

by designing stairwells as attractive and easily

accessible spaces

A major health concern throughout the western

world is obesity and its associated health problems.

Obesity is predicted to be one of the world’s new

epidemics and recent research predicts that by 2032

approximately half of British people will be clinically

obese (University of Oxford, 2007). Only recently

have scientists been able to test and prove the direct

correlation between our built environments and levels

of obesity. US scientists in 2003 found that “American

adults living in sprawling counties walk less, weigh

more, are more likely to be obese, and are more likely

to suffer from high blood pressure than otherwise

comparable adults living in compact counties”

(Ewing, 2003). The health of the public can be greatly

influenced by the environment in which they live and

work, for example, by encouraging informal exercise,

particularly walking.

The design of British cities and towns usually pre-

dated the invention of the motor vehicle and hence

were traditionally designed with walking in mind.

However, redevelopment following the Second World

War coincided with the increased popularity of car

travel and new developments have often put the car

ahead of the pedestrian. This has impacted on traffic

levels, air quality and noise in local areas, degrading

the walking environment and leading to an ongoing

decline in walking. Nationally, the distance walked

by the average Briton has fallen by twenty per cent

since 1974 (Livingstone, 2004). Cities all over Britain

are starting to realise the economical and social

benefit of walking. Under the direction of Mayor Ken

Livingstone, The City of London launched the London

Walking Plan in 2004 which aims to encourage more

people to walk short journeys and use a combination

of walking and public transport to make trips over

longer distances (Brosnan, 2004).

Health

50 51

The lessons learnt from the UK regeneration story highlight that in order for cities to be truly sustainable, development must balance the economic, social and environmental factors involved in urban growth. Failure to address the full spectrum of factors involved in the development process can often outweigh any gains made through energy savings.

CrimeCrime and anti-social behaviour have the ability to

undermine the structure of a residential community

and often forces those who can afford it to leave the

neighbourhood. This further exacerbates problems

of social exclusion and can lead to a ghetto mentality.

The rapid removal and redevelopment of war-torn

inner city areas in Britain often led to the removal

of terraced housing, considered to be slums, to be

replaced with radical, new and untested housing

forms. By the 1970s and 1980s as unemployment

grew and urban jobs were being lost, those people

who could afford to were leaving the inner city where

they often had grown up to move to the new ideal of

suburban areas. Inner city suburbs became areas now

defined as ‘socially excluded’, containing people who

suffered from a combination of problems including

unemployment, poor housing and high crime (North

& Syrett, 2006). The second half of the twentieth

century saw a number of new housing and layout

forms tested in British cities with varying degrees

of success and with some direct correlations to

levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Modernist movement in Britain

Following the Second World War, new housing

estates of tower blocks using Modernist principles

were hurriedly erected as councils were subsidised

and encouraged to build tall to house returning

soldiers and their families. Bold experiments on social

interaction, living and movement heavily influenced by

Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse plan of 1933 were rolled

out throughout the UK and Europe as a model of

modern living. However, the plans were often watered

down or misconceived interpretations of the original

futurist visions of Le Corbusier and Lubetkin.

Modernist inspired housing projects have now

become synonymous with high levels of social

problems and crime in Britain. It was not until the

1960s that theorists began to research and articulate

the problems created by such modernist models,

most famously with the work of Jane Jacobs who

first highlighted the flaws of such buildings. In her

research of traditional and modern planned estates

in the US she learned that modern design had

reduced people’s ability to observe public space and

had diminished local social control. Housing design

that turned its back on public space, had blank

ground floor frontages and unsupervised internal

corridors allowed unsociable behaviour and crime

to occur unnoticed. Jacobs (1961) argued housing

with windows and front doors facing public areas

created the ‘eyes on the street’. The term ‘defensible

space’ (Newman, 1972) was later coined to suggest

a set of design principles aimed at reducing crime

within built environments. It sought to place greater

control within the hands of the community by

providing a clear definition between private and

public space within urban localities.

ConclusionThe story of post-war decline, social unrest and

the resulting urban renaissance in British cities

undoubtedly has highlighted some of the worst

and best practice methods of urban development.

The lessons learnt are relevant to cities throughout

the world and are especially poignant in a time of

global urbanisation and immense pressure for urban

growth. Housing estates throughout the UK and

Europe are still being demolished due to their social

and economic failings, some being less than twenty

years old. The experiences of many neighbourhoods

in the UK, such as Hulme in Manchester, show how

some neighbourhoods have undergone the process

of demolition and rebuild more than once in less than

half a century to make way for housing forms which

often return to traditional principles.

This process of regeneration and renewal comes at

great cost financially, environmentally and socially.

Huge amounts of public spending is often required,

whole communities that have evolved gradually over

time can be displaced and the amount of embodied

energy lost in demolition can often surpass any

further attempts to reduce energy consumption

in the construction and lifetime of a new building.

The energy input required to quarry, transport and

manufacture building materials, plus the energy used

in the construction process, can amount to a quarter

of the ‘lifetime’ energy requirement of a very energy-

efficient building.

Radburn housing estates

Another misconceived interpretation of an urban

planning theory based on relatively sound principles

is the construction of housing estates inspired

by Radburn in New Jersey, US. Designed for the

Automobile Age and partly inspired by English Garden

City principles the key notion centred on open space

and separated car and pedestrian movement. The

Radburn model of suburban development soon

crossed the Atlantic and influenced the design

of many housing estates in the UK, often within

existing low income areas.

Housing was intended to be orientated to public

open spaces with pedestrian walkways connecting

open spaces and providing access to the fronts of

houses. However, parking was situated in segregated

car-parks to the rear, which led to the intended

housing fronts gradually becoming inactive. As

both sides of the property were exposed to public

space, homeowners often erected more imposing

and unattractive fencing to create a private garden

space and restrict criminal access to the rear of

their homes. This resulted in public streets lined with

large boundary fencing and public open space in the

centre where people were more afraid to walk due to

increased levels of crime and anti-social behaviour

that could go unnoticed. Millions of pounds are

currently being spent either demolishing or radically

altering these estates, some of which are less than

half a century old, that have proven to cause and

exacerbate many social problems.

Lessons learnt

/ The design of the built environment can reduce

or exacerbate levels of crime in a locality

/ Lack of surveillance of the public environment

can lead to anti-social behaviour

/ ‘Defensible space’ secures rears of properties/

gardens from potential intruders

/ Clear structure and easy movement through an

area encourages street activity and allows for

‘eyes on the street’

/ When people and communities feel ownership and

stewardship of an area the occurrences of vandalism

and anti-social behaviour can be reduced

/ Management and maintenance of space ensures

high standards and further instills pride

Left/far left: Tower blocks

exacerbated high levels of crime

and usually had issues of build

quality, insulation and damp. They

are progressively being demolished

Below: Radburn-inspired housing

West Midlands, UK

Right: Tyneside, Newcastle

Long ago, before whaling was banned, hunters would sail for long periods after the elusive mammal. Often they would return without a catch, often they would not return at all. But on occasion they would return with a captured whale, which would be met with celebration in the village, for the whale would supply food for a long while. But this was not then discarded. The remaining carcass would supply blubber to be used as oil for warmth and cooking. The skin would be used for clothing and shelter, the bones for tools and jewellery. Nothing of the whale was wasted as it made its way inland.

This is sustainable. Fishing trawlers extract tonnes of sea life from the oceans, often with the aim of a few select species. The remainder, dead, is thrown back into the sea.

This is unsustainable. The early settlers to Australia discovered the benefi ts of Huon pine for ship building. Its natural oils made the timber extremely durable, yet easy to work with. The foresters selected only the straightest trees to be felled and sent to the mill, thereby ensuring through regeneration this species will never become extinct.

This is sustainable. Timber is subject to fashion, similar to clothing and furniture. Demand for a particular species of tree will mean large tracts of forests are cleared to extract the valuable examples. The waste; the animal’s habitat, the vital cog in the ecosystem, is burnt.

This is unsustainable.

Lyndon WadeLondon

54 55

56 57

At the dawn of this century, buildings were

dumping approximately 280% more carbon into

the atmosphere than in the 1950s. The energy

required to heat and cool our workplaces and

homes is by far the biggest single contributor to

carbon pollution. Buildings are not only the largest

single source of carbon emissions; they are also the

biggest energy users. They represent 40% of global

energy consumption, of which 33% is attributable

to commercial properties and 67% to residential

(World Business Council for Sustainable Development,

2007). We need to refocus. If we continue on our

current trajectory, buildings will be at the top of

the environment’s epitaph.

Given that the property industry is responsible for

the world’s largest carbon emissions, Woods Bagot

conducted a survey to determine industry attitudes

and experiences in the adoption of sustainable

solutions for the built environment. How much do

we actually care and will we get past the challenges

being faced with regard to the delivery of sustainable

buildings? Over 200 industry professionals from

Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom,

United States, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain

completed the survey.

The major findings are reported in the following pages.

We need to refocus. If we continue on our current trajectory, buildings will be at the top of the environment’s epitaph.

“Air travel is bad!”, so the popular media periodically

reminds us. The devastation we inflict on the

environment as a result of this energy intensive

form of transport is at the fore of public awareness,

particularly in Europe. Market savvy airlines have

responded by becoming carbon neutral and invite

their passengers to similarly ‘do their bit’ by offsetting

the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their

flights. Some communities feel that the situation is so

dire that they shame people for taking unnecessary

airline travel rather than visiting nearby holiday

destinations reached by more sustainable forms

of transport. In the twenty-first century we have

been conditioned to think of ‘air miles’ not as a

measure of airline loyalty but as a mark of our

environmental impact.

Despite this extraordinary focus on irresponsible

‘plane-polluters’ and their associated contrails,

research shows that aircraft travel, or even transport

as a whole, is not the ‘poster child’ of environmental

pollution that it has been made out to be. According

to the OECD’s 2008 International Transport Forum,

domestic and international aircraft travel represents

merely 11% of all global transport carbon emissions,

which in turn accounts for only 23% of total carbon

emitted from all sources. Buildings, on the other hand,

account for considerably more carbon emissions than

any other sector, as represented in Figure 1 (American

Institute of Architects, 2008).

Aircraft travel is not the ‘poster child’ of pollution that it has been made out to be.

Mill

ion m

etr

ic t

onnes o

f carb

on

800

600

400

200

0

1960 1980 2000

Figure 1.

US C02 emissions by sector. Reproduced with permission

from American Institute of Architects

Buildings

Transportation

Industry

58 59

Figure 5.

Do you believe that green buildings are useful tools

for attracting and retaining key talent?

FINDING 1A third of respondents claim that there is a 6–10% cost penalty for going green. Such misjudgments of the costs of sustainable construction create potential barriers to the adoption of energy efficiency measures in the building industry.

Figure 4.

Which of the following presents the most appealing rationale

for undertaking a green project?

3%

28%

34%

6%

17%

3%

9%

Figure 2.

Do you believe green projects cost more than standard

developments?

Combination

Corporate social responsibility

Ecological responsibility

Financial

Future proofing

Legislation

Positioning/Marketing

No

Yes, 1–2% more

Yes, 3–5% more

Yes, 6–10% more

Yes, 11–20% more

Yes, in excess of 20% more

73%

27%

86%

14%

Figure 3.

If you believe there is a premium for green buildings

or fitouts, then do you think it is offset by the benefits?

Given that buildings are big polluters, we proposed

questions to uncover any barriers that may exist

in procuring sustainable buildings. Firstly we asked

people what they believed was the cost premium

for creating a sustainable building. Figure 2 illustrates

our respondents’ perception that a green building

costs significantly more than a ‘standard’ building,

with a third of respondents believing that green

buildings cost between 6–10% more and

a quarter of the sample believing that the cost

premium is between 3 and 5% more.

Perhaps a more informed opinion is that of cost

consultants, Davis Langdon, who suggest in their

publication, The cost of going green (2004), that

significant environmental measures increase the

capital cost of buildings by as little as 2–4%.

FINDING 2Despite the perceived costs, 86% of respondents believe green buildings are worth it.

Despite the high perceived capital cost of sustainable

initiatives, most of the respondents (86%) believe green

buildings are worth it (Figure 3). This is not surprising as

we understand the benefits of sustainable buildings

to include:

/ Improved corporate reputation or brand value

/ Improved staff productivity

/ Higher asset value

/ Reduced operating costs

/ Reduced operational risk

/ Future proofing

FINDING 3Seventy-three per cent of respondents believe sustainable buildings are effective instruments for attracting and retaining key talent.

Respondents are far more focused upon the need to promote ecological responsibility and corporate social responsibility than fi nancial considerations.

A recent survey of building professionals, conducted

by the World Business Council for Sustainable

Development (WBCSD), found that on average the

industry estimated a 17% premium compared with

standard developments, with Chinese respondents

estimating the highest premium of 28% (2007).

The WBCSD states that this is more than three

times the actual cost differential of approximately

5% (WBCSD, 2007). Such misjudgments of the

costs of green construction may create barriers

to the adoption of sustainability initiatives in the

building sector.

In the past, the business case for sustainability

has often been argued by property industry

commentators in purely financial terms. Our research

shows that there is a much more complex matrix

of green drivers. We understand the basic equation

that in an environment of high energy costs or high

energy taxes, the long-term operational costs of

commercial office buildings outweigh the cost of

their construction. However, we can see from our

survey that the financial drivers, such as reduced

operating costs, make up only a small percentage

of the key reasons to go green. Respondents are far

more focused upon the need to promote ecological

responsibility and corporate social responsibility

than financial considerations (Figure 4). Furthermore,

73% of respondents believe that green buildings are

useful tools for attracting and retaining key talent

(Figure 5).

Yes

No No

YesYes

22%

6% 8%

6%

25%

33%

60 61

Figure 8.

The issues ranked most important for solving in the future

Mean r

ankin

g o

f im

port

ance

5

6

7

4

3

2

1

Impro

vin

g e

nerg

y e

ffic

iency a

nd g

enera

tion

Reducin

g c

arb

on footp

rints

of new

and r

e-u

sed d

eve

lopm

ents

Reducin

g w

ate

r w

aste

Genera

ting s

mart

er

solu

tions v

ia m

ark

et

com

petitive

ness

rath

er

than r

egula

tion

Re-u

sing rath

er

than recyc

ling b

uild

ings

and a

ssocia

ted p

roducts

Impro

vin

g indoor

environm

ent

qualit

y

Incre

asin

g t

he o

ccupancy d

ensitie

s o

f citie

s t

o incre

ase

eff

icie

ncie

s a

nd land u

se

FINDING 4 We are not doing enough to deliver sustainable solutions.

FINDING 5Sadly, the property industry’s most significant challenge right now is providing a convincing argument for the benefits of sustainability.

FINDING 6 Delivery expertise and process compliance are significant risks for the property industry.

FINDING 7Energy efficiency and generation is currently ranked the most important issue for the future.

Eighty-two per cent of respondents support the

statement that the industry is not doing enough to

deliver sustainable solutions. This was a surprise as

a significant proportion of respondents consider

themselves to be totally committed to supporting

the drive for a more sustainable future through the

delivery of a more sustainable built environment

(Figure 6).

Despite the awareness of climate change, the most

significant challenge facing the property industry

is the development and delivery of a compelling

benefits case that supports the adoption and delivery

of environmentally sustainable solutions. There are

potentially a number of reasons for this, including

the fact that the respondents’ perception of costs

is higher for sustainable developments than what

is actually the case. (However, our research also

suggests that the elevated risk associated with the

delivery of green buildings is critical. In particular, our

sample group cited significant challenges associated

with delivery expertise and process compliance

(Figure 7).

Delivery expertise and process compliance are

considered to be two major challenges faced when

trying to deliver sustainable built environments.

Forty-four per cent of respondents identified these

two challenges as the most significant of those

listed, despite 79% of respondents believing that the

market is not over-regulated. One can deduce from

the results that the underlying issue driving process

compliance is the relative lack of knowledge and

delivery expertise required to satisfy compliance goals.

This was followed by reducing carbon footprints of

new and refurbished developments and reducing

water use (Figure 8). We suspect that if our sample

included more representatives from the Northern

Hemisphere that issues of water consumption would

be less of a concern. Anecdotally, we have also

seen a recent increase in the awareness of ‘indoor

environmental quality’ and we expect this to

receive higher scores in future survey results,

particularly in light of growing research linking the

indoor environment with the productivity of staff

(Clements-Croome, 2003).

2%2%

38%

1%20%

24%

10%3%

Figure 7.

The biggest challenges faced by respondents

when attempting to deliver green developments

Additional capital costs

I don’t have any obstacles, because I do not undertake sustainable projects

Lack of government incentives/regulation

Providing a convincing argument for the benefits of sustainable initiatives

Public perceptions and behaviour

Satisfying certification criteria and processes

The limited availability of delivery expertise

Using limited/unproven technologies

Figure 6.

Respondents levels of commitment to sustainable

development

I am unaware of the issues surrounding sustainability

I understand sustainability issues, however, I am not

convinced by the agenda

I am aware of sustainability issues but do not

understand them

I am doing my bit for sustainability, but could probably

do more

I am totally committed to sustainability and always

seek to include environmentally sustainable design

principles in my projects

46%

2%5% 2%

45%

62 63

Conclusion

“In my very first job, a very wise person said to me

that, ‘the power is never where you think it is’. I am

periodically reminded of this sage advice as I progress

through my career and marvel at how, sometimes, we

can get it so wrong.” Earle Arney

Similarly, it is amazing at how we have got it so wrong

in terms of our current focus of sustainability. The

power to affect real change for the betterment of the

environment is not singularly in the hands of those

who are labouring on driving sustainable modes of

transport. The single biggest opportunity to sustain life

as we know it is before us all in the property industry—

cleaner and more efficient buildings.

There are many obstacles to creating a more

informed and environmentally responsive built

environment. A major challenge is clearly the wide

variance in the perceived cost of going green. This

no doubt influences people’s beliefs that the biggest

challenge is finding a convincing argument for

sustainability, despite almost universal acceptance

of the reality of climate change.

The drivers of sustainability are rich and varied.

The reductive capital/operational expenditure

equation is historic and fails to recognise that there

are new change agents of sustainability. Corporate

social and ecological responsibility is far more

important, as is the potential to use authentic

positioning to attract and retain talent.

We are in the early phases of acquiring knowledge

as to how best to deliver a sustainable built

environment. The disjunction that often results

between design and delivery of sustainable solutions

presents a significant risk to our industry. The

scarcity of delivery expertise and product availability,

combined with the challenge of process compliance,

is also a major hurdle that is frustrating industry

attempts to adopt green solutions.

It is likely that as we gain experience in creating green

solutions, the delivery risk will diminish as will the

uncertainties surrounding process compliance. It is

also likely that our quest to ‘touch this earth lightly’

will continue to become more and more expansive.

We will see cities as opportunities to sustain life

rather than to merely accommodate people. Similarly,

individual buildings will provide opportunities to give

back to the environment rather than deplete its

resources. We have a long way to go but, considering

the findings of this survey, it seems that we do care.

The power is never where you think it is... The single biggest opportunity to sustain life is before us all in the property industry —cleaner and more effi cient buildings.

38%

33%

29%

Figure 9.

Roles of survey respondents

Developer

End user

Service provider

Research methods

Woods Bagot conducted an internet survey during

2008. Over 200 industry professionals completed

the survey. Participants were mostly from Australia

and New Zealand (97%). Other participants were

from the United Kingdom, US, United Arab Emirates

and Bahrain. The numbers of respondents were

evenly spread across age brackets and the industry

categories of service providers, developers and end

users (see Figures 9 and 10). Forty-two per cent of

respondents work in the commercial office sector;

35% in mixed use; 12% in lifestyle (residential; hotel;

retail etc.) and 11% in the education, science or

health sectors. Whilst the sample size is substantial,

we acknowledge that those clients and consultants

interested in the sustainability agenda will for the most

part have completed the survey over those who are

not as interested. This is a pilot study to gauge insights

and trends into sustainability for the built environment

which we aim to rollout annually in the other regions

we operate in: Asia; the Middle East; Europe; and

North America.

1%10%

22%

31%

36%

21–30

31–40

41–50

51–65

> 65

Figure 10.

Ages of survey respondents

You have to wonder why we haven’t always adopted

sustainable processes. Anything else just seems so

careless, lazy, ignorant and wasteful. Why wouldn’t you

use a resource in a manner that would ensure that the

resource can sustain itself in order to meet your needs?

Why would you consume more than you need? To me

sustainability is just logical.

Yvette Costi

London

Sustainability is the key

ingredient to add to our

project recipes. It is vital

to the human support

system.

Mathilde Lucas

Hong Kong

66 6766 676

The building industry is generally risk averse,

with a reluctance to accept new building technologies

without proof that they work. This is understandable

given the significant investments locked-up in property

which is the world’s largest asset class by a significant

margin (Snushall, Cronin, Spencer & Cameron, 2005).

However, we believe that we have reached the point

where, failure to innovate today or be a leader of

sustainability will render property assets obsolete in

the next property cycle. The failure to future proof a

building will result in it being passed over in favour

of a new generation of buildings appealing to a new

generation of global citizens. Given this shift, what

does the future hold? To help answer this question,

we consulted a number of leading property industry

innovators, owners, developers and end users from

around the world to help understand what they

see in the crystal ball.

The future of sustainabilityEarle Arney and Chris Mobbs

68 69

there is no Plan B.

Interview with Paul Edwards

Woods Bagot: What do you believe are the key

issues to drive sustainable built environments?

Paul Edwards: There are a couple of things. Firstly

there is a market for it. Tenants are now requesting

sustainable buildings with good indoor environment

quality and low energy to meet their corporate

responsibility targets. The big picture is the need for

planetary change and the way we use the natural

resources of the environment. We only have one

planet and we won’t be able to continue living if

we’re not careful.

WB: Is the extent of the green, sustainable movement

the same in retail as it is in the commercial sector?

PE: I think in some ways it’s further ahead. If we look

at our big retail clients like Marks & Spencer and John

Lewis and Partners, they are ploughing ahead. They

both have sustainable policies that we are asked to

follow that include renewables, material selection,

EMF plans, transportation plans, right down to every

aspect of sustainability. Marks & Spencer have a

program that they call Plan A, there is no Plan B.

It sets out 100 commitments over five years to

address the key social and environmental challenges

they face. They plan to be carbon neutral by 2012 and

they are spending £200 million to get there. Tesco

has 100 million to spend on renewables in the next

two years and they’ve gone out scouring the world for

the very best in renewables. McDonald’s have started

to recycle their fats in order to power their vehicles.

The next tier down from the bigger players, the

smaller tenants, the one offs, they’re not quite there

yet so there is a big difference.

WB: Having worked extensively in Australia, what is

your perception of retailers’ adoption of sustainability

in this region?

PE: When I was in Australia, I think Coles had set

up internal groups on water waste; they did good

work on plastic bags, which has become law in the

UK to ban plastic bags by 2010. There is probably

more capital to invest in sustainability here and more

emphasis, particularly as the big players like Marks

& Spencer are at the top of the chain and shouting

about it. Boots is doing the same; we have a meeting

with them this week to discuss a low carbon store.

WB: How effective do you think we have been

in developing a truly sustainable environment?

PE: One of the issues in the UK is that sustainability

is generally termed as ‘carbon’ which is frustrating

as true sustainability includes material selection and

transportation but it’s also about community: skills,

job creation, satisfaction. I don’t think there are many

holistic examples around the world.

Here in the UK, Hammerson specialises in regenerating

town centres. We don’t build monolithic shopping

centres any more. We are integrating communities

back into the city which gives them vibrancy and

security but at the same time we have programs to

develop skills of the community. One of the programs

involved a bus trip around the local community to tell

the homeless and less privileged about which jobs

were available. We had 3500 jobs and we tied them

with skills training for people with no previous retail

experience. We filled seventy-six per cent of those

jobs with people who were unemployed which I think

is a magnificent achievement and we are doing that

now in all of our centres.

There is a lot more push for true sustainability as

people become more aware of what it means. I think

the biggest problem is a lack of consistency and

information. So if you’re a tenant you’re not sure what

you should be asking for. If you are a customer in

the street you’re not sure what you should be doing

personally or what you should be asking from your

stores to do. Education and information transfer

needs to happen if we are going to demonstrate

a true built environment.

WB: How do you see some of these sustainable

solutions operating in the buildings of tomorrow?

PE: I think ironically there are two key focus streams.

One is to almost revert back to ancient days. I know we

didn’t have computers but we used to have buildings

that kept cool. The Romans used to have fountains

in the middle of courtyards, massive means of

conditioning the air such as thermal mass and natural

ventilation, opening windows rather than artificially air

conditioning spaces. Some of those solutions today

aren’t applicable to every outcome. Data centres for

example, you’ll never cool them by only using thermal

mass but then you look to the extreme of technology,

changing materials, and the new solutions that are

coming through, and there are possibilities.

There’s a brilliant piece of work by Janine Benyus

based on a subject called Bio-mimicry, whereby one

learns from the lessons of nature. For example, look

at a tree and see how it continually grows, it can pump

water forty metres into the air, it creates energy, it

photosynthesises, it’s a magnificent piece of natural

engineering. If we could mimic that in our systems

then there would be no waste, everything is reused by

nature, it has a positive impact on the planet. I think

these are the sort of extremes we are going to have

to go to. You can now get 13 mm walls that change

phase to represent a thermal mass of 150 mm

concrete so there are magnificent scientific moves

and technologies that will help us all. It’s whether

they come quick enough.

WB: There’s a huge impetus and if you look at

the rate of change that’s currently happening it’s

phenomenal. What other radical ideas have you

heard of?

PE: I tell you what would be an idea, if someone

would actually set a vision statement for the country.

What would England actually look like in 2050 at

80% below where it is today on carbon emissions?

What does it look like in 2020 when we’ve got no

land fill anymore in the UK? Let’s understand what

we should be aiming for here. Is it in the area of

mass wind turbines off the coast of England or is

it individual turbines on top of everyone’s house?

Once we understand that then the radical ideas are

actually the implementation mechanisms. Germany

has an amazing mechanism where they have a self

funding photovoltaic market which means that they

are now the largest users of photovoltaics anywhere

in the world. This has enabled them to develop the

technology further. How did they do it? There needs

to be some smart thinking about how we can finance

these initiatives besides through taxation.

Interview ends

Paul Edwards is the Director of Sustainability for

Hammerson, a FTSE100 European property owner

and developer based in the UK. He returned to the

UK in 2007, following ten years in Australia where he

worked for Lend Lease and Arup. Whilst in Australia

he was responsible for the delivery of sustainability

at The Bond, Lend Lease headquarters in Sydney,

which received over thirty-six awards and was the

first building to achieve 5 Star ABGR and 5 Green

Star As Built ratings.

Marks & Spencer have a program that they

call Plan A...

Paul represented Australia at the Asia Pacific

Partnership for Climate and Clean Development and

was awarded Future Leader by AIRAH in 2003. At

Hammerson he is now integrating sustainability into

a £5b pipeline including five new town centres and a

£7.5b existing asset portfolio. Hammerson will open

the first BREEAM ‘Excellent’ retail project this year at

Bristol and is part of the new BREEAM ‘Outstanding’

pilot with BRE. Hammerson is also a founding member

of the UKGBC.

70 71

Interview with Gisela Loehlein

Woods Bagot: How much is sustainability on the

agenda in the Middle East?

Gisela Loehlein: Initially I was told that I would be

crazy to come here if it was in order to push for

sustainability, it is not possible, there isn’t the interest

or the attitude. It has been an issue of how to balance

the economic boom and fast pace development

with emerging technologies and sustainable building

design. The industry worldwide is only finding its

feet and many materials and services do not have

the capacity for the construction demand required

in Dubai. The challenge is certainly about how we

can prepare the market for sustainability whilst

maintaining our rate of development, and I think

the industry is becoming more open to it now. It’s a

process, because we don’t become environmental

designers overnight, and specifically not here because

there’s no textbook on sustainable design for an arid

climate. Most of the environmental thinking comes

from moderate climates, it comes from the West.

WB: What leading examples of sustainable ideas

or design do you know of, or you think are leading

the way?

GL: The photovoltaics market is interesting and they

are currently running tests to actually see which

products work here in the desert. The other interest

of mine is nanotechnology, which is the equivalent

of genetic modification in the organic world. The

impressive thing is that you can program materials to

grow, to heal themselves, to have different properties

so that when the sun shines onto something like

glass it actually gets darker, etc. Nissan has brought

out a car that you can scratch and it heals itself in

two weeks. There are a lot of developments and

innovations but rarely directly for the built environment.

We haven’t got the funding body for R & D. We have

to learn what’s occurring in the space, medical and

military fields and apply it to the built environment.

WB: What good examples have you seen

of sustainable design?

GL: Zurich Airport in Switzerland is a good passive,

integrated example. You actually have to be sitting

in there for awhile to realise that it is a sustainable

building and I think this is the new phase that the

West is bringing us, much more integrated systems.

You sit in there and look around and then realise

the whole building has no air conditioning. It’s all

dealt with—a completely sustainable building. All

the shading devices simultaneously produce

electricity due to the PV cells.

Photovoltaics are still used a bit as an ornament — a sort

of shouting out signifying that I am green. And the

return on investment is not immediate. They can take

ten years to pay back. Whereas using solar thermal to

capture heat to use or convert to energy works much

better and it’s a 1–2 year payback period.

Another good project is in Bahrain which passively

cools the outside market retail area. The brief was to

allow people to walk and mingle for longer periods

of time outside without active thermal assistance,

utilising a series of landscaping filters, water cooling

systems and cooling towers. The design drags in,

traps and expels air at different stages and makes use

of the daytime and night time wind direction to cool

the structure down. It provided an extra two months

when shoppers could be outside.

WB: What do you see are the risks for sustainable

development?

GL: The huge learning curve and attempting to apply

this knowledge immediately. The Dubai International

Finance Centre is going to have a tower that will be

close to zero carbon. They are trying to put all the

different gadgetry and tricks of the trade into it to

try and make it work. But like everything, learning is

a step by step process by focusing on applications

and implications of one technology at a time. How

do solar thermals work? How do photovoltaics work

on a large scale structure? How efficient are they,

and where are they the most efficiently used? The

opportunity to design truly hybrid buildings is rare,

to immediately put everything onto one building if

you don’t have the experience is a risk therefore

interdisciplinary teamwork and research-industry

collaboration are required in these instances.

WB: Over the past two years there has been a global

explosion of awareness of climate change and the

contribution our built environment makes to same.

This has resulted in a rush to have buildings certified

as ‘green’. How is this operating in the UAE?

GL: We need to start somewhere on it and the

West started with guidelines. I suppose it is to set

a standard and make the process idiot proof, but

at the same time these Excel sheets can limit your

innovation as a designer or engineer. There is a risk

it becomes a tick the box exercise and that’s it.

LEED is currently being used in the Middle East for

benchmarking, but for it to be appropriate it needs

to be adapted to fit our culture and climate.

Ultimately I hope we can grow out of using guidelines

and minimum standards. They are limiting because

you cannot measure social integration and real

economic impact, the other aspects of sustainability.

I think certification is the starting point, but ultimately

just by raising up the numbers you don’t necessarily

get better quality buildings.

WB: Given that buildings might last fifty years on

average, what do you think may be the way that

we can future proof them?

GL: Creating adaptable buildings would have

real potential. In other words the building itself

adapts to its own needs, so that the envelope

becomes like an actual skin. Whether it’s winter,

summer, daytime, night time, the building responds.

However, it’s dangerous to sweep in from the West

to eastern countries and have an imperialistic view of

sustainability even if it’s normal to do that because

we were told that our western thinking is superior.

But if you start by actually developing your own

local system, a global and local combination, you

get much better adapted, meaningful solutions,

that actually in turn are informative for the West.

WB: Our response to environmental destruction

has so far been to be ‘less bad’ such as programs

encouraging reduce, avoid, minimise, sustain, limit,

halt…etc. Do you believe such thinking will continue

to prevail or do you think that there is an opportunity

for new thinking that views the earth as a biological

system that we can fit into, that buildings can

contribute to their environment as trees

contribute to the earth?

GL: We’ve got a project in Abu Dhabi where we

produce more energy than we can use in the building,

and when we told our client he said ‘Oh great, we’ll

cool the car-parking’—it’s the wrong approach. We

convinced him to feed the energy back into the grid

as a social gesture. Currently we are working on

buildings that will only need ten per cent of the current

electricity demand and hopefully in the future we are

able to feed into the grid rather than take from it.

And if it’s possible anywhere, it’s here, because we’ve

got fantastic climatic conditions, the sun and the

daylight out here, you couldn’t wish for better daylight.

It’s crazy that nearly every office has to have electric

lighting on because they’re badly designed. We’ve

got fantastic heat, which can be harnessed. If we can

save the environment anywhere we should be able to

do it here. It’s free. And it’s much better than having

to struggle in somewhere like Scandinavia putting up

solar cells and having very little daylight, particularly

in the winter. We are not hampered by guidelines

and that is something. The flexibility that we have we

take for granted and we don’t really maximise what

we could do with it. That’s up to us as individuals,

practitioners, academics and clients.

Interview ends

Creating adaptable buildings would have real potential. In

other words the building itself adapts to its needs, so that

the envelope becomes like an actual skin. Whether it’s winter,

summer, daytime, night time, the building responds.

Dr Gisela Loehlein is an architectural engineer by

training and holds a PhD from the Welsh School of

Architecture. She is currently pursuing a second PhD

in urban design from the City and Regional Planning

Department, Cardiff University. Gisela has held

research/teaching positions at Fraunhofer Research

Institute in Germany, School of Architecture and Design

at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and

the School of Architecture and Design at the American

University in Sharjah and the British University in Dubai,

the Institute of the Built Environment, which is linked to

Cardiff University.

She was the Principal Sustainability Research Fellow

for ATKINS, Middle East. Currently she holds the

Consultant position to the Director General, Sheikh

Khaled Bin Saar Al Oassimi, for the Directorate of

Public Works, UAE.

72 73

Interview with Rob Adams

Woods Bagot: How successful do you think we have

currently been with the solutions we’re putting in

place dealing with sustainability issues?

Rob Adams: What I think is dawning on a lot of us

is that the solutions have always been there, and

arguably if we go back 70–100 years and actually

look at people in different climatic areas, we’re

dealing with solutions that already existed before we

started to put in modern technology. We should be

starting to design buildings that are appropriate for

the climate of our cities. I think this is going to be the

big challenge. We’ll go backwards first to go forwards.

This is evident in Melbourne’s CH2 building. The most

effective factor in the building is that we can open

the windows at night to allow the building to cool

down and that single action saves 20% energy. As

a profession we are going to have to get away from

the seduction of technology and start looking more

carefully at realistic solutions that adapt our buildings

for the climate.

WB: Is there a city that you think is leading

the way with these considerations?

RA: If you asked me to pick a city where we can

achieve zero emissions in five years, I’d pick a city like

Barcelona and there are others similar. The reason

is the density—200 people per hectare—the highest

density of any city in Europe. It has great streets, it

has wide footpaths and public transport, it’s walkable,

it’s mixed use so you don’t have to go too far to find

anything and it’s only built to seven storeys so the

whole roof of the city can become a solar collector.

It was designed pre-motor car as a walkable city.

A lot of other cities have these conditions as well.

We just have to rediscover them.

WB: Yes, Barcelona has been quoted as one of the

‘smart cities’. Do you believe the trend towards zero

carbon cities and buildings should continue?

RA: I do, and the interesting thing is that it’s not

a hairshirt future—we don’t have to give up a lot

to achieve this goal. Ironically a lot of city changes

or adaptations in terms of liveability are identical

to those needed for sustainability. We will find that

cities of the future are far more exciting places to

be in, far more socially and environmentally attuned.

From a professional point of view I get quite excited

about the challenges we are being set and I keep

on wanting to say, ‘Let’s stop avoiding this issue; the

solutions are quite exciting’. But we also need

to insist on courage in government focus.

WB: The rate of change in the industry has been

fascinating; what do you think about refurbishing

existing stock to be more sustainable?

RA: What the Clinton Foundation and their Energy

Efficiency Building Retrofit Program is doing for

C-grade commercial office buildings is fascinating.

The program allows both cities and building owners

to apply for the necessary funds to retrofit existing

buildings with more energy efficient products.

WB: Are you aware about how much uptake

there’s been with this?

RA: Yes. Two cities have signed up to it, London

and Melbourne. In Melbourne we have given them

our total city property portfolio to review. The state

government has also committed a part of the

parliamentary precinct. When addressing a city rather

than a single building we can achieve economies

of scale on factors such as blackwater treatment

and co-generation. As yet I don’t know of any built

examples but the momentum is growing and the

process has begun.

WB: So where do you think the focus needs to be,

on future proofing new stock or re-visiting our

existing buildings?

RA: We are going through that exercise as we speak.

We’ve done a feasibility study on a C-grade building.

It was built to low commercial parameters, low floor

to ceiling heights and so on. It will cost us about A$43

million to convert it to a 6 Star building. To knock that

building down and build a new 6 Star building of the

same size would cost A$53 million. It’s a no-brainer

which way we should go.

WB: Absolutely. What are the most radical ideas you

have heard about in terms of sustainable solutions?

RA: There are some interesting ideas. Take the

Melbourne example of harnessing the energy of water.

A lot of people may not know that the water level

between the bay and the sea during the changing

of tides is one metre. It is a huge force that comes

through the heads. They are now looking at generating

electricity by harnessing that force. I think this will be

an area of focus more and more with the rise of tides.

The funny thing about this whole debate—even the

building of cities—none of it is new stuff. People talk

about CH2 as something radical and I hear, “Look

at the solutions—it’s got opening windows, it’s got

flyscreens on the windows when they open at night,

we have plants in the building and we protect our

windows on the north”. Well that all sounds like pretty

common sense stuff to me.

WB: Getting back to cities, do you think the model for

our cities of the future will become more village-like

in the way they are planned, so that everything will

be much more localised? Or do you think the current

model will be maintained?

RA: I think if you take the typical Australian city it will

become more village-like. Suburbia will be redefined.

In a hundred years time we will have clusters of

very dense, almost central city developments in and

around our community and railway stations. We

will have high density corridors along all our public

transport routes. When you drop off the dry cleaning,

get a cup of coffee and do your market shop, it is

only going to be a couple of kilometres from where

you live and you’ll mostly do it increasingly by walking

or taking a bike. If you’re going to do a big market

shop it might take one of those delivery bikes that

ride around Copenhagen. Energy will be saved and

personal fitness will increase.

But the car will still be there. The car will become that

element you use for a special occasion, like the old

carriage that used to be brought out for a special

occasion. For a lot of people, and I have lived in

suburbia, that will be a huge relief because living in

suburbia you have to drive sometimes 16 kms to get

to anything that’s worth visiting. I think this is going

to begin to change quite quickly. This idea is at the

base of Melbourne’s 2030 and Brisbane’s Southeast

Development schemes—developments with high

density in and around the transport infrastructure.

There is a way to resolve our problems and we have

to start doing something about it fairly quickly.

Interview ends

Professor Rob John Adams AM B.Arch (Cape Town),

MA.CNNA (Urban Design Oxford), FRAIA, HFRAPI,

is the Director of Design and Urban Environment at

the City of Melbourne. He has over thirty-six years

experience as a practising architect and urban

designer. In his role at the City of Melbourne he has

produced a prolonged and consistent output of design

-based urban projects and strategies worthy of over

100 state and national awards for excellence.

Rob is a passionate believer in the good design

of cities and the important role to be played by all

levels of government. A champion of the arts and

environmental sustainability, he has worked to ensure

that good urban design is established as a platform

for city development into the twenty-first century. In

2007 Rob was awarded an Order of Australia (AM)

in recognition for services to urban design, town

planning and architecture.

A lot of city changes or adaptations in terms of liveability are identical to those needed for sustainability.

74 75

... we are getting rid of existing tungsten lights for new energy efficient globes,

but they too are full of embodied energy and may cause more harm than good. Perhaps part of the solution is simple; turn off some of your new light bulbs.

Interview with James Evans

Woods Bagot: How effective do you believe our

current attempts to develop truly sustainable built

environments are?

James Evans: It’s a reasonable start; I would rate

it four out of ten. Far greater emphasis and research

is required to improve the existing building stock.

A lot of focus is on new buildings but they represent

such a small percentage of our built environment.

I think initiatives, particularly tax benefits and

penalties and government incentives, don’t exist in

sufficient quantities to encourage building owners

to improve their existing assets.

WB: What does the future look like for our

built environments?

JE: Boldly I would say by 2030 new buildings should

all have near zero energy use and near zero waste.

By 2060 we should actually be contributing positively

back to the bigger picture of the environment.

WB: What is the most radical idea that you have

come across for sustainability?

JE: I’m still hanging on to nuclear fusion. Obviously

there are enormous benefits in it. It’s been around

for many years but actually making it work is what

would be radical.

It’s also interesting to contemplate the ‘Dark Green’

movement. Part of that philosophy suggests man

should return to being a ‘nil user’ and actually

contribute back to the environment. Dark Green

supporters are opposed to Maglev train technology

for example, which on the face of it appears to be

a very efficient use of energy, but the argument is

that such technology makes transportation so much

easier and quicker for man which in turn leads to

further consumption of resources and expansion

of man’s footprint. It is an extreme view, but is worth

contemplating. Our resource consumption needs

to be significantly reduced.

WB: How do we ensure that we future proof buildings

in environmental terms?

JE: Firstly, building services flexibility, and secondly,

mandated sinking funds for service replacement are

needed. How do we predict what the technology of

the future will be? As technology improves, a building

must have a substantial sinking fund on which to draw

in order to pay for updated services.

WB: Where do you believe our efforts need to be

focused in order to address shortcomings in our

current approach to solutions?

JE: We have renewed awareness but I don’t think

we have the depth of understanding at the moment.

I would like to see a diversion of the debate away

from whether climate change is part of a natural

phenomenon or whether man is contributing in whole

or part to it, to an acceptance that man has limited

resources and that those who only look at one

or two generations ahead need to be financially

penalised. From my perspective it’s time wasting

to determine to what extent man has contributed

to global warming or climate change—the fact is there

are limited resources—that is unquestionable—and

therefore education, business and government should

all target this issue rather than spending time and

resources debating amongst ourselves who or what

is to blame. So much of our time and effort goes

into debating as opposed to accepting and doing.

WB: Are there good examples of current initiatives

or solutions that you believe set a benchmark for

how we should move forward?

JE: I feel sceptical. We’re not there yet. The current

advanced leading buildings still have a long way

to go, but they represent a reasonable beginning.

In these early days business cases are often still

based on less tangible benefits, benefits to

productivity, that sort of thing.

We must continually scrutinise. Many are jumping

on the bandwagon with some part solutions.

For example, we are getting rid of existing tungsten

lights for new energy efficient globes, but they

too are full of embodied energy and may cause

more harm than good. Perhaps part of the solution

is simple; turn off some of your new light bulbs.

As I often argue with my wife, “don’t turn the heating

on, put on something warmer”.

We need to look at ourselves and our ever-expanding

expectations not just our built environment.

Interview ends

James has held senior management positions in

the property development and construction industries,

primarily in Melbourne, over a period of more than

twenty-six years. Specific roles have included state

manager, development manager, project manager and

business development manager for Devine Ltd, ING

Real Estate Development, one of the world’s largest

and most successful urban property developers,

and Multiplex, one of Australia’s largest and most

successful property development and design and

construct contractors.

Many of the projects he has been involved in have

been large-scale mixed use developments including

Waterfront City (Melbourne Docklands), QV (Melbourne

CBD) and the Como Centre (South Yarra, Melbourne).

76 77

One of the largest influences is how much you can afford to future proof

in the first place. It means recognising that the building will be obsolete in

twenty years. Interview with Alan Findlater

Woods Bagot: How effective do you think we have

been in our current attempts to develop a truly

sustainable environment?

Alan Findlater: I think it’s probably too early to tell

and it’s also a difficult thing to measure. What has

been most effective is the amount of change within

the last three years. If your buildings are not rated

Five Star Green Star then you’re not considered

to be doing anything special. This is a huge shift.

However, it does seem a lot is being driven by

accreditation points. The industry has created a

rating tool but is that giving us what we actually

want? This means people’s behaviour is directly

linked to how they’re measurable. It’s arguable

whether we are pursuing the best outcomes, or

are simply pursuing points. I don’t necessarily think

it’s that easy for any kind of system of points to

necessarily drive the behaviour you want. In my

experience being driven by points can steer you

away from what is intuitively a better outcome.

However, the label of an accredited building seems

to be gaining importance. Every project will be

different of course.

WB: Is there a future for the green building councils?

AF: I think so. But they will need to ensure they

maintain their relevance. If there was a marked trend

away from points then it would indicate the need

for realignment. The whole process is one of change

and evolution.

I think the ESD consulting profession will need to

continue to evolve. In this initial phase it’s almost

like a bit of a crusade—the whole movement is

bound in sustainable principles and there’s a certain

esoteric element to it all. A lot of that will go through

an evolution and there will be a more pragmatic

approach going forward.

WB: Have you come across some radical ideas that

you think should be investigated further?

AF: We’re looking at a project at the moment with

wind power turbines. It’s unproven whether it will

deliver the end results but we have a client who is

interested in pursuing it so we’re open to new ideas

and different approaches. It’s a bit of a laboratory

out there at the moment.

WB: You spoke earlier about outcomes versus points

systems. Are you seeing a movement towards carbon

neutral buildings?

AF: Yes we have clients where this is a key stated

objective. The perception of the benefits is driving the

need. The market is asking, ‘Are you building carbon

neutral?’, and people want to be able to say yes.

WB: What does the future look like for the built

environment? What sort of sustainable solutions

do you think are going to be a feature for the

buildings of tomorrow?

AF: To be positive I would say the industry has a

great capacity to be innovative and is open to change.

The big institutions are all taking it pretty seriously

and looking at their building stock and how they are

going to improve their ratings. The market will show

a great capacity to respond despite some trial

and error. Probably in another twenty-four months

there will be a shakeout of all the options and

certain strategies will pursued more vigorously

in a targeted way.

WB: What about future proofing? Are these assets

going to be around for 40–50 more years in an

environment that is changing quickly?

AF: Very difficult to answer. One of the largest

influences is how much you can afford to future

proof in the first place. It means recognising that

the building will be obsolete in twenty years.

Does future proofing mean having a core structure

that is capable of different uses? Or is it ensuring

that the completed built form can last through

different or longer cycles? It’s difficult to predict

because no-one knows where science is going.

You can spend a lot of money on future proofing

and get it wrong.

Interview ends

Alan Findlater is managing director of Donald Cant

Watts Corke Management (DCWC) with over twenty

years industry experience with firms, Leighton

Contractors and Lend Lease. Founded in 1966, DCWC

provide a full range of project management services

from initial optimisation studies through to strategic

management of property assets. They have worked on

a wide variety of high-end projects including Parliament

House and the National Museum of Australia.

Sustainability should not be an issue seen as separable from the whole. It should be at the starting gate, be there during the journey and at the end.

Not one factor should escape scrutiny. After all, designers are required by law to design with immediate safety of constructors and users in mind . . . so why not the safety of future generations?

Anton Jansz London

Sustainability to me is creating something that can be destroyed and made again into its original form. For example, there is little sustainability in creating rubber fl oor mats from recycled car tyres. You should be able to make new car tyres out of old car tyres. What happens to the rubber fl oor mats when they are thrown away?

Lucas CusackLondon

80 81

RED TOGREENJASONMARRIO

RED TOGREENJASONMARRIOTT

RED TOGREENJASONMARRIOTT

82 83

China’s boomingconstruction industryaccounts for 75% of the nation’s energy consumption.

China’s mainland is a vast area of similar size and

covering similar latitudes to the United States. This

means climates and ecosystems vary dramatically,

from sub-tropical to extreme cold. Traditionally this

has resulted in the creation of different building

types throughout China to deal with the different

environmental needs. Building material usage,

orientation and designs over time have emerged

into distinct regional typologies. For example, in

northern China, building facades traditionally face

south or southeast and have large windows and

screens to maximise heat and natural light gains. In

contrast, the north-facing walls have limited and small

windows to restrict the penetration of predictable

cold northwest winds. Combine this with a thick roof,

eaves of measured length that limit summer sun while

welcoming winter light, and an open courtyard with

central deciduous trees for shading, and you have

the typology of a traditional northern China dwelling.

This example demonstrates that China has a strong

heritage of environmental design intelligence and an

acute historical awareness of how to use architecture

to create comfortable environments.

So why is China today at risk of being one of the

most carbon emitting countries in the world, and what

is happening to environmentally reposition China?

To answer this question we must first understand that

China largely turned its back on its traditional heritage

during the ill-fated Cultural Revolution (1966–76).

China’s population was radically restructured under

the red star and attempted to survive the decades

of shortage and starvation through experiments

in industrialising agriculture. Foreign advisors sent

from its near neighbour, the Soviet Union, led to

the erection of a multitude of inexpensive, poorly

constructed, undecorated and standardised buildings.

The purpose of these buildings was to give a

consistent and unbiased level of basic amenity

to align with the politics of the time, and the

approach of design standardisation complemented

China’s agrarian industrialisation. Unfortunately,

these building types ignored many principles of

what today we would consider as good design, and

were built throughout China, ignoring the varied

cultures and climates that exist. These regimented

barrack-like ‘super block’ masterplans have formed

the foundation of China’s built environment and

have contributed significantly to the current level

of environmental damage.

Today there is a critical need for China to change the way it develops and shapes its cities from the macro urban level right down to individual building designs.

Today there is a critical need for China to change the

way it develops and shapes its cities from the macro

urban level right down to individual building designs.

It is widely documented that greenhouse gases are

doing enormous damage to the environment and that

the climate is changing as a result. The manufactured

landscapes of China are a major contributor. China is

expected to accommodate more than half the world’s

building projects within the next fifteen years (Block,

2007), and was predicted to overtake the United

States in greenhouse gas emissions by the end of

2007 according to the Netherlands Environmental

Assessment Agency (Kahn & Yardley, 2007). Vice

Minister of Construction, Qiu Baoxing, has stated

that about 95% of China’s booming construction

industry accounts for 75% of the nation’s total

energy consumption.

China’s environment has reached a point where it

is now choking on its own success with the demand

for fossil fuels unparalleled in history. Modern China

is demanding enormous amounts of energy to feed

its industrial sector and rampant urbanisation. This

paper looks broadly at the current status of transport,

recycling, energy technologies and construction in

China and where this super power is positioning

for the future.

85

Bike

It was estimated that by the 2008 Olympic Games there would be 3.3 million cars on the road, up from 2.97 million cars in early 2007.

84

86 87

Where have all the bikes gone?

With the increased spending power of the expanding

middle class in China’s Mainland, the demand for cars

has also increased and gone are the days of bicycle-

filled streets. Even with the bicycle lanes of yesterday

being lost for wider roads, traffic congestion remains

a major problem in many Chinese cities particularly

Beijing and Shanghai. It was estimated that by the

2008 Olympic Games there would be 3.3 million cars

on the road, up from 2.97 million cars in early 2007

(Mackey, 2007).

Along with demand for cars comes the need for

more fossil fuels to build expanding infrastructure.

The results of the widespread emergence of the car

throughout China include higher energy consumption,

increased greenhouse gas emission, extensive noise

pollution, and not least an extremely stressful and

uncomfortable travel environment. Simple trips in

these leading Chinese cities can now take hours to

complete as cars queue across busy intersections

with frequent disregard for traffic signals and road

signs. For pedestrians the roads have become

substantially more dangerous as drivers, including

those of the public transport system, rarely stop for

pedestrians and can often be seen driving up on the

footpaths to avoid jammed traffic.

The Beijing Municipal Government is implementing

numerous measures to help reduce the ever-

increasing traffic congestion problem, but they are

racing against the speed of car purchases which

currently stands at around 1200 new cars entering

the streets every day (Mackey, 2007). Beijing ran an

experiment where one million cars were taken off

the streets to see the extent of pollution reduction

in the lead-up to the Olympic Games (Over 1 million

automobiles to be banned during Olympics, 2007). The

results were immediately visible with less traffic jams

and a bluer sky. Chinese officials measured up to 20%

less pollution and a 50% increase in speed of traffic

(Local Government Association, 2008; Mackey, 2007).

In addition to experiments in car control the Beijing

Municipal Government has started looking at a green

tax to be placed on vehicles and vessels. This tax

was planned to be implemented on 1 July 2007 but

has been delayed to better align the taxation policy

with the national strategy of conserving energy and

protecting the environment (Green taxation needed

in China, 2007). While a taxation policy that makes

energy consumers and the producers of greenhouse

gas emissions pay is a good idea, the scheme

needs to be fair. The government needs to address

the different efficiencies of vehicles including new

and used vehicles. In this way consumers that have

elected to buy efficient, smaller, or alternative energy

vehicles can be rewarded.

To further help with traffic congestion, cities like

Beijing have embarked on major subway system

upgrades with the help of Japanese engineers who

are responsible for the superb metro systems of

Tokyo. New underground stations are being added

and a major new line running north and south was

added in late 2007. To further stimulate the use

of the metro system instead of cars, fares have

been reduced, the number of stops increased

and lifts introduced down to the platforms (Qu,

2007). Additionally, in a bid to ease congestion and

improve air quality Beijing has reportedly paid 1.3

billion Chinese yuan (US$174m) to subsidise public

transport companies after bus ticket prices were

also lowered.

Recycling

These are strong initiatives aimed at easing carbon

emissions and China’s policies don’t stop at transport.

Recycling and alternative energy technologies

are emerging in importance. At the 2007 National

People’s Party Congress, the government stressed

a proactive response to growth and sustainability.

Environmental protection has attracted the

government’s attention although there is still lack

of coordination often between government strategy

and other sectors.

China is at the centre of the world’s recycling.

Many recycled materials collected in the developed

countries are shipped to China as raw materials,

often in the form of cube metal, to be recycled

into new products. E-waste, materials that are

highly toxic, containing heavy metals and lead, is a

significant industry in China, with 50% of the world’s

old computers ending up in villages where they are

broken down to salvage various precious metals from

the components (Baichwal, 2006). As this type of

work is painstaking, difficult and done manually, with

very low pay, it is cost prohibitive for a developed

country to deal with. As a result, China currently

plays a significant global recycling role by retrieving

materials that would otherwise be lost to landfill.

Business Weekly reported that Philips established

a recycling centre in China to recover mercury from

discarded tubes. Annually, the recycling centre is

capable of processing over seven million tubes

which is a significant recycling potential (Li, 2004).

E-waste, materials that are highly toxic, containing heavy metals and lead, is a signifi cant industry in China, with 50% of the world’s old computers ending up in villages where they are broken down to salvage various precious metals from the components (Baichwal, 2006).

Unfortunately, even though such recycling can

curb some environmental damage, without stricter

regulation and government control, some of China’s

recycling practices can be even more environmentally

harmful. According to a 2005 Greenpeace study,

run-off from the acid baths used to dissolve the

metals has found its way into nearby rivers, and

dangerous toxins are released by fires used to

destroy non-recyclable components (Brigden, 2005).

Much more coordination between public and private

sectors is necessary and this is a difficult balance for

China to reach. Economic disparity exists between

China’s major cities and more rural areas as does

the disparity between enforcement and enactment

of governmental policy.

Zheng Guoguang, Director of China’s Meteorological

Administration (2007), argued that it is important when

discussing China in terms of climate change and

environmental sustainability, that one understands the

concept of ‘differentiated responsibility.’ The principle

of Common but Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR)

develops from Principle 7 of the Rio Declaration and

states in effect that while all countries have a common

obligation to protect the world’s environment, countries

at different stages of development require differing

levels of obligation. Developed countries (which Zheng

correctly believes should be blamed the most for

global warming due to a longer history of greenhouse

gas emissions) now need to focus on the mitigation of

what are called ‘luxury emissions’. China, who is trying

to solve problems related to basic living standards for

tens of millions of people, needs to reduce ‘survival

emissions’ (Xiaohua, 2007).

The principle calls for developing countries to come

into compliance over time. Speaking to leaders of

Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa during the

2007 Group of 8 (G8) summit, President Hu Jintao,

reiterated the need for developing countries to ensure

effective cooperation to prevent environmental

degradation, but stressed that for China and other

developing countries, achieving “economic growth

and improving the lives of our people are top

priorities” (Hu urges “common but differentiated

responsibilities”, 2007). Rightly so, without a more

level playing field, environmental measures such

as large-scale e-waste recycling may not reach its

potential global impact.

88 89

SURVIVALLUXURY

Developed countries now need to focus on the mitigation of what are called

‘luxury emissions.’ China, who is trying to solve problems related to basic living standards for tens of millions of people,

needs to reduce ‘survival emissions’.

90 91

Green energy technologies

With economic growth comes the additional need

for energy, particularly electrical energy. Findings

at the World Business Council for Sustainable

Development’s Energy Efficiency in Buildings project

indicated that even though energy consumed in

Chinese buildings is from five to nine times less than

in developed countries, energy consumption per

building is far greater (World Business Council for

Sustainable Development, 2007). In fact, two to three

times as much energy is used to generate the same

amount of building heating in China as in developed

countries with the same climatic conditions.

In China 450 billion kilowatts of electricity was

produced from January to February alone in 2007,

an increase of 17% from the previous year (Li, Chen

& Cai, 2007). The International Energy Agency is

forecasting that the energy demand in China will

increase by 260% from 2000 to 2030 making the

nation one of the world’s biggest energy consumers

(Loy, 2007). It should also be noted that the building

industry alone accounts for one third of China’s

electric power demand (Langer & Watson, 2004).

Consequently, the need for green energy technologies

has become a necessity for China and the government

has already responded, particularly in the areas of

wind and solar power generation.

China now hosts Suzlon Energy, the world’s biggest

wind turbine factory. The Chinese government,

realising the benefits and increasing global demand

of wind energy technology, has demanded that 70%

of parts should be locally produced (Sunlit uplands,

2007). This is a good example of how China is

exploiting new environmental technologies to build

local industry, contribute to the greater economy

and support climate change.

When one flies into Shanghai’s Pudong Airport on a

clear day a grid of wind turbines may be seen slowly

turning near the Yangtze River from one of China’s

clean energy producing wind farms. This wind farm

is one of many planned for China (Loy, 2007). China’s

first wind farm was constructed in 1986 in Rongcheng,

north of Beijing. By 2004 China had forty-three

established wind farms, with 1291 wind turbines and

764 megawatts of installed capacity. In 2007 the

country had increased this number to sixty-two farms

in fifteen provinces (Feller, 2006). The Global Wind

Energy Council (GWEC) forecasts that total wind

power in China will reach 150 million kW, making it

one of the world’s largest wind power markets (Loy,

2007). China ranked tenth two years ago in terms of

annual installed wind turbines and by 2007 has risen

to number five behind the United States, Germany,

India and Spain. It is anticipated that with rapid industry

growth China will be catapulted to second position

by the end of 2008 (Martinot, 2007).

China is already becoming a world leader in solar

power with innovators such as solar engineer Dr Shi

Zhengrong, part-owner of Suntech (the third largest

manufacturer in the world of solar cells) leading the

way (Suntech, 2006). The company is now listed on

the New York Stock Exchange and is worth around

US$5.5 billion (Sunlit uplands, 2007). More so than

solar electricity due to its upfront expense, solar

hot water heating has great traction in China which

is now home to almost 60% of the world’s solar

water heating capacity (Hodum, 2007).

Environmental leadership

The impact on the environment is arguably the most

negative aspect of China’s extraordinary growth, and

this is well-known by China’s leaders. The leadership

in China knows it must act now in regards to reducing

greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption

if it wants to engage in global business. Already the

municipal government in Beijing has spent fifteen

billion Chinese yuan (US$2bn) on a large-scale

pollution remediation with factories, power plants and

coal-fired furnaces being relocated out of the city. The

Beijing Municipal Government claims environmental

initiatives conducted have resulted in 241 ‘blue-sky’

days in 2006 compared to fewer than 100 ten years

ago (Local Government Association, 2008).

The most obvious answer to correct the current

environmental situation in China would be to retard

its economic growth. Unfortunately, the answer is not

this simple. A recent article in the New York Times

points out that for the central government the political

calculus is daunting. Reigning in economic growth to

alleviate pollution may seem logical, but the country’s

system is addicted to fast growth. Delivering prosperity

placates the public, provides spoils for well-connected

officials and forestalls demands for political change.

A major slow down could incite social unrest, alienate

business interests and threaten the government (Kahn

& Yardley, 2007). There is, however, no escape for

China in regards to environmental sustainability. As

the country becomes more and more a global citizen

it receives increasing pressure to act as a good global

citizen and with its rising financial power there is an

accompanying expectation of global leadership. Further,

China has entered into a number of environmental

agreements that include Asia Pacific 6 (AP6). In fact,

China has signed over seventy international treaties on

the environment. On paper, China is well positioned to

emerge as a vital key player in environmental protection

and sustainable development. China now needs to

ensure unified adherence to these agreements.

By 2004, China had forty-three established wind farms, with 1291 wind turbines and 764 megawatts of installed capacity...The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) forecasts that total wind power in China will reach 150 million kW, making it one of the world’s largest wind power markets.

92 93

It is anticipated that by 2015 more than half of the world’s buildings will be in China and many of these buildings will

be over 93 m tall.

Building the next generation

It is anticipated that by 2015 more than half of the

world’s buildings will be in China and many of these

buildings will be over 93 m tall (The World Bank, n.d.).

An important consideration is that many of these

major-scale buildings in China will be tall towers.

The emergence of tall towers in China is being

driven by the increasing cost of land combined with

population plus a dire need for urban regeneration.

The rapid emergence of tall buildings in China has

brought about an increased awareness of the need

for integrated environmentally sustainable design

solutions for major projects. This was demonstrated

in 2007 when Shanghai hosted the tall building

conference with the topic: ‘Planning, designing,

marketing and managing of sustainable skylines

for current and future generations.’ The conference

had thirty-five sponsors, twenty-eight international

speakers and more than 150 delegates from the

design, building and property fields highlighting

the importance and interest in the topic.

Building owners in China are now starting to realise

that going green has a number of commercial

benefits like improved brand recognition, tenant

attraction and retention, and significant lifecycle

cost reductions. As a result of this, pressure is now

being placed on developers to incorporate built-in

environmental initiatives to cater for market demands.

This has seen the emergence of environmental

consultancies such as EMSI who are specialising in

design strategies that result in LEED-rated buildings.

With more than twenty projects throughout China,

companies like EMSI are evidence of the emergence

of developer awareness of the need to go green

in China.

One of EMSI’s projects that is of particular interest

and is an example of the Chinese government

leading by example in regards to sustainable design

is the Songbei Enterprise Centre in Harbin. The

55 000 m2 project will be China’s first green municipal

building, and will be headquarters of the Songbei

District Government. The design includes extensive

daylighting, hybrid natural ventilation, groundwater

cooling, green roofs and a large photovoltaic system.

Woods Bagot has been approached by several

industrial sector developers in China with briefs

for sustainable industrial parks. This development

response has been encouraged to a large extent

by government financial incentives offered to district

and province leaders that can demonstrate cleaner

air and environmental initiatives.

Another building of particular interest in China

is the seventy-one-storey Pearl River Tower in

Guangzhou due for completion in 2009. This tower

boasts to be the world’s first ‘net’ zero carbon

skyscraper that produces its own energy from

sun and wind sources. While many of the high-rise

technologies proposed for this building are still

unproven, the aspiration of the design is remarkable

and innovative in design. The building’s actual

performance will only be known upon its completion

and after several years of operation. However,

whether this building is 100% zero-energy or not,

it will represent a new vision of architecture for

China, and, most importantly, will demonstrate

China’s willingness and commitment as an

environmental leader.

Due to China’s double digit economic growth, the

country has become a focal point for international

media. As it develops, China has attracted the eyes

of the world—perhaps even with a bit of envy. China

has been criticised for the impact of this growth on

the environment, though it is worth noting that many

of the critical onlookers are developed countries that

industrialised and prospered early without any regard

for the environment. Consequently China, along with

India and other developing countries, is being

pressured by the developed world to implement, at

additional expense, advanced environmental control

measures. This pressure, however, does have an

extremely positive dimension in that it will lead to

new industries and avenues for financial growth,

and China is in prime position to be a global leader

in environmental change and technologies. Modern

China is a dichotomous country, but it has the ability

to set the standard and benchmarks for climate

change and sustainability in the new century.

94 959999999944444494499999999994494999944449994444444494949444444999494999494444444499994949499999994994999949494999999444949999494999499494949444444449449444 9999999959595959595959595955999999999999999595955999999999999995599999999999995599999999999559999999999999995959555999999999599999595999999999599999999999999999999995959999999999995599955555999955999999955599995999999559999999555999955559555559955555595555595955555555555559555

The colour of money: The business case for sustainable designEarle Arney and Chris Mobbs

Make no mistake ... it is not ‘business as usual’.

This paper examines what is the business case

for sustainability; or put more colloquially,

what colours our decision to ‘go green’?

96 97

The message is clear. Join the revolution or

become an old school fad.

Revolution or fad-rhetoric?

A revolution is occurring. It is not about industrialisation

as was the last great global revolution but it is global

nonetheless. It is a revolution that is in its infancy and

is at the stage of building a collective consciousness.

It is a revolution that will fundamentally colour

everything we do from the way we grow our food,

consume resources, transport ourselves, house

our children and communicate to each other. It is a

revolution promoted by all aspects of society and is

increasingly dissolving barriers of race and wealth.

The revolution is simple. It is about adapting business

to the global awareness that our environment matters.

The seeds of this revolution were planted many

years ago but it is only in more recent time that

our communities, customers and tenants have

started to mobilise and proactively engage business.

What is also clear is that a significant target will

initially be the low fruit; things we can change that

will generate an immediate improvement to the

sustainability of our planet.

The revolution is simple. It is about adapting business to the global awareness that our environment matters.

Buildings are one such easy target as they typically

generate more than thirty per cent of all energy

consumption and they are, on a global scale, relatively

cheap to deliver sustainable outcomes (Energy

Information Administration, 2007). Indeed, a global

study by McKinsey of the size and cost of measures

to reduce greenhouse gas emissions reveals that

“at the low end of the cost curve are, for the most

part, measures that improve energy efficiency”.

“These measures, such as better insulation in

new buildings”, improved lighting systems and air

conditioning efficiency reduce emissions by lowering

demand for power (Enkvist, Nauclér & Rosander, 2007,

p. 37). Such initiatives are now becoming embedded

in most progressive green buildings and it is not

surprising given that sixty per cent of global executives

view climate change as important to consider within

their company’s overall strategy. Further, nearly

seventy per cent see it as an important consideration

for managing corporate reputation and brands, and

over fifty per cent say it’s important to account for

climate change in such varied areas as product

development, investment planning, and purchasing

and supply management (McKinsey, 2008).

A related global survey by McKinsey found that

businesses must act on global warming to narrow

a general ‘trust gap’ between them and the public.

Failure to do so will not only affect how customers

trust a company but whether they would buy

its products (Bonini, Hintz & Mendonca, 2008).

By extension and from our own global experience,

property businesses that do not act on global

warming will find it increasingly difficult to sell or

lease space in their buildings if these assets are

not environmentally sustainable.

The message is clear. Join the revolution or become

an old school fad.

Melbourne Convention Centre Development.

Designed by joint venture architects Woods Bagot

and NH Architecture

98 99

Indeed, some developments incorporate fi nancially unviable but visually recognisable green initiatives as a public demonstration of sustainability in an attempt to build or strengthen their brand.

2. BNZ Tower, New Zealand

The Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) corporate

headquarters project is currently under

construction in Auckland and was a pilot project

for the establishment of the country’s Green

Building Council design rating scheme. The BNZ

Tower is New Zealand’s first high-rise 5 Star Green

Star designed commercial office building and as

such will be the high-rise poster child for sustainable

design in New Zealand. Environmentally efficient

operation and corporate social responsibility were

the key drivers behind incorporating sustainable

initiatives into this development.

3. Melbourne Convention

Centre Development, Australia

The Melbourne Convention Centre Development

(MCCD) is the world’s first 6 Star Green Star

‘designed’ (Green Building Council of Australia)

conference centre and is being delivered under

a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement

between the Victorian Government, Brookfield

Multiplex and Plenary Group. The design solution

employs a number of ‘firsts’ in a building

that traditionally contradicts the aims of

sustainable buildings.

Case studies

It is clear that there is a thirst for knowledge sharing.

This is no more the case than in the property

industry which effectively creates a new product

on each building site. To become more effective at

this process of invention and to reduce the risks of

green buildings, it is useful to examine case studies

of recently designed and recently completed green

developments. The following examples are three very

different business cases of sustainability in which the

challenges, risks, opportunities and outcomes of each

are explored.

1. Adelaide City Central, Australia

The 125 000 m2 City Central development in

South Australia contains four commercial towers,

a residential/hotel tower, retail and hospitality

venues and a plaza area combining new buildings

with refurbished heritage works. Tower 1 houses

predominantly commercial office space and was

completed in 2007, with Tower 2 completed in 2008.

The project was born against conditions that many

would have walked away from. However, through the

vision of the developer and effective engagement of

prospective tenants and other key stakeholders, a

product has been delivered that has transformed the

Australian speculative commercial property market.

“ Once you have created a building like Tower 1 [City Central], why would you go back to an old-fashioned building? Green is the way of the future.”

Peter Hall, MD, Aspen Group

“ The issue for us is very much about social responsibility and also about the indoor environment for our staff.”

Bruce Stockwell, Director, Corporate and Institutional Banking, BNZ

“ It’s more about what you don’t see than what you do see.”

Matthew Jessup,Principal, Lincolne Scott

5

Show me the money

Concerns about greenhouse gases and global

warming are no longer limited to environmentalists.

This revolution or paradigm shift is now about

business and doing things smarter to generate

shareholder value. Apart from the significant

changes that will result with the introduction of

a carbon economy, obvious but compelling reasons

to change include:

/ Lower annual operating costs

/ Increased occupant productivity

/ Higher relative investment returns

/ Marketing advantage

/ Higher market value for assets

/ Higher rents

Less well documented but still compelling drivers

for going green include:

/ Ethical investment opportunities

/ Higher tenant retention

/ Reduced liability regarding occupant health

/ Less reliance on external infrastructure grids

and their subsequent problems

/ Reduced capital costs including reduced

construction time and variations (Madew, 2006)

With these benefits it is not surprising that there

has been such a rapid growth in efforts by the

property industry to explore opportunities and

subsequently commit to developing sustainable

built environment solutions.

... businesses must act on global warming to narrow a general ‘trust gap’ between them and the public.

The business case for sustainability is often argued

by property industry commentators in purely financial

terms and the basic equation that is applied is a

comparison of long term operational expense against

the capital expense of those initiatives. Indeed,

Davis Langdon advises that significant environment

measures increase the capital cost of buildings

by as little as 2–4% and that energy savings are

the single largest quantifiable benefit for the

implementation of sustainability (Davis Langdon,

2007). Yet the influence of this equation varies

significantly around the globe as the cost of energy

is markedly different in the Middle East, to Europe

and America (Figure 1). As a result, savings in energy

consumption in Europe where energy costs are high

can have a dramatic effect on the annual operating

cost of a building. Despite regional price variations,

the foreseeable increases in energy costs and

their unpredictability, as seen in 2008, are likely

to focus the industry on employing sustainable

design measures to reduce energy consumption

and operating costs.

Our research reveals that there is a much more

complex matrix of drivers that underpin a green

business case than the basic Capex/Opex equation

(see ‘Sustainability: Who cares?’, p. 54). Indeed, some

developments incorporate financially unviable but

visually recognisable green initiatives as a public

demonstration of sustainability in an attempt to

build or strengthen their brand. Other arguments

for investing in sustainable design have linked

green initiatives with improved staff comfort, higher

staff satisfaction, cultural alignment, staff retention

and attraction and increased productivity. This is

particularly relevant in the workplace of developed

countries where payroll costs of knowledge workers

greatly outweigh most other costs.

Figure 1.

International electricity cost comparison 2007.

Reproduced with permission from NUS Consulting Group

US

cents

per

KW

H

10

0

15

20

25

Italy

US

Neth

erlands

Austr

alia

Sw

eden

South

Afr

ica

UK

Indeed a study of office worker productivity by

Heschong (2003) concluded that positive changes

to the working environment can deliver marked

improvements in occupant performance. For example:

– An increase in daylight illumination levels up

to seven metres resulted in 13% improvement

in productivity

– Increased ventilation was associated with

performance improvements of 4–17%

– Better quality ventilation also reduced sickness

by 9–50%

In addition, traditional, non-green solutions have

a relatively high degree of delivery certainty.

Unfortunately, delivering a green building is less

reliable. Added technological complexity, varied levels

of experience and product availability combine to

decrease delivery certainty. One only has to look

at the current ratio of green awards for ‘design’ and

monitor this through-put to ‘as built’ awards to see

that the conversion rate is not yet particularly high.

Decreased delivery certainty means elevated risk

which translates into reduced potential benefit for

occupants and reduced impact on the environment.

Elevated risk is a deterrent to the decision makers

considering the development of sustainable solutions

in their property portfolio and a challenge to those

charged with the delivery of the end product.

Whilst our industry’s understanding of the challenges,

opportunities and solutions is growing rapidly

(at various rates globally), our ability to sufficiently

decrease delivery risk is under-developed.

100 101

Building statistics:

/ At the time of publishing, Australia’s largest 5

Star Green Star (66 points-design) and 5 Star

ABGR rated building (GBCA)

/ Cost: Tower 1 A$90 million (A$2200 m2);

Tower 2 A$35 million

/ 1% cost premium for Green Star solutions

(Tower 1)

/ ‘Premium Grade’ office as rated by the Property

Council of Australia

/ 31 000 m2 nett lettable area for Tower 1

/ Floor plates 1200–1750 m2 nett lettable area

/ Key tenants:

/ Department of Further Education,

Employment, Science and Technology

/ Department of Transport Energy

and Infrastructure

/ Developer: Aspen Group

/ Builder: Baulderstone Hornibrook

/ Sustainability initiatives:

/ Passive solar control

/ Full height continuous glazing

/ High transparency glass (Low-E coated glass

to allow maximum daylight penetration)

/ Passive chilled beams

/ Single passive 100% fresh air supply

/ Mixed mode ventilation

/ Energy–5 Star ABGR

/ Water savings

/ Cooling tower water recycling

/ Waterless urinals

/ AAAA rated fittings

/ BMS leak detection

/ 80% steel, 100% recycled

/ Sustainable timber

/ Low gassing products

/ Adaptive operating system with

weather station

1.Adelaide City Central,Australia

102 103

Sustainability drivers

Having acquired 1.7 hectares of CBD space, Aspen

Group realised that in order to deliver a profitable

product they would need to create an innovative

solution that disrupted the stagnated Adelaide

commercial property market. The need to create

something new and financially viable, coupled with

a strong sense of commitment to Adelaide led to the

decision to design and deliver a green solution to the

market in a phased implementation.

For Aspen Group, sustainable buildings represent the

evolution of property development. “Buildings have

to be designed to make people want to go to work,

to inspire them and to make them productive”, says

Peter Hall.

The challenges

Aspen Group faced a number of significant

challenges as nothing like this project had previously

been undertaken in South Australia. The skills and

knowledge required to deliver the solution were

not always locally available. Furthermore, the rents

in Adelaide were prohibitively low to the development

of new buildings and owners of existing stock were

artificially keeping rents down to ensure their stock

occupancy levels were high. There was also no

demand for the proposed amount of new space and

the existing planning policies were stacked against

this scale of development. In essence, Aspen Group

could have made more money for less risk by

building elsewhere.

The solutions

Despite these challenges, the successful delivery of

the project can be attributed to a number of factors

that all came together to create the right environment

and conditions:

/ A high degree of determination on the part of Aspen

Group to deliver a quality, sustainable solution into

the South Australian market

/ Securing the underdeveloped land at a low price

/ Aspen Group’s strong social commitment to

Adelaide City and ability to see a gap in the quality

of available stock

/ Commitment from the South Australian State

Government to pursue sustainable solutions for

its accommodation needs

Aspen Group’s first step in realising the development

was to purchase the Advertiser building from News

Corp and approach the other owner of remaining

land parcels, Australia Post. “It is rare to have only

two principal owners of so much land”, says Hall.

“I recognised an opportunity of creating something

special, if I could find the right edge.”

Hall realised that for a speculative development of

this scale a clear point of difference was needed.

This edge became large floor plates coupled with

high quality technology and environmental solutions.

Having secured the best location in the city, demand

for the product was required and there had been little

interest in sustainable property solutions at that time.

Fortune played a hand in securing the anchor tenant

for the first development in City Central, Tower 1.

The new labour State Government was keen to

reinvigorate development in the Adelaide CBD and to

support green initiatives, particularly for its own staff.

The City Central proposal exactly matched the criteria

for new buildings under the state Strategic Plan and

the project team managed to secure the Department

of Further Education Employment Science and

Technology (DFEEST) as a result.

Driving urban regeneration

The scale of the development was sufficiently large

to overcome the existing local planning regulations

that would have inhibited the quality of the end

solution. Very early in the process it was clear that

the Adelaide planning controls were not written with

City Central in mind. It assumed that sites were small

and controlled by multiple owners. It used control

mechanisms such as plot ratio and set-backs to

determine building envelopes which were unaligned

with the desired urban design outcomes.

The planning approval process was pursued on

performance grounds rather than rigidly adhering to

the prescriptive rules and regulations of the planning

code. Gavin Kain (Principal, Woods Bagot) explains,

“We did not try and twist the planning guidelines to

our advantage. We demonstrated the quality of the

product and place and ultimately how the project

benefits the community”. This methodology required

a commitment to communication, cooperation and

quality. It also involved a degree of flexibility by all

parties, including Aspen Group.

Particular benefits of the development to the local

community include:

/ 30% less emissions

/ 30% saved energy

/ 50% saved water

/ 60% less waste

/ New community facilities

/ Urban regeneration of the CBD

/ Using City Central as a catalyst for ongoing

commercial green projects

The outcomes

The developer and design team’s sustainable

approach to Tower 1 cost A$2200/m2 for the base

building—a 1% increase above traditional building

materials. Fitout costs have also been substantially

reduced (by about A$150/m2) through integration with

the base building works. The speculative property

industry in Australia now has more confidence

that a green building can be commercially viable.

The government is giving preference to leasing green

buildings and corporate tenants and the market has

moved to approaching sustainability as a given.

Tower 1 has now been awarded a 5 Star Green

Star – Office Design V2 ‘as built’ certified rating by

the Green Building Council of Australia. It is the first

project in South Australia to achieve this standard

and showcases the most extensive application of

chilled beam technology in Australia. With plans for

the remainder of the City Central development to

maintain this standard it will be the largest 5 Star

development in Australia.

Occupants have benefited as found by the recent

post occupancy evaluation conducted by Woods

Bagot (see p. 24):

/ Staff reported that both their health and job

satisfaction had increased significantly since

relocating to City Central

/ Outdoor views, daylight, temperature and air quality

were rated to have the most positive impact on job

performance

/ Office acoustics and artificial lighting had smaller

impact on performance

/ Tenants were using more environmentally

sustainable methods of commuting to and

from work

There are a number of important lessons that Aspen

Group are using to improve future projects and the

ongoing development of Adelaide City Central.

These include:

/ Restructuring rental agreements to reflect the

delivery of sustainable features and provide

incentives for tenants

/ Using trusted teams and proven delivery approaches

/ Providing integrated fitouts for tenants to help

maximise delivery efficiencies

Aspen Group have now also committed to 5 Star

Green Star ratings as the minimum standard for

all their future commercial developments.

Adelaide City Central, Australia.

Designed by Woods Bagot

104 105

Sustainability drivers

The Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) is a pilot project

for New Zealand’s Green Building Council in

implementing a national Environmentally Sustainable

Design (ESD) rating tool. The BNZ building has

achieved a design rating of a 5 Star Green Star rating

and is leading the way in NZ design with an advanced

ventilated facade using the latest in glass technology.

Achieving such a 5 Star Green Star rating is

considered by the New Zealand Green Building

Council as an environmentally sustainable design

leader of national significance.

Despite the current sustainability achievements and

targets of this project, it has not always enjoyed such

green credentials. This project has had a relatively

long gestation (for New Zealand) of five years due

to planning and heritage constraints. During that

time the market expectations of environmental

performance have shifted dramatically. The initial

design was conceived in 2003 and was not

benchmarked to any environmental standard nor

did it employ sustainable design features. The current

design commenced in 2006, and when completed in

2009, will be seen as the benchmark for commercial

office buildings in the country. Given the extended

time in which this project was conceived, it provides

an instructive case study as to how market

expectations have moved and how these changing

dynamics affect our building stock.

Building as brand

BNZ is a sophisticated organisation and they

recognised that in the ever increasing competition for

talent and market share, they could use their building

to inspire and welcome their people and customers.

They understood that their core values and brand

statement could be communicated publicly through

the architecture of their head office. Values such as

transparency, openness and demonstrated leadership

were integrated into the very first design response

and have remained a key determinant of the aesthetic

of the building.

Building as a business enabler of cultural

and social change

The new BNZ building will bring together people

who are currently accommodated in two, older

lower-grade properties in Auckland. Within most

of these existing properties, the floor plates are

small and the resulting culture has been affected

by a ‘silo’ effect. BNZ understood that the move to

a new campus head office enabled them to transform

their culture and they could use their workplace as

a powerful tool of internal communication. Part of

this story was the corporate social responsibility

of the organisation which has a broad ethical base

including environmental sustainability. BNZ chose

to use their workplace not only as an instrument

of encouragement and motivation for their people

but as a demonstration of their commitment to

environmental sustainability. This was considered

to be imperative for a new generation of knowledge

workers who are becoming harder to attract, who

have higher expectations and are keenly aware when

corporate messages contradict the environment

in which they work.

In embracing the idea of their building being

a business enabler, as well as being a vehicle

for cultural and social change, BNZ embraced

a leadership position to steer the design of

environmental initiatives in the building. In the recent

past we have witnessed developers and end users

using Environmentally Sustainable Design rating

accreditation as a means of solely improving

the valuation and commercial attractiveness of a

property asset. While the bank appreciated these

obvious spin-offs, their motivation was focused on

broader objectives. Bruce Stockwell commented

that, “The issue for us is very much about social

responsibility and the indoor environment for our

staff. It is not necessarily better for staff the higher

the [green] rating”.

Stockwell took a deep personal interest in developing

a design that was not chasing green star points

but one that would deliver a marked improvement

in the environment for his staff while also reducing

the energy and potable water consumption of the

building. This subtle but important focus became

a significant driver in the design process. Rather

than design a building generated by a general

scoring system such as provided by Green Star,

the resulting project has been made to work harder

to encompass specific goals such as deep light

penetration, transparency and quality of air. Some

of these drivers have made it more challenging

to achieve the targeted rating due to the manner

in which environmental designs are assessed.

Nonetheless, the incorporation in the design of

implicit social objectives has resulted in a better

building for BNZ’s people and in turn will serve

the owners well in terms of commercial value and

longevity of life.

2.BNZTower,New Zealand

Building statistics:

/ Total building cost NZ$116 million

/ Cost premium of green initiatives NZ$4 million

(to achieve 5 Star from 4 Star)

/ ‘A Grade’ office as rated by the New Zealand

Property Council

/ 35 000 m2 gross area

/ 23 200 m2 nett lettable area

/ Podium floors (L1–L7): 5438 m2 nett

lettable area

/ Tower floors (L8–L18): 11 458.4 m2 nett

lettable area

/ Key tenant: Bank of New Zealand occupies

11 500 m2 nett lettable area in the podium

and lower two tower floors

/ Developer: Brookfield Multiplex Developments

Limited (NZ) Ltd

/ Builder: Brookfield Multiplex Constructions

Limited (NZ) Ltd

/ Owner: Brookfield Multiplex Limited (NZ) Ltd

/ Sustainability initiatives:

/ Ventilated facade utilising Low E glass with

high VLT and low shading coefficients

/ Grey water recycling

/ Rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing

/ WELS 5 and 6 Star rated fixtures for

water conservation

/ Automatic dimmable lighting to utilise

natural light

/ Target to recycle or reuse 75%

of construction waste

/ Low VOC paints and adhesives/sealants

/ Bicycle and shower facilities for occupants

/ Use of sustainable forested timber

106 107

2 7

00

950

3 6

50

EXPRESSED S/S(300x150) TRANSOM

DOUBLE GLAZED UNIT

RAKINGPLASTERBOARDCEILING

OFFICE SPACE

OFFICE SPACE

INCREASED SOLAR PENETRATION

DOUBLE GLAZED UNIT

SUN SHADING BLIND

OFFICE SPACESINGLE GLAZED UNIT

SPANDREL GLASSWITH SHADOW BOX

ALUMINIUMGRIDMESHWALKWAY

Figure 2.

Podium facade designed to optimise light penetration

within the constraints of the floor to floor height imposed

by the existing heritage building

Figure 3.

The ventilated facade improves

thermal performance

The outcomes

This case study illustrates that innovative solutions

are required when there are multiple parties set to

gain from different aspects of the business case that

underpins sustainable buildings. Stockwell has said

that BNZ decided to support the increased cost of

the sustainable building because “it satisfied our

corporate environmental responsibility, BNZ cultural

objectives and environmental sustainability targets”.

Brookfield Multiplex as the owner was set to gain

by an increase in value and future proofing of an

asset at a time when advances in sustainability

are rendering buildings conceived five years ago

obsolete. Additionally, by partnering with BNZ,

Brookfield Multiplex was able to secure a signature

tenant to underpin their development which will be

the country’s leader in environmentally sustainable

design. All of this is also procured by way of

Brookfield Multiplex’s integrated property model

at a time of its recent introduction to the New

Zealand market.

BNZ has clearly demonstrated its commitment to

sustainability by becoming a principle sponsor of the

New Zealand Green Building Council interior fitout

Green Star tool and plans to be the first business

institution to occupy a 5 Star rated base building with

the key tenant holding a 5 Star interior tool rating.

The challenges and solutions

The low prevalence of local green rated buildings in

New Zealand was a risk offset by ensuring the early

pre-qualification of critical products by the New

Zealand Green Building Council. This has enabled

ninety-five per cent of reinforcing to be recycled and

ceiling tiles to contain approximately seventy-five per

cent recycled material.

Given the bank’s design drivers of transparency

and maximising deep light penetration through a

large window surface area (Figure 2), the thermal

loads were significant. The floor to ceiling glazing

was particularly a cause of such high loads but was

seen as a means of differentiating the building in the

marketplace. Rather than minimise the heat loads by

reducing the glazed area to less than fifty per cent of

the facade, a high performance glass was developed

in conjunction with the glass manufacturers which

employed a triple Low Emissivity (Low-E) coating.

This glass maintained a Variable Light Transmission

(VLT) similar to that initially proposed, but offered

a significant improvement in solar and thermal

performance. The thermal performance offered by

the triple coated Low-E glass was further increased

on the high heat gain western facades by the

introduction of a ventilated facade as illustrated

in Figure 3.

The ventilated facade not only maintained the visual

identity required by the bank but enhanced its brand

image by enabling a more transparent facade fronting

the main address. However, the ventilated facade in

itself didn’t result in a significant reduction in energy

consumption and was capital cost intensive. In fact,

the comparable current low cost of energy in New

Zealand means payback for such a 5 Star building

in terms of operating costs is difficult to achieve.

BNZ’s objectives of transparency, innovation and

iconic potential were enhanced by the sophisticated

glazing solution but the bank was disappointed at

the negligible improvement in Operating Expenses

(Opex) which amounted to less than NZ$20 000 per

annum. As a tenant, BNZ will not receive any benefit

from the increased Capital Expense (Capex) required

to fund the green initiatives which amounted to

NZ$4 million. However, BNZ rated the intangible

benefits of the sustainability features sufficiently

to enter into an agreement with Brookfield Multiplex

who is the developer, builder and owner, to share

in the Capex investment.

This partnership of developer and tenant was critical

to the outcome. Both parties were united in their

desired outcome which is often a rarity. The resulting

team culture enabled an open interrogation of all

aspects of the base building and fitout. This aided

the discovery of ways to improve environmental

performance while avoiding a negative impact on

the tenancy space.

Through this process it became apparent that

BNZ was planning to locate its circulation zones,

interconnecting stairs and transitional unoccupied

zones along the northern facade of the building.

This meant that the stricter temperature controls

that would apply to offices or other workspaces need

not apply in these areas. Through some engineering

of the air conditioning and ceiling layouts, the

temperature tolerance ranges that apply to this

area were increased. This will reduce demands on

the energy consumption by the air conditioning

system. While this only applies to BNZ’s tenancy in

the building podium, and not the tower, it means we

have achieved our objectives of a more transparent

building that is also a green building.

A partnership agreement between tenant and

developer has been struck where the developer has

agreed to construct a 5 Star Green Star design and

‘as built’ building. However, at practical completion

the building will have a design rating and expects

to achieve an ‘as built’ rating within 3–6 months.

BNZ and Brookfield Multiplex have agreed to strive

for the yet to be designed ‘in use’ third and final

base building Green Star rating. This is expected to

take approximately 12–18 months of occupation to

measure and obtain certification. This achievement

of the first two ratings and hopefully all three ratings

is a very important issue for the bank given their

sustainability targets and motivations for investing

in the capital expense of incorporating sustainability

features. Accordingly, a complex legal instrument has

been agreed that protects the parties and allows for

cost and risk sharing.

108 109Building statistics:

/ Size: 126 000 m2

/ Certification: 6 Star Green Star design rating

/ Collaborative partners: Joint Venture Architects

Woods Bagot and NH Architecture

/ Cost: A$1 billion

/ Developer: Plenary Group Consortium

/ Sustainability initiatives:

/ Indoor environmental quality: chilled beams;

displacement ventilation

/ 30% of the gross floor area achieves

a daylight factor of not less than 2.5%

/ Sustainable material selection

/ Reduction in CO2 emissions: incorporates

highly efficient chillers, pumps and fans

/ Individual lighting control

/ Encouragement of alternative uses

of transport by patrons

/ AAAA rated fittings waterless urinals and

recycled water

/ Black water system and efficient subsoil

drip irrigation

/ Water conservation

/ Cooling tower water recycling

/ BMS leak detection

/ Refrigerants and thermal insulation with

Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) of zero

/ Sustainable timber products

3.MelbourneConvention CentreDevelopment,Australia

Designed by joint venture architects Woods Bagot and NH Architecture

110 111

Low level displacement ventilation Colour key 22 oC 24 oC 26 oC 38 oC

Conventional ventilation Colour key 22 oC 24 oC 26 oC 38 oC

Figure 6a.

Conventional ventilation

Figure 6b.

Low level displacement. Air delivered to the

first two metres avoids wasteful conditioning

of unoccupied areas

Low volatile organic compounds (VOC)Carpets, paints, adhesives and sealants tobe low in VOC to enhance indoor air quality

Sustainable use of building materialsTimber from renewable sustainable sources, materials and componentshave a high recycled content and minimal PVC utilisation

Solar hot waterSolar panels provide100% of public amenityhot water requirements

Fresh air ratesImproved indoor air quality due to large volumes of fresh air

Expansive glass facadeProvides views and

allows high degree of diffused natural light withspectrally selective glass

Radiant slab heating & coolingSlab heated to provide energy

efficient occupant thermalcomfort and reduce air

conditioning requirements

Displacement ventilationLow level air delivery and high

level air exhaust provide excellent air change effectiveness and

high indoor air quality at low energy consumption

Conditioned air

Stormwaterretention

Roof drainage discharges to stormwater retention system

Rainwater pumpline toblack water treatment facility

All wastewater collection

Macrofiltration

Microfiltration

Reverseosmosis

UVtreatment

Cooling tower &toilet flush reuse

Rainwater & stormwater collection

AHU Plant

Landscape/irrigation reuse

Returned air Water

Black water treatment facilityTreats wastewater, rainwater and stormwater to Grade A quality for reuse in building. Consequently reduces flow to sewer

Figure 5.

Sustainability initiatives for the

Melbourne Convention Centre

Development. Reproduced

with permission from

Advanced Environmental

Figure 4.

Water savings of a 6 Star

solution versus 4 Star

20100 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Litres used and discharged

Potable water

Sewer discharge

Potable water

Sewer discharge

Sustainability drivers

The Victorian Government is procuring the

Melbourne Convention Centre Development

(MCCD) by a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

The winning bid was selected by competition, based

on design and operational performance. The asset

will be handed back to the government after twenty-

five years.

The government’s brief called for a 4 Star Green Star

solution delivered for approximately A$375 million.

The winning bid from Plenary/Brookfield Multiplex

consortium proposed taking the development two

steps further to deliver the world’s first 6 Star Green

Star conference centre for a substantially increased

cost (Figure 5).

Plenary Group realised that a twenty-five year

commitment required that the conference centre

be future proofed. Plenary believe that by delivering

a 6 Star solution they will minimise the need to

make supplementary investments in the building

at future dates and hence maximise the return on

their investment. They also read clearly the political

appetite of the government to be environmentally

sustainable and to be seen to be taking a leadership

position in this field.

The success of the PPP competition process is at the

core of the sustainability debate. There is a capital

cost to sustainability initiatives and they do need

to be funded or incorporated into the first round

of budgets. In this case the Public Sector Comparator

Budget allocated by the State was insufficient to

deliver a 6 Star Green Star Rated building, let alone

a civic quality building that contributed to the fabric

of Melbourne’s identity.

Plenary was able to demonstrate a win-win scenario

for both the developer and the State by spending

more money. The lesson here for all developments

is that the debate should not be limited to the bottom

line but the strategic long-term benefits to all parties.

Financing in support of sustainability can lead to profit

and public/social reward with fundamental rethinking

of economic modelling.

The challenges and solutions

Whilst the Melbourne Convention Centre

Development will be the first of its kind anywhere

in the world, the technology being used to deliver

the 6 Star rating is for the most part not new.

What is challenging, however, is the environment

within which it will be used. The conference centre

is a large volume building which is occupied for

typically short but energy intensive periods.

It incorporates numerous large, variable volume,

dark spaces which do not lend themselves to the

delivery of energy efficient fresh air, cooling, heating

and lighting solutions.

To tackle this, traditional theatre air displacement

systems were utilised which incorporate sub-

floor reticulation of cold and hot air through a

series of plenum type spaces. The net effect is

to reduce overall plant size and therefore energy

consumption and improve indoor environment quality.

Air displacement delivered to the first two metres

avoids wasteful conditioning of air above areas

which are unoccupied (Figure 6). Blackwater mining

is another good example of proven technology being

used in a new environment. This will be the first time

a blackwater mining solution will be used in a public

area of this scale creating significant water savings

(Figure 4).

With vast areas of floor and wall coverings, material

selection came under the microscope to avoid both

the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and

formaldehyde minimisation. Even the large usage

of natural timbers such as Australian Spotted Gum

needed to be sourced from accredited sustainable

forests. MCCD sponsored the first sustainable

forest accredited supplier. Both potable water and

landscape irrigation water efficiency and consumption

were minimised by water harvesting.

To achieve the 6 Star classification every part of

the nine classification score card needed to be

scrutinised with innovation points making a significant

difference to the final rating, including the utilisation of

chilled beam technology in the administration areas.

The brief, as dictated by a seven-volume, government

document, served only to contradict and make

achieving the 6 Star rating incredibly difficult. The

flexibility requirements of the three halls coupled

with the ability to load the floors with eighteen wheel

pan techneons/semi-trailers meant complicated

service and structural integration. Enormous sub-

floor penetrations were required to deliver the air

quantities at the same time heavy transport and

building deadloads needed to be maintained.

To deliver sub-floor ventilation significant excavation

was required into unstable Coode Island silt to create

a sub-basement area with a matrix of air chambers,

all linked under the theatre seating, which in turn

were mechanically controlled to raise and lower

the platform flooring system in order to achieve the

numerous seating mode configurations stipulated

by the brief.

The outcomes

The outcome will be the world’s first 6 Star Green Star

conference centre fully integrated with the Melbourne

Exhibition Centre to become the largest combined

facility of its kind in Australia. In another design first,

it will be possible to divide the 5000-seat plenary hall

into three self-contained halls while ensuring a clear

view to the stage for all members of the audience.

This project demonstrates that even in the most

complex building types sustainable initiatives

can be implemented to achieve real benefits.

The challenge now is for the accreditation system

to keep up with real innovation and to reward

developers who continue to push the boundaries

instead of following a bureaucratic process

supporting mediocre projects that use sustainability

protocol only for marketing purposes.

The convention centre will be operationally managed

by Plenary Group over the twenty-five year period

of the PPP. During this time the MCCD will deliver

significant benefits to the Victorian economy.

Economic modelling estimates that over twenty-five

years the convention centre will stimulate Victoria’s

economy in excess of A$197 million each year and

create 2500 jobs plus 1000 jobs during

the construction phase.

The achievements of the Melbourne Convention

Centre transcend the simplistic climate debate.

It proposes an argument for new economic and profit

modeling where rewards of capital investment beyond

the base case promote design and innovation as the

catalyst and where the private sector can be the real

hero of the twenty-first century. Sustainability should

not be viewed as a sacrifice but a trigger for real

differentiation and a fundamental transformation

of procuring civic buildings.

112 113

To me, sustainability is about being a human fi rst, not just a consumer.

Michelle AddleySydney

What really gets me out of bed to do my job is the belief that our design expertise can be used to enrich the user’s experience of buildings. The fact is that people interact with low energy, adaptable buildings in a much more intimate way than they do with those providing highly conditioned environments. Jim LukeSydney

114 115

Attitudetoaction

Attitudes and actions are not the same. We can have an attitude towards something, such as sustainability, but not necessarily act on it. Turning an attitude into an action is a behavioural change process that is predicated by a number of factors. These factors can be successfully infl uenced and persuaded with a well thought out strategic behavioural change plan.

Susan Stewart

116 117

Innately we all want to know why… “Why should I?”

Persuading people to change their attitude and

actions requires logic. In successful change programs,

the logic comes in the form of a clear and articulate

vision and is reinforced in all communications

(both verbal and non-verbal).

A vision should clarify the direction and the purpose

of the change, and motivate people to take action

and help align individuals (Kotter, 1996). The Bank

of America’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,

Ken Lewis, has a vision that is very clear: “The Bank

of America is involved in financing the green economy

for a lot of good reasons. We believe it represents

the future, and a tremendous business opportunity.

We believe it’s what our customers and clients need

us to do to support them. And we believe it’s the right

thing to do for our communities, our country and our

planet” (Lewis, 2008).

To act on this, last year the Bank of America

announced a ten-year, $20 billion environmental

initiative to help address climate change by

championing sustainable business practices

in lending, investments, products and services,

operations and staff involvement. Through this

initiative the bank is financing eco-friendly residential

developments and green mortgages; developing new

‘green’ workplaces for their banks; piloting computer

software in 3200 of their banking centres to monitor

and adjust HVAC systems; and encouraging their

staff and customers to be more sustainable with their

Environmental Network, ‘Make it second nature’ and

‘Live green’ programs.

When writing the ‘why’ ensure that the purpose, format and language of the message is clear. The purpose should demonstrate an understanding of the needs and the values that you are appealing to. In terms of format, consider how you are going to persuade behaviours not only with words but also in symbols, stories, visuals, metaphors and actions. Finally, make sure that the language you use is clear, consistent and has emotional impact.

Action 2Explain the ‘why’

Behaviour begins with people and so too should all

change programs. Understanding the ‘who’, or key

stakeholders, their current behaviours, values, culture,

history and moreover attitude, is paramount to

successful change. Attitudes are one of the three key

components of behavioural change because of their

direct impact on our intentions.

Attitudes are formed from beliefs and are ultimately

derived by our internal evaluation of the positive and

negative impacts of a certain behaviour. We all have

multiple behavioural beliefs at any one time, but only

a few will be strong. And the strong attitudes are

the important ones, as they are more likely to guide

a behaviour and generally don’t change over time

(Holland, Verplanken & Van Knippenberg, 2002).

For sustainable change, understanding people’s

strong attitudes will help define the type of strategy

and tactics required to change stakeholder actions.

Strong attitudes are formed from a number of

factors notably temporal stability, accessibility, direct

experience, involvement, affective-cognitive stability,

ambivalence and certainty (Cooke & Sheeran, 2004;

Armitage & Christian, 2003).

Temporal stability describes those attitudes that

are clearly defined values and beliefs which have

been consistent over time. These attitudes are

demonstrated not only in the way that people behave,

but also in how they communicate, what they value

and how they make decisions. Understanding these

types of attitudes is important, as it is extremely

difficult to change behaviours of those who have

behaved a particular way for a long period of time.

So, if you are looking to change the minds of those

who do not consider sustainable principles to be

important and have believed this for a long period

of time, then don’t expect change to be easy or

immediate. In fact, it’s often better to focus on those

who have more favourable or ambivalent beliefs, as

they are easier to persuade to change and can often

influence those with strong negative values.

Action 1Understand the ‘who’To get started on a behavioural change program, first take the time to understand the stakeholders. Using a stakeholder analysis, break people into different sub-groups and define their attitudes, needs, values, culture, history and readiness to change. Tools such as surveys, focus groups, cultural reviews and change readiness assessments will help with the process. When doing this, also define what new behaviours or actions you are looking for with the change and identify what the stakeholders may see as the benefits or the constraints of the new action. Understanding the new behaviours and constraints will guide you in what types of strategy and ongoing tactics you will need to embed to sustain the change.

118 119

Action 4Involve your ‘who’

Strategies that involve stakeholders can be

effective in ensuring attitudes become actions.

Experiences produce informative attitudes and

intentions that influence future behaviours over

time (Cooke & Sheeran, 2004).

Operation Flinders Foundation, an Australian

charitable organisation that runs wilderness

adventure program for young offenders and young

people at risk, uses direct experience to encourage

organisations to financially support the foundation.

The foundation takes professionals from targeted

organisations on parts of the 100 km trek through

the remote Australian bush in the Flinders Ranges

to experience and meet with teenagers whose

lives have been changed by the program.

Involvement can also occur through indirect

experience. Social learning theory tells us that people

can learn by observing the behaviour of others and

the outcomes of those behaviours. In the Academy

Award winning documentary, An inconvenient

truth, director Davis Guggenheim effectively used

indirect learning through simulations and time-lapse

photography to involve stakeholders and demonstrate

the impact of climate change on the environment.

Similarly, Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary,

Super size me, involved the viewer in the effects of

poor diet on Spurlock’s physical and psychological

well-being.

Major transformation change rarely happens unless people are able to support the process and thus empowerment is critical (Kotter, 1996). Firstly, make sure that leaders and role models are on board and are supportive of the vision. Secondly, create the right structures to enable people to take responsibility and action. Thirdly, develop systems and communications to support the processes, and finally, teach the stakeholders with the skills to perform effectively. Without these four elements, stakeholders are more likely to become frustrated, feel powerless and will be less motivated to act.

Vision is one thing, communicating, repeating and

reinforcing it is another. Behavioural theory tells

us that the more accessible the attitude, the more

likely it will impact behaviour (Armitage & Christian,

2003). Advertisers know this, which is why last year

the global advertising market was estimated at

US$605 billion and is expected to reach US$707

billion globally in 2012 (Kelsey Group, 2008).

However, behavioural change is rarely an outcome

of mass media campaigns and thus sustainable

change strategies need to reinforce the vision and

key messages incorporating a variety of mediums

and tactics to reinforce and reiterate the message.

Effective communication is more than an email. Effective communication strategies involve the use of both one-way (emails, advertising and media) and two-way communications (forums, meetings, feedback sessions and other interactive environments). To be successful, the communications must repeat the ‘what’, using different mediums such as leadership behaviours, rewards, acknowledgements and experiences (Kotter, 1996). Using techniques such as symbols, metaphors, analogies and stories will also influence and persuade stakeholders, helping them to remember the messages (Simmons, 2006).

Action 3Communicate the ‘what’

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120 121

As discussed, attitudes and subjective norms have

significant impact on our intentions, however,

perceived behavioural control is the most influential

(Ajzen, 1991; Fife-Schaw, Sheeran & Norman, 2007).

This means we process information regarding change

and then gauge our ability to act and how difficult

we think it will be to change. In essence, perceived

behavioural control is based on internal factors such

as our skills, abilities, past experiences, information

about others’ experiences, willpower and emotions

at the time of change; and external factors like time,

opportunity and dependence on others (Broadhead-

Fearn & White, 2006). Ultimately, the easier a

behaviour is, the more likely we will perform it.

A number of organisations use this approach

effectively. Oxfam’s successful ‘Oxfam unwrapped

program’ enables people to purchase gifts over the

internet without ever having to leave the house, let

alone their chair. The gifts are actually donations to

a range of worthy causes, such as safe water, poverty,

HIV/AIDS and education. Similarly via the internet,

non-profit organisation, Kiva, enables individuals to

loan as little as $25 to help fund small businesses

run by low-income entrepreneurs around the world.

Both programs make it easy for people to understand

what their money will be used for and how donations

will make a difference.

Action 6Make it easyBeing in control of the behaviour and seeing the impact is important. Energy conservation programs that encourage people to refrain from certain behaviours are generally successful if participants can observe immediately the direct impact of the change, such as a reduction in their electricity bill. However, encouraging people to change when results are not immediate can be complex (Hutton & Ahtola, 1991).

Targeting car usage to reduce air pollution typically

requires a range of new behaviours such as new daily

routines, rescheduling, trip planning and changing

the type of transportation; which an individual will

weigh against the benefits when making a decision

to change behaviour. The problem is, the benefits

gained by the actions of one individual (i.e. clearer air)

can’t always be measured and may not accrue unless

others participate. Hence, effective change initiatives

need to include tactics that allow for feedback (using

this positive feedback to encourage others who didn’t

initially change) and provide immediate and certain

rewards (such as monetary incentives or exclusive

benefits) (Hutton & Ahtola, 1991).

Intentions to act are also influenced by subjective

norms. Subjective norms relate to the amount of

pressure that an individual perceives they are under

from people they value.

Subjective norms are complex and are based on our

referent beliefs and motivation to comply. These two

components have a multiple effect, as we are unlikely

to experience social pressure if we aren’t motivated

to comply. Similarly, if we don’t identify strongly with

a social group, subjective norms will have limited

impact on intention and ultimately our behaviour.

For example, in a study of the impacts social

networks in the Netherlands had on increasing energy

efficient behaviours (Weenig, 2002), it was found that

residents who considered their neighbours opinion

highly, ordered more home insulation measures,

or showed greater increases in environmental

knowledge, than residents who had a low motivation

to comply with their neighbours. Social pressure can

be extremely influential. In March 2007, for one hour

the city of Sydney in Australia turned off its lights

to make a statement about energy consumption.

It was estimated that 2.2 million Sydney residents

and over 2100 businesses switched off, leading to

a 10.2% energy reduction across the city (Earth Hour,

2008). In the following year, twenty-four global cities

participated in Earth Hour.

Equally, the United Nations draws on the impact of

subjective norms with the use of celebrities as UN

Messengers of Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors,

such as Roger Moore, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan

and Ronaldo, to create greater awareness and incite

action on issues of human rights, justice, peace and

support for developing countries. Similarly, former US

President Bill Clinton has used his influence to initiate

private and public partnerships with companies

across America to retrofit public and private buildings

through the Clinton Climate Initiative.

Closer to home, researchers have found that social

pressure can be used effectively to improve health

and reduce sedentary lifestyles. Drawing on the

experiences of fifteen lifestyle programs, social

researchers, Cavill and Bauman (2004), found that

community-based programs that use a combination

of social support groups, such as self-help groups,

counselling, and education, community events and

walking activities are more effective than media

alone. Likewise, the Agita São Paulo Program in Brazil

has used a multilevel intervention strategy of social

networks, incentives, media, and community events

to dramatically improve the number of physical

activity hours of students, adults and the elderly over

the last ten years (Matsudo, 2005).

Other examples include, ‘Movember’, the moustache-

growing charity event held during November each

year, which relies on social pressure to raise funds

and awareness for men’s health. Internet site

www.thepoint.com helps people campaign together

on similar social issues and combine forces to make

things happen. The Point’s differentiator is that it

relies on peer action whereby campaign members

only need to act when the conditions exist for them

to have the greatest possible impact.

Action 5Use social networks and peer pressureWorking with social networks to influence action can be effective but takes time. Good change programs recognise this, developing long term strategies that understand the specific attitudes and needs of different stakeholders and how social networks can create an environment that supports and influences action.

122 123

As the theory of planned behaviour explains, behavioural change is a complex process that is impacted and influenced by a number of factors. Hence, a single communication or poor strategy is unlikely to result in action. Instead, long term multidimensional change plans need to be developed and implemented. These plans need to take into account all elements of behavioural change, particularly stakeholders’ needs, clear messages and tactics that support, persuade and enable people to change.

In summaryThe best laid plans

Commitment or sustaining the new behaviour is

critical. Research has found that people are more

likely to stay loyal to a new behaviour if they feel

they changed their behaviour as a result of what they

constructed themselves (Hjelmar, 2005). Therefore

being autocratic and telling people what to do and

how to behave may have some immediate results,

but does not necessarily lead to long term results.

Instead, effective behavioural change programs

focus on the values underlying the new behaviours

and provide a supportive environment, whilst

letting stakeholders construct the related behaviours.

Moreover, change programs need to ensure

individuals are encouraged to continue with the new

behaviour and are restricted or discouraged from

returning to old behaviours.

To increase the level of residential garbage recycling

to seventy per cent, the city of Toronto in Canada

has recently introduced a new grey bin system

for non-recycled waste, with the price of the bin

increasing, the larger the size required. Similarly,

The University of Auckland is trialling a new recycling

system across many of Auckland’s city buildings

where personal rubbish bins are being replaced

with small black cubes on desks which hold

minimal rubbish. This approach has been designed

to encourage people to recycle more waste.

Likewise, an increasing number of workplaces are

setting printers to default to double-sided printing

and are placing paper recycling bins next to printers

in an effort to reduce paper use and increase

recycling respectively.

Action 7Sustain the actionWhen introducing new sustainable actions, think of strategies to make it easier for people to comply with the new behaviours and be discouraged to go back to their old ways. Introducing incentives and restricting old behaviours can be effective and relatively simple to implement.

124 125

Sustainability is not only a measure of environmental impact, it’s an attitude we pass on to our future generations.

Mladen ZujicAdelaide

On an individual level, sustainability is about fi nding the best compromise rather than becoming discouraged because there seems to be no perfect solution. Geraldine FourmonLondon

126 127

S.E.E. breeze: The impact of

indoor air quality on education

Sean Coward

128 129

Absorbing information...

and what else?

One of the major problems of built structures is

that they contain numerous sources of airborne

pollutants, many of which can have a deleterious

effect on the health of occupants. Originally, the

sole purpose of ventilation was to dilute these

contaminants via the introduction of outdoor air

in order to achieve concentrations considered

harmless to humans. Research supports the

effectiveness of this strategy, with low ventilation

rates frequently associated with adverse health in

occupants, such as sick building syndrome (SBS)

symptoms and communicable diseases (Seppänen,

Fisk, & Mendell, 1999). Fisk (2000) estimates that

improving building standards via increased ventilation,

reduced recirculation, improved filtration, ultraviolet

treatment of air and HVAC components, and reduced

occupant density could reduce respiratory illnesses

in occupants by 15%, and SBS symptoms by 20–50%.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

The term VOC is used to describe a wide range

of chemicals that are emitted from (primarily) non-

biological sources. VOCs can be released into the

air from carpets and other types of flooring (e.g. PVC),

adhesives and sealants, paints, furniture, cleaning

products, and equipment such as computers and

printers. Exposure to various VOCs has been linked

to dry mucous membranes and other SBS symptoms

(irritation of eyes, nose and skin; headache; fatigue),

as well as decreased perceived air quality and

increased odours (Mølhave, Bach, & Federsen, 1986).

While olfaction is sometimes a useful indicator of

harmful pollutants (e.g. petrochemical emissions from

fresh paint) this is not always the case (e.g. radon,

a radioactive gas linked to lung cancer, is odourless

to humans): hence the assessment of IAQ using

perceived air quality—as applied in certain ASHRAE

standards—can be misleading. Moreover, unpleasant

olfactory perceptions often disappear as occupants

adapt (the human sensory system is designed to

detect change), such that perceived air quality by

visitors is often used to gauge IAQ. With this in mind,

increasing ventilation rates have also been shown

to increase occupant satisfaction with perceived

air quality (see Figure 1). As can be seen, even

at a ventilation rate of 10 L/s per person,

15% of occupants will remain dissatisfied—hardly

a ringing endorsement of IAQ.

Ventilation standards developed by the American

Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning

Engineers (ASHRAE, 2001) recommend a minimum

ventilation rate of 7.5 L/s (litres per second) per

person for classrooms. This is equivalent to a carbon

dioxide (CO2) concentration of approximately 1000

p.p.m. (parts per million), a criterion often not met

by North American and European schools (Daisey,

Angell, & Apte, 2003). CO2 is a widely accepted

measure of both ventilation rate and levels of human

bioeffluents (CO2 being produced by human

metabolic processes) and, by extension, it is often

considered to be a valid indicator of general pollutant

levels (although it fails to account for many pollution

sources unrelated to human activity).3 Research also

supports CO2 levels as an indicator of pollutant

concentration: Shendell, Prill, Fisk, Apte, Blake and

Faulkner (2004) found that a 1000 p.p.m. increase

in CO2 concentration above outdoor levels

corresponded to a 10–20% increase in school

absenteeism. They argue that student absence

reflects, among other things, communicable

respiratory illnesses that are likely to proliferate

in schools with poor ventilation.

Research on indoor pollutants generally focuses

on three categories: volatile organic compounds

(VOCs), formaldehyde and bioaerosol contaminants.

A description of each classification and a brief

summary of documented effects follow.

Figure 1.

Percentage of occupants reporting

dissatisfaction with perceived air

quality as a function of ventilation rate.

Reproduced with permission from

Olesen, 2004.

Perc

eiv

ed a

ir q

ualit

y: %

dis

satisfied

Ventilation rate (L/s-person)

20

10

0

30

40

50

60

10050 15 20 25 30 35

Triple bottom line reporting and the

education sector

Despite the shift towards online learning and distance

education, schools, universities and alternative

institutes of adult education continue to depend

on a wide variety of built structures for students;

from lecture halls and classrooms to libraries and

gymnasiums. All of these spaces pose a significant

problem for designers and engineers: how can

one optimise the quality of the indoor environment

while accommodating densities far in excess of

those housed in most other buildings? Typically,

the education sector in most countries is poorly

funded, with facilities usually the first to bear cutbacks

(in terms of design, operation and maintenance).

Part of the reason for this tight-fisted approach is

that it is difficult to quantify the value of education

in terms of a return on investment, particularly

regarding any effects attributable to the physical

environments in which learning takes place.

However, the recent trend towards triple bottom

line reporting suggests that educational facilities

should be evaluated in terms of their social and

environmental, in addition to economic, performance.

Needless to say, the best performing educational

facilities will be those that contribute positively

to all three reporting criteria. With regard to social

issues, it has been claimed that high quality

environments enhance the health and well-being

of both students and teachers, leading to greater

satisfaction and physical wellness. From an

economic perspective, quality education provides

the foundation for a successful national economy,

such that any environmental variables linked to

improved learning outcomes can be considered

justified in a fiscal sense.1 Finally, any educational

facility should be designed to achieve these

outcomes while exerting a minimal impact on the

environment—the destruction of which can be

safely assumed to have dire economic and social

consequences. Wyon (2004) makes the point that

social, economic and environmental needs must

be balanced: there is no point in designing an

environmentally sustainable or low cost educational

facility which houses sick, uncomfortable, or

inattentive occupants.

From an economic perspective, quality education provides the foundation for a successful national economy, such that any environmental variables linked to improved learning outcomes can be justifi ed in a fi scal sense.

With respect to health, comfort and learning, indoor

air quality (IAQ) is considered by many to be a crucial

component in the experience of building occupants.

The factors determining IAQ remain consistent

across all building types; these being indoor

pollutants and thermal conditions. Since existing

research on thermal comfort is generally inconclusive

(presumably because effects are confounded by a

range of cognitive variables), the present paper will

restrict its focus to the effects of indoor pollutants.

So what impact can airborne contaminants have

on the effectiveness of educational facilities, and

can the steps taken to minimise their concentration

be justified in terms of triple bottom line reporting?

While the majority of research investigating human

responses to IAQ pertains to the workplace,2

it seems logical that the major outcomes measured

—health and performance—are of relevance to the

evaluation of educational facilities. More specifically,

health is a concern as it relates to absenteeism

(an absent student is deprived of valuable

opportunities for direct teacher-student knowledge

exchange) and certain indices of work performance

are particularly relevant to learning (e.g. measures

of attention / alertness, comprehension and test

performance). Although the body of literature devoted

to educational facilities is relatively small (particularly

in terms of adult education), wherever possible the

present review will refer to research conducted in

this sector.

130 131

volatile organic compounds

formaldehyde

bioaerosol contaminants

Formaldehyde

This chemical, a gas at room temperature,

is typically used as a resin to bond wood in

particleboards and fibreboards to make furniture.

While formaldehyde is technically a VOC, it is

usually discussed separately due to the increased

health risks associated with exposure. Reported

effects of off-gassing (the resin emits vapours after

hardening) range from irritation of the eyes and

respiratory tract to more serious conditions linked

to its potentially carcinogenic qualities. Research

suggests that exposure to formaldehyde may

lead to an increased risk of allergic sensitisation

in children (Garrett, M.A. Hooper, B.M. Hooper,

Rayment, & Abramson, 1999). However, Daisey

et al. (2003) warn that even concentrations lower

than those associated with irritation may not protect

against the long-term risk of cancer; accordingly,

exposure should be limited as much as possible.

Bioaerosol contaminants

This term refers to a wide variety of biological

agents, including viruses, bacteria (and any related

endotoxins), allergens linked to dust mites and animal

hair, and fungi (including associated allergens, toxins

and irritants). Regarding the accumulation of these

contaminants in indoor environments, low ventilation

rates have been linked to respiratory illness caused

by viruses (Brundage, Scott, Lednar, Smith, & Miller,

1988), and bacterial endotoxins are associated with

flu-like symptoms (Rylander, Persson, Goto, & Tanaka,

1992). Exposure to animal and dust mite allergens

has been linked to asthma, which is responsible for

20% of school absenteeism in children (Richards,

1986). Health problems associated with indoor mould

include blocked sinuses, sore throats, runny noses,

eye irritation, respiratory illness, and fatigue (Bates

& Mahaffy, 1996, cited in Daisey et al., 2003).

Once again, while most of the published research

on indoor air pollution focuses on adult workers in

offices, one can assume that any effects should

generalise to students. In fact, occupant densities

in classrooms and lecture halls are invariably higher

than those in offices, increasing the production of

pollutants such as CO2, communicable diseases,

and even less toxic, yet nonetheless unpleasant,

human bioeffluents such as body odour. The risk

of health problems is of particular concern for young

school children as they breathe a higher volume of air

(relative to their body weight) than do adults, and any

damage resulting from airborne pollutants may have

lifelong consequences for developing tissues and

organs (Faustman, Silbernagel, Fenske, Burbacher,

& Ponce, 2000).

Reported effects of off-gassing ... range from irritation of the eyes and respiratory tract to more serious conditions linked to its potentially carcinogenic qualities.

132 133

A breath of fresh air: Rethinking educational facilities

The available evidence leaves little doubt that

ventilation is an effective means of diluting indoor

pollutants and reducing associated health problems.

However, mixing contaminated air with fresh air is

surely not an ideal solution. Fanger (2000) illustrates

the limitations of this approach by comparing co-

occupation in a building interior with a crowded

swimming pool: few people could be convinced

to drink pool water using the argument that the

contaminated liquid has been diluted with an influx

of fresh water. He also makes the point that, in

a room provided with outdoor air at the rate of

10 L/s per person, only 1% is ever inhaled. A further

problem with ventilating indoor spaces with outdoor

air is that polluted locations, such as cities, may

introduce toxins into the building. Outside air may

be contaminated further, prior to reaching the

occupied space, by poorly maintained HVAC systems

(Seppänen & Fisk, 2004). Finally, increased ventilation

rates mean increased energy use—with associated

costs to the environment.

If current minimum ventilation standards provide

more breathable air than can be consumed, and

if ventilation systems are capable of introducing

contaminants, then the best way to reduce the

impact of indoor pollutants is by avoiding internal

sources of air pollution wherever possible (i.e.

source control). Improving IAQ without relying on

high ventilation rates is also a more environmentally

sustainable and fiscally prudent practice, as the

percentage of total building energy used to ventilate

air in schools is in the order of 10–20%. The reduction

of indoor pollutant concentrations can be achieved

via the selection of low VOC and low formaldehyde

emission products. Carpets should be avoided due

to their VOC emissions and because they provide

an ideal environment for the proliferation of mould

and other bioaerosol allergens. Buildings must be

kept dry, with pitched roofs reducing the risk of water

leakage. Commissioning also plays a crucial role

by emphasising the need for regular and thorough

cleaning and maintenance of buildings and HVAC

systems. This may include the irradiation of air outlets

and cooling coils with UV lights, which have been

linked to a reduction in SBS symptoms (Menzies,

Popa, Hanley, Rand, & Milton, 2003).

Figure 2.

Relative task performance in relation to

the reference ventilation rate of 6.5 L/s per

person. Reproduced with permission from

Seppänen, Fisk and Lei, 2006.

Rela

tive

perf

orm

ance

Ventilation rate (L/s-person)

1.02

1.01

1

1.03

1.04

1.05

20100 30 40 50 60

Clean air, clear minds?

While ventilation was initially justified solely in terms

of health concerns related to indoor pollutants,

recent research has directed attention towards the

potential impact of IAQ on human performance.

For educational facilities, the question is how IAQ

might affect the acquisition, comprehension and

demonstration of knowledge. Of course, health and

performance are not mutually exclusive: absenteeism

decreases the amount of information transferred from

teachers to students, and research suggests that

symptoms resulting from indoor pollutants can inhibit

learning, either as a direct result of the symptoms

themselves (Smith, 1990) or via medications used

to treat them.

As with IAQ research in general, most of the

literature concerning performance relates to office

work. However, certain performance indices may

be considered relevant for assessing educational

facilities, such as concentration, fatigue, and test

results. Mendell and Heath (2005), in their review of

literature relevant to the IAQ-performance relationship

in schools, failed to reveal a direct causal relationship.

They did, however, uncover several highly suggestive

lines of evidence for an association between the two,

particularly in terms of occupant exposure to indoor

pollutants; a finding which supports the notion that

poor IAQ may often inhibit task performance via

decrements in either student or teacher health.

Most of the research supporting the association

between IAQ and performance use ventilation rate

to indicate pollutant concentrations. Wargocki,

Wyon, Sundell, Clausen, and Fanger (2000) found

that increases in ventilation rate improved both

speed and accuracy of typing, addition and proof

reading, while also enhancing creative thinking and

clarity of thinking. The authors calculated an average

increase in performance of 1.7% for every twofold

increase in ventilation rate between 3 and 30 L/s per

person. In their review of the literature, Seppänen,

Fisk, and Lei (2006) concluded that an increase in

outdoor ventilation rate of 10 L/s per person results

in a 1–3% improvement in work performance (up

to approximately 45 L/s per person, after which

the curve plateaus—see Figure 2). This relationship

between ventilation rate and performance makes

sense in light of the fact that total VOC levels have

been associated with impaired memory and ability

to concentrate (Mølhave et al., 1986). In fact, there

do not appear to be any theoretical explanations

for the relationship between indoor pollutants and

performance that do not rely on occupant health

as a mediator.

134 135

The preceding recommendations are not intended

to devalue the importance of ventilation, but to

emphasise that the task of managing indoor pollutant

levels should not be the sole responsibility of HVAC

engineers. Architects, interior designers, and facility

managers have equally important roles to play in

realising optimal IAQ within learning environments.

It has been argued here that increased attention to

indoor pollutants in particular, and environmental

quality in general, is well-justified in terms of triple

bottom line reporting via improvements in health,

learning outcomes and—pending the integration

of non-ventilation-based strategies for pollution

management—energy consumption. Furthermore,

Wyon (2004) claims that the cost of improving IAQ

above current minimum standards is counterbalanced

by benefits by a factor of sixty, leading to a payback

of investment within two years.

Unfortunately, if the views of Olesen (2004) are

representative of those in the design industry, it

seems that the aspirations for modern architecture,

including schools, are somewhat modest:

“The main purpose of most buildings and installed

heating and air conditioning systems is to provide

an environment that is acceptable and does not

impair [italics added] health and performance of the

occupants” (p. 18). Fanger (2000) claims that the

goal for IAQ is even less ambitious, with many official

standards allowing for up to 30% of occupants to be

dissatisfied. Is it too much to expect an educational

environment capable of inspiring occupants and

which, physiologically and psychologically, enhances

their sense of well-being and preparedness to learn?

Thankfully, Fanger believes that a paradigm shift is

on the horizon, where excellent indoor environments

will promote optimal health while enhancing

occupant satisfaction and productivity. Surely this

should be the goal, if not the standard, for any

building assisting in the cultivation of our planet’s

intellectual resources.

One innovative approach to improving IAQ while

achieving sustainability targets is to use indoor plants.

Some species are known to metabolise certain

indoor pollutants, primarily through micro-organisms

living in the rhizosphere (the region of soil immediately

surrounding the root structure of plants). Despite

some enthusiastic reporting by the media (e.g. Allenby,

2006), empirical evidence for the notion that indoor

plants can effectively filter substantial concentrations

of air-borne pollutants is inconclusive. In fact, some

research conducted on indoor plants has investigated

the possibly negative impact of biofiltration on IAQ

(e.g. via the release of microbial spores and metabolic

by-products), with little support for this hypothesis

(Darlington, Chan, Malloch, Pilger, & Dixon, 2000).

While some studies suggest modest beneficial

effects (e.g. Dingle, Tapsell, & Hu, 2000, found an

11% reduction in formaldehyde levels with twenty

plants), others claim that biofiltration can have a

significant positive impact on IAQ (e.g. the rapid

removal of large amounts of benzene, a model VOC,

as reported by Orwell, Wood, Tarran, Torpy, &

Burchett, 2004).

The range of reported effects may be at least

partially explained by the complexity of the biomass

employed; from the simple addition of potted plants,

to ecologically integrated biofiltration systems

comprising bioscrubbers (air plenums faced with

wet, porous volcanic rock), hydroponic plants and

aquariums. Perhaps the most promising solution

involves bioaugmentation, which consists of the

inoculation of plant foliage with bacteria to enhance

the absorption and metabolisation of pollutants

(De Kempeneer, Sercu, Vanbrabant, Van Langenhove,

& Verstraete, 2004). Such treatment enables the

phyllosphere (surfaces of the plant above ground)

to contribute significantly to the removal of indoor

pollutants, greatly increasing the effectiveness

of biofiltration.

136 137

Humans are creatures of habit. With physical/mental convenience deeply embedded in our society, it would be remiss of us to think that the transition to being green will be easy. Even turning off a light when we leave a room unfortunately requires conscious thought. Paul GannonLondon

The biggest risk is viewing sustainability as fashionable. It’s an undeniable fact that fashion changes. Where will we go when everyone is bored? Steven K HowsonLondon

HARMONIOUS WITH NATURE: THE CHINESE APPROACH TO BUILDING ENERGY REDUCTION

Jiang Yi

140 141

A few years ago, one of my PhD students was working

on a project in building design in China. I asked him

to collect building designs prior to the Industrial

Revolution from all over the world. He came up with

a collection of fifteenth and sixteenth century building

designs. Each design was unique to its environment,

unique to its culture. Prior to the Industrial Revolution

you could look at building design and tell if it was

from northern Europe or from an African city—each

was distinct and each conveyed location. However,

after the Industrial Revolution, human beings became

powerful. We could use technology to do anything—

we could control climate and lighting and soon,

buildings grew to resemble one another. I asked that

same student to collect building designs from the last

few years. We could no longer distinguish place in the

designs. We could no longer distinguish culture.

In some ways we have forgotten culture and we

run a real risk of forgetting nature.

I often ask myself what kind of building is right for

China. This is a difficult question to answer but it

is our responsibility to find the right fit for China.

There was a time when, like many others, I focused

on technology for an answer. But, to understand the

real situation in China, I’ve moved beyond this to

examining the real data collected on China’s energy

consumption and the influence this should have on

design. I was surprised by what I found. Potentially,

it isn’t technology that has the biggest impact on

energy consumption—it is culture. Human behaviour

is different across cultures and hence different

cultures require different buildings.

Energy guzzlers

With the rapid development and adjustment to

the economic structure in China, the proportion of

structural energy consumption of commercial energy

is continuing to grow and, as in many developed

countries, will soon account for around thirty per cent

of overall energy use (industry and transportation

accounting for the other seventy per cent of energy)

(Zho & Lin, 2004). According to the World Wildlife

Fund (WWF), “China is set to overtake the US (at

21%) as the biggest producer of greenhouse gases

by 2025 unless current trends are modified” (n.d.).

Seven of the world’s ten most polluted cities are in

China and seventy-five per cent of China’s energy

production comes from burning coal (WWF, n.d.).

With economic development and a rise in living

conditions, currently China is moving towards the

direction of developed countries and gradually closing

itself off to traditional building methods and natural

internal environments.

Many large-scale modern office buildings and other

similar landmark buildings are gradually replacing

typical public buildings, slowly becoming the

mainstream of new non-residential buildings in any

downtown metropolis. Every new office building,

university campus with residences, and even primary

school classrooms are following suit with demands

to ‘take the foreign track’. One by one, large-scale,

centrally air-conditioned, machine-reliant power

guzzling buildings are being erected in our cities.

This is a startling consideration for China as it

concerns not simply the path of progress, but also

the historic relationship the nation has with nature.

Currently, China’s people can still differentiate

themselves from the west by their behaviour

still driven by traditional Confucian values which

include frugality, hard work and personal sacrifice.

Cultural theorist Hofstede quantified the Confucian

work ethic and the important cultural attitude

of perseverance and estimated this value to be

substantially higher for China than for the US,

the UK and Australia (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005).

Data collected by Li (2007), indicates patterns in

residential building occupant behaviour that proves

Chinese are still frugal by nature. The energy used

by hot water, lighting, household appliances, air

conditioning and other electricity-powered items is

considerably lower in Chinese residential buildings

than in the European cities with similar climatic

conditions. For example, in Germany total residential

building energy consumption averages 222 kWh/m2

(Engelund Thomsen, Wittchen, Jensen, Aggerholm,

& The Danish Building Research Institute, 2007).

In China, total residential building energy

consumption is under 50 kWh/m2 (Li and Jiang, 2006).

One of the main reasons for this difference is how

internal environments and living spaces are used.

As of 2005, China still lagged behind the US in net

electricity consumption at 2197–3816 billion kilowatt

hours (Energy Information Administration, 2007).

Interestingly, current energy efficiency guidelines

put forth by the US Department of Energy

Efficiency and Renewable Energy, encourage

behavioural change such as part-time, part-space

consideration for air conditioning usage and raising

the starting temperature as a way to decrease

consumption rates by as much as 15% annually

(2007). Fortunately, these are habits already in

place in China.

142 143

A matter of hot air

Forty per cent of China’s total building energy

consumption is accounted for by heating urban

buildings in the north of the country (Tsinghua

Building Energy Research Centre, 2008). China’s

systems of coal-fired boilers and thermoelectric

generators are less efficient than those used in

Europe, where most buildings rely on decentralised

internal boilers (gas and oil) or electric heating.

Chinese buildings have poorer grade insulation

systems than large buildings in Europe, however, the

difference in the total amount of energy used for

warming buildings is not so significant. This is because

the relatively shorter heating season and the relatively

lower room temperature the Chinese people tolerate

during winter makes a significant savings impact.

China’s heating systems, which are operated

centrally, are only run for a given period which is

generally shorter than the period used in climatically

similar areas of Europe. In China, Beijing has 120

days of heating allocated by the government; the

northeast region has 170. Other developed nations

will heat according to the climate usually for a much

longer period.

Despite the fact that the Yangtze River valley regions

such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chongqing

have external temperatures as low as 0 oC in the

winter, there are basically no centralised heating

systems. In southern China the primary heating

method is individual air conditioning heating pumps,

small individual heating stoves and electric heating

dispersal units. Most Chinese do not remove coats

and outer layers of clothing when they enter a

room; consequently Chinese do not need drastic

differences in external and internal temperatures.

Ji, Lou, Dai, Wang and Liu (2006) noted that clothing

types and behavioural customs impact people’s

satisfaction of their thermal environment. Homes

and offices typically maintain a room temperature

of 10–14 oC and generally heating is only provided

part-time. Southern China generally does not have

twenty-four hour continuous heating like in northern

China. Even when including individual electric heaters,

these regions only use 5–8 kWh/m2 for winter

heating, whereas France, which is similar climatically,

consumes about 27 kWh/m2 in winter heating, nearly

three times more (Engelund Thomsen et al., 2007).

Chill-out

Another difference between urban China and

developed nations’ energy consumption is cool air

conditioning. In a survey conducted by the Energy

Information Administration (2007), in the northeast

United States, again, an area climatically similar to

northern China, the average consumption measured

about 40 kWh/m2 for electric air conditioning

consumption.

According to the study conducted by Li (2007)

in Beijing, despite the fact that on average every

household contains an air conditioning unit, statistics

indicate that the average air conditioning energy

usage is only 2.3 kWh/m2 a year. It was clear in this

study that the difference between western countries

and China was unrelated to building performance

or the structure of air conditioning units; it was due

to the different lifestyles and lessened reliance on

artificial temperature control.

Although this recent study shows promising figures,

energy use is on the rise, and China has seen an

increase in central air conditioning that runs year-

round to maintain a constant temperature in high-

class residential buildings. Although these buildings

use energy saving technology, energy consumption

is still much higher than average residential buildings.

Even in 2000, the number of air-conditioned homes

increased to 10 million up from 12 800 just nine years

earlier (Ji et al., 2006). Overseas returnees, foreign

immigrants and other high income residents are also

changing ways of life creating higher levels of energy

consumption.

Outside major city centres, villas and townhouses

have become popular, particularly on China’s east

coast. These homes are not only large in size but

their consumption of energy is substantially more

than the average Chinese residence. These are

shifts in ideology and custom that seem to intimate

a higher standard of living. Yet they come at a steep

environmental cost. As we face severe shortages of

natural resources on a global level, it is vital to find

solutions to stunt China’s energy use.

Why are we diminishing reliance on natural

conditions, such as daylight and natural air circulation,

to improve the internal environment? Only when

we cannot fulfil our own needs should we rely on

automation for assistance.

Thermal tolerance: Changing behaviour

Constant reliance on artificial controls to maintain

a stable, temperate working and living environment

not only leads to increased energy consumption,

but also affects people’s response and adjustment

to temperature changes and heat, lowering their

resistance. Studies have shown that people who

do not use air conditioning are comfortable in

a much broader range of temperatures and are

highly adaptable to the environment. In a 2006

field study of thermal environments and adaptability,

natural ventilation contributed in great measure

to an increased degree of what was considered

an acceptable, comfortable temperature

(Ye, Zhou, Lian, Liu, Li & Liu, 2006). Zhao, Xia and Li

(1997, as cited in Ye et al., 2006) similarly found that

comfortable temperatures could reach 30 oC

in naturally ventilated buildings, but the threshold

was less than 27 oC when occupants were in

air-conditioned buildings.

We need to challenge ourselves as to whether we

maintain constant internal room temperatures and

levels of humidity to obtain high-comfort standards,

or allow the internal environment to change as the

climate changes outside. The latter requires more

tolerance. This is a core question about what we

consider modern living and our understanding

of comfort to be. When we face an extraordinary

difference in energy consumption between two

different lifestyle choices, we must realistically and

responsibly consider the implications for the planet

and future development.

Studies have shown that people who do not use air conditioning are comfortable in a much broader range of temperatures and are highly adaptable to the environment.

144 145

China’s traditions still applicable

The current method of constructing and maintaining

built environments is inadequate. Sustainable

developments demand a re-investigation of culture,

of society and of lifestyle. They demand a rethink

of our relationship with nature. Only then can we

affect building energy conservation on a large

scale and from this begin to lessen the increasingly

serious pressure put upon the earth’s environment

and resources.

China’s traditional culture has always emphasised

harmony with nature in creating living environments—

the idea that man and nature are one. Whether it be

the clay-silt caves in the northern Ordos Desert which

are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, the

courtyards of old Beijing homes that allow natural

circulation, or the sky-well courtyards of the Anhui

region which rely on eaves and awnings to allow

natural airflow whilst protecting from winter winds,

China has considered and relied on nature. All of

the internal spaces of these structures were created

to meet the needs of the local climate and create

a comfortable environment. This is our tradition;

our national character is about perseverance

and adaptation and this necessitates a deep

understanding of our behaviours and our relationship

with nature.

Let us hope that we do not lose sight of this tradition

in the way we design our buildings and the manner

in which we live in them. Humanity has become

so technologically advanced, perhaps our greatest

strength post Industrial Revolution is to choose

not to inflict that might on nature.

Harmonious with nature

Professionally, I have steered away from using terms

such as high performance building because the

construction of a building is not the only factor that

decides its overall energy consumption. It has to

do instead with the way a building is used and the

different behaviour of the occupants in that building.

Fundamentally, green technology in building design,

as seen increasingly in the West, is a return to the

considerations of nature; not simply in minimising

an ecological footprint, but in consideration of

building placement, positioning, and sunlight use

among other things.

Beyond these natural considerations of course,

green technology relies on emerging innovations.

Until certain technologies become a universal

standard, developed and developing nations alike

grapple with growth and massive energy expenditure

in the building industry. However nature need not

take a back seat to technology or rely on technology

for consideration. Rather, on an individual level, we

can fundamentally and positively impact energy

consumption. In consideration for China’s people

and traditions the answer seems simple: China needs

buildings which are open to nature.

There are two contrary philosophies of how we can

approach the way we design and use buildings:

1. 天人合一 Tian rén hé yi

/ Harmonious with nature

/ Nature and man are one

/ Adjust demand according to natural conditions

/ Encourage thrifty behaviours

2. 人定胜天 Rén dìng sheng tian

/ Mechanised

/ Man shall conquer nature

/ Designs demand according to 'paradise'

/ Depends on high tech and renewable energy

The first necessitates a return to nature. This means

allowing air to circulate naturally, going back to

traditional building structures, no longer trying to

control nature, and using artificial means only when

it becomes unbearable or necessary. The other path

is to continue to use technology to manipulate the

environment in the creation of comfort. This means

increasing the use of mechanised circulation and

environmental controls.

China’s traditional culture has always emphasised harmony with nature in creating living environments—the idea that man and nature are one.

146 147

When was the last time you read a book in the dark by candle light, instead of watching the television? Raymond WanLondon

Voting with my wallet is one way I feel I can make a difference. Ella MarshallLondon

148 149

Hsuhan Chiang, Rob Deutscherand Ian Hau

VERT-ICALFARM-ING

150 151

The urbanisation of the world has now reached a

critical turning point according to some sources,

where the majority of the world’s population resides

in urban settlements as opposed to rural areas.

There is concern that the exponential population

increase, particularly in our urban areas, may cause

pressure on the provision of food in the very near

future. The concern is not so much in the ability

to provide enough food, but more so in preventing

negative environmental consequences caused

by finding new land to cultivate.

Our sprawling agricultural practices are indeed

alarming. In the 1700s, just seven per cent of the

world’s land was used for farming. Further analysis

of satellite data undertaken by the Centre for

Sustainability and the Global Environment has

revealed that forty per cent of the earth’s land

is now claimed by farming (Owen, 2005).

How much more land will we need to feed a world

population estimated by the United Nations (2006)

to become 9.1 billion by 2050? If conventional farming

is not able to provide solutions for the long term,

where is the world’s increasing urban population

going to find a reliable source of fresh food?

Dr Dickson Despommier, a microbiologist in the US,

along with a team of students, has investigated the

possibilities of alleviating environmental impacts

from agricultural sprawl by a denser and potentially

more urban form of farming. His solution is the

Vertical Farm for our cities; a sustainable, agricultural

strategy which utilises human waste in the production

of drinking water, energy and food. Vertical Farms

are modelled on multi-storey building construction,

teamed with hydroponically grown crops. Each building

is capable of utilising human waste in the production

of food and drinking water for up to 50 000 people.

The concept was borne eight years ago at Columbia

University, where Dr Despommier and his students

began a series of urban sustainability projects. Their

investigations explored creating farm land on the

rooftops of Manhattan and retrofitting hydroponics

in the 1723 abandoned buildings of this city.

They found that a Vertical Farm with a footprint of a

typical two hectare New York City block, at thirty-five

stories tall, could feed the needs of 50 000 people

per annum. To feed the whole of New York City (NYC)

with a population of 7.5 million approximately 160

buildings would be required.

To imagine what the Vertical Farm would look like,

consider the workings of a conveyor belt. At one end

are the planters; at the other end are the harvesters.

The plants march across the room at the rate they

grow in modular blocks. By the time they reach the

other side, they are ready for harvest and a new

module of plants begins at the other end. The cycle

can continue day and night.

If each floor of the Vertical Farm is three metres

in height with three layers of 600 mm tall crops,

it will be equivalent to six hectares of outdoor land.

Which means, a thirty-five storey Vertical Farm, with

a two hectare footprint, is equivalent to two hundred

hectares of outdoor land. Annual crop yields would

increase three to four times: this could mean green

beans every six weeks and lettuce every eight days.

As urban areas grow, particularly in developing

nations, this model prevents extensive environmental

degradation, can keep up with demand and is

unhindered by natural disasters or drought.

... the Centre for Sustainability and the Global Environment has revealed that forty per cent of the earth’s land is now claimed by farming.

152 153

The Living Skyscraper by Kurasek. Reproduced with

permission from The Vertical Farm Project.

Authors’ impression of a Vertical Farm

An Australian context

In countries like Australia, where there is deficient

water and soil degradation, there is a lack of

confidence in sustaining farming practices for the

future despite innovations in more efficient farming

techniques. Farm subsidies, a heavy reliance on

irrigation practices, adverse weather conditions

and transportation costs are key risks to future

sustainability. Although food can be easily imported

from countries with more sympathetic climates,

transport costs could easily prove prohibitive with

even a small and sustained rise in the cost of fuel.

The Australian Coalition Government has offered

attractive incentives for people to move off their

farms. So where will fresh food come from in

the future?

Even though the Vertical Farm idea still needs

development before the technology reaches the

point of market confidence, there are a number

of issues raised by the concept which inspire further

thought. The efficiencies in land use and yield ratios

alone encourage further investigation. The ‘close

the loop’ possibilities of the Vertical Farm offer the

most positive way forward. The concept also offers

quantifiable social benefits in terms of employment,

upskilling and quality fresh produce which could

be grown on the city’s doorstep and fuelled by the

bi-products of urbanisation.

A number of possibilities potentially stand out for

a city such as Melbourne. First, the inner city has

a series of high density social housing projects in

Richmond, Collingwood and Carlton which have

been much maligned over the years for a range

of reasons. As the price of land has risen

exponentially and the necessity to practice dense

living grows, it doesn’t stretch the imagination to

envisage a Vertical Farm amongst the high-rise

housing. A Vertical Farm, apart from its environmental

advantages, would offer employment opportunities

to the residents of the housing, a source of quality

healthy food as well as a very positive signifier to

cultural change on the estates.

The environmental possibilities mean a constant

supply of water for the residents and for irrigation

of the park setting in which most of these estates

are situated, all fuelled by the waste products

of the residents themselves and the surrounding

urban areas. The social benefits also extend to the

educational advantages, particularly in the area of

health, diet and the environment.

What begins to emerge from this scenario are the

benefits of broader thinking for Vertical Farms and

the potential to fund such projects through ‘cross

government means’. Clearly the idea has benefits

beyond the simple construction of a building.

Malaysian architect, Ken Yeang, has long been a

promoter of greener buildings and developing a

‘Vertical theory of urban design’ (2006). Using his

ideas, play and community meeting spaces could

be vertically integrated into the Vertical Farm

structure as a way of interpreting the same matrix

of land uses and space we are familiar with in

the horizontal public realm. These spaces could

be logically located in the tower and more strongly

related to groups of residents who would normally

need to descend to the ground floor to find

such amenities.

A second possibility surrounds the difficulty at state

and local government levels in selling the Melbourne

2030 planning blueprint for Melbourne. The Vertical

Farm could be a great catalyst and ‘banner’ project

for a range of the nominated Activity Centres 1

particularly those located in suburban areas.

By using the Vertical Farm in this way, state and

local government could be investing in projects with

regional partners that would demonstrate support

for environmentally driven outcomes. This investment

may initially and importantly be through the provision

of land. Partners such as the large supermarket

chains or fresh food suppliers are an obvious group

to target with their reliance on the delivery of fresh

products and transport logistics to meet local

expectations and needs. One can imagine a series

of these structures dotted across the suburban

landscape as modern silos, providing a very local

dimension to closing the loop and providing fresh

food close to the end users.

A further opportunity exists for upgrading Grade B

and C office buildings within the CBD. This is where

the ‘Vertical theory of urban design’ is potentially best

demonstrated. Not only could the rooftops of these

buildings be used to greater effect environmentally,

but the floor spaces could be a series of integrated

mixed uses that are part office, part farm, part public

space. This could provide for some interesting social

integration. Atelier SoA from France have put forward

a Living Tower project as a clear demonstration of

this thinking.

Generation X and Y have indicated a willingness

to seek employment with companies who have

demonstrable green credentials. Imagine working

in an office and looking out over a field of carrots,

or having a meeting in the ‘lettuce room’. Imagine

the future possibilities—the marriage of farm and tall

building could become the building typology of the

near future.

... a city block of corn ... could probably generate thousands of litres of water per week through transevaporation.

Hsuhan Chiang: How does the Vertical Farm

produce drinking water?

Dickson Despommier: The most important aspect

of the Vertical Farm is turning black water into

drinking water. One method is to use a pyrogenesis

machine which begins by removing the sludge

from black water, drying the sludge, then using

very high temperatures to render the leftover

organic material back into their elements. The

machine itself uses fifty per cent of the energy it

generates and the rest of the energy available can

be used to fuel the energy needs of the Vertical

Farm or elsewhere. The machine is commercially

available and is actually very practical to use. After

the pyrogenesis process, you are left with grey

water. Grey water can be transformed into an

industrial usable form by using a combination of

technologies. One of the technologies attempts

to employ the filtering actions of molluscs (Zebra

Muscles) as a remover of bacterial particulates.

Another method is to utilise UVB radiation to treat

viral particles, then water would be further polished

by filtering it through charcoal, sand and gravel.

This is the process to turn grey water into industrial

usable water, which is water you wouldn’t drink but

is still safe and this water can certainly be used to

water the plants inside the Vertical Farm. Drinking

water is then recovered by collecting the moisture

plants transpire into the local atmosphere.

Rob Deutscher: How do you capture

that water from the plants?

DD: Through a simple process of dehumidification,

where water is collected by attracting moisture

particles onto cold surfaces. Inside the Vertical

Farm, heat exchangers installed on the ceilings

would act as dehumidifiers. A super saturated salt

solution (which remains liquid when cooled below

freezing) is pumped through the heat exchanger

allowing the rising moisture to condense on the

cold pipe, forming droplets for collection.

Vertical Farm Q and A

HC: How much water can you generate

from these plants?

DD: It varies with the size of the leaf, species and

maturity of the plant. If you had a city block of

corn for instance, with three or four layers of the

crop in each room, you could probably generate

thousands of litres of water per week through

trans-evaporation.

RD: How much light would be needed

for the plants to grow?

DD: Firstly, Vertical Farm buildings would be

designed to capture as much sunlight as possible

to minimise the use of energy from lighting, but LED

light bulbs can also be used and emit appropriate

wavelengths for specific plants. There is a secret to

the Vertical Farm’s success; its energy consumption

does not just rely on the energy produced from

the integration of renewable energy systems such

as wind, tidal and solar but energy can also be

recovered from the plants themselves. Corn for

example, has very low percentage of edible parts

and it has a high percentage of waste. This can be

freeze-dried and tampered into a powdered form

creating tight pellets to burn. It is the burnable

energy that is locked up in the plants and from local

food waste which can be utilised to support the

Vertical Farm’s energy needs.

HC: How would Vertical Farm products

be competitive in the market?

DD: They would be very competitive because the

Farms produce perfect crops every time whereas

in conventional farming there can be poor farm

crops due to unstable weather patterns, plant

diseases, insect attacks, storage problems and

shipping problems. There is a lot of pressure for

traditional farmers to survive. Additionally, the

current price of products we buy at the grocery

store has cost of transportation factored into it.

Once you eliminate transportation cost, there

is the potential to lower prices and be very

competitive within the market. There would

probably still need to be a fair trade agreement

which levels the playing field between Vertical

Farms and conventional farming.

154 155

An Asian context

In Hong Kong, with its limited land availability,

a sustainable and environmentally responsible Vertical

Fish Farm concept has evolved supported by

government incentives. With world supplies of natural

fish stocks depleting, caused by the destruction of

natural habitats, pollution of waters close to land and

illegal fishing, Hong Kong, a major market for live

fish, has encouraged the development of a hi-tech

aquaculture industry that will make Hong Kong a

world leader in the live fish export market.

An Australian firm, Marine Culture Technology (MCT),

is currently developing a Recirculating Aquaculture

Fish Farm project in a fourteen-storey high building

in Chai Wan which is planned to supply the local

market with two tonnes of live fish per month.

This system consists of solar powered recycling

water pumps and 1500 litre tanks, replicating the

optimum conditions of the natural habitat for the fish.

The facility has the added advantage of producing

disease-free and heavy metal-free salt water fish

including the highly sought after live reef Grouper,

all within a self-contained environment with no

discharge of waste into the environment. The water

used is 100% recyclable.

In Dr Despommier’s model, fish farming has been

considered as a part of the mix of products which

can be produced in the Vertical Building model. In

fact, a mix of vegetable production and fish farming

could be seen as advantageous with worms from the

composting process and lettuces able to be used

as food substrates for the fish, adding further support

for closed loop systems.

The urban advantages in Hong Kong are the

controlled and reduced transport costs to the

local market, high value use of land, the supply

of which is at a premium, and freer access to

sources of employees and employment.

However, the employment issue would need to

be balanced against the traditional fishing industry,

because as Hong Kong moves towards a more

service-based economy, traditional industries

such as fishing will most probably undergo

significant change.

Hong Kong is already a ‘Vertical City’ with many

factories stacked in multi-storey constructions and

some of the highest residential buildings in the

world, therefore the Vertical Farm model would

not be a ‘foreign’ built form in this cityscape.

The implementation of a Vertical Farm model

in a variety of cities and cultures will bring urban

settings one step closer to self-sustainability,

an enclosed energy feedback system of recycled

outputs and real opportunities for the reduction

of an ecological footprint.

... the fl oor spaces could be a series of integrated mixed uses that are part offi ce, part farm, part public space. This could provide for some interesting social integration.

156 157

There is a famous metaphor I ponder often: How much food would you take if you were at the front of a buffet queue with a few billion people behind you waiting to also serve themselves? How much is enough for you so that the last person in that queue also has enough? Sustainability means knowing how much you need and living in a way so that no one else misses out because of your choices. Juliette AnichMelbourne

By defi nition, sustainability implies the notion of indefi nite regeneration. Sustainability is respect: respect of any form of life, humans, other species, nature and the environment we all inhabit. Raphaelle MarmierLondon

158 159

Wanchai 2010: Towards sustainable urban transformation

James Acuna

160 161

Besides the obvious health issues, the visual impact of pollution is particularly striking especially for tourists who strain their eyes daily for a view of the Hong Kong skyline, usually obscured by a thick cloud of urban fog.

Urban environmental degradation

Within the last few years Hong Kong has been

following the general consciousness shared by

most world-class cities in its attitudes towards

generating an overall sustainable urban environment.

Google search ‘sustainable Hong Kong’ and

chances are several websites from either private-

sector organisations, like the HKSDF (Hong Kong

Sustainable Development Forum) to public-interest

groups like Hong Kong People’s Council for

Sustainable Development will appear. Most issues

raised within each group are similar and everyone

is trying to find the right solutions towards a more

holistic and cooperative urban development.

For example, air pollution and how to alleviate it

has been by far the most important topic of concern.

Besides the obvious health issues, the visual impact

of pollution is particularly striking especially for

tourists who strain their eyes daily for a view of the

Hong Kong skyline, usually obscured by a thick cloud

of urban fog. While many contributors to this urban

fog are seemingly out of our control, like factory

emissions from China, the most pressing problem

for most city dwellers is the accumulation of

pollutants emitted by vehicles that are trapped

in areas around Hong Kong where high density

pedestrian zones exist.

Another major cause of urban environmental

degradation is the Hong Kong attitude towards

waste, most specifically building waste disposal.

While a few builders are gradually working towards

a more efficient zero-waste construction approach,

there is still the issue of waste accumulated

through demolition, and the choice of materials

and methods of construction which could minimise

further building waste disposal in the future. In an

ever evolving city like Hong Kong, the issue of building

material as waste and its life cycles is very important

in gauging the greenness of a new development

method. According to Angela Tam (2006), author

of Sustainable building in Hong Kong: The past,

present and future, 99% of all building materials

are reusable and/or recyclable. The most common

materials that can be recycled are aluminium air

ducts, steel and lighting boxes. Other materials such

as concrete, bricks and other aggregates can be used

for paving or creating decorative walls.

A better approach of reuse and recycle would be

no demolition at all but a program retrofit—especially

appropriate for older cities like Hong Kong with

plenty of architectural history. Transformations

could be small-scale, like the preservation of old

Chinese buildings, or have a larger impact, like the

new headquarters of the Electrical and Mechanical

Services Department (EMSD) which was born out

of an old air-cargo terminal in Kowloon Bay. If new

buildings have to be constructed—the Chater House

in Central is a great example—then it would be best

to make use of the latest in prefabricated technology

to construct facades and internal architectural

features offsite with a great degree of precision,

in order to minimise waste in construction as well

as its own reappropriation or reuse.

Sustainable urban environments can develop

So does Hong Kong have a greener future ahead?

Fortunately with the possibility of two environmental

assessment schemes to help rate the greening

of new construction, with HK-BEAM (Hong Kong

Building Environmental Assessment Method) and

the CEPAS (the Comprehensive Environmental

Performance Assessment Scheme), theory will move

aggressively forward into common practice.

Besides working towards greener building methods,

green developments can occur within already existing

neighbourhoods.

There is a possibility for more holistic sustainable

developments to be made off current Urban Renewal

Authority projects, with the most controversial of

them being the re-development of Lee Tung Street

in Wanchai. Existing post-war buildings on that street

may not meet the criteria for preservation but in

order to reduce construction waste and to reinforce

architectural heritage In the upper Wanchai area,

transforming Lee Tung Street into a modern tourist

and community attraction may be the key to spur

sustainable development within a larger existing

context. Historically, Wanchai has always been

a very integral business hub for Hong Kong and

today is a major link between Causeway Bay

and government, non-government and private

business institutions.

The Urban Renewal Authority aims to upgrade the

areas around key business centres with new towers,

new residences and a new indoor air-conditioned

food market which will eventually transform

the Wanchai of history into something perhaps

generic and ordinary. A holistic sustainable urban

development would take into account the three pillars

of sustainability—the environmental, the social, and

the economic—as a driving precedence for a new

development concept. Lee Tung Street is a perfect

canvas for a future case study for sustainability

for this neighbourhood is not quite as innovative

or revolutionary as it is just plain common sense.

162 163

The environmental, the social and the economic

To alleviate further micro-climatic pollution of the

area, the street should be pedestrian orientated and

vehicle free. Presently, there are plenty of streets

around north Wanchai that are vehicle free. This is

nothing new. If it were to be implemented, one of

the major blows to social and community culture

would be the demolition of open-air food markets

in and around Cross Street due to the emergence

of a new-indoor Wanchai Market within the same

area. An existing open air street market also exists

on Gresson Street towards Admiralty. Street markets

actually alleviate traffic pollution there and invigorate

social and communal interaction among residents of

the area and their visitors. The reduction of vehicular

traffic (which contributes to the reduction of vehicular

noise and emissions) and the solidification of a

sustainable market community, are major systems

within an ideal sustainable urban environment. If the

city builds and plans for vehicles, then the area will

only be inviting more vehicles. If the city builds and

plans for more pedestrians, then more pedestrians

will make use of these environments.

In order to reduce the impact of building waste,

planners, designers, engineers and developers must

be serious about the conservation of most existing

building structures and architectures on the site.

There have been many successful re-appropriation

projects in Europe and even mainland China of

existing structures such as residential/business lofts,

studios, restaurants and shopping areas, and Lee

Tung Street has the advantage and the opportunity

for that kind of enlightened development. Additionally,

old building parts can be reused and retrofitted

into the project in many other ways. Products and

materials used can either be recycled from site or

be fitted with one of the thousands of newly recycled

building products currently available on the market.

As for economic sustainability, the incorporation of

local and community orientated businesses should

be considered when renting out spaces. It’s about

time more art-based and local designer oriented

trades, like furniture and fashion, get focus and

frontage here in Hong Kong as they do in cities like

Beijing and Shanghai. With Queen’s Road East as an

interior design sourcing street and Start Street as a

gallery destination, Lee Tung Street as a commercial,

art-based, open-air market destination may be a way

to generate a new kind of economy that is produced

and sold in a self-sustaining way for that specific area.

If one were to look at the self-sustaining 798 Artist’s

Compound in Beijing, generating a micro-economy

rooted in art not only benefits community and

tourism, but overall urban culture as well. This is not

a program borne out of number crunching but a basic

environmental, social and economic need with plenty

of long-term rewards for Wanchai and the future of

urban sustainable development as a whole. Now that

we have the ideas and the education at our hands,

all we need is the essential willpower of the city of

Hong Kong to help make these changes a reality.

Ghost Town:

An art installation captures the

residents who once lived in a street

evacuated for total redevelopment

in the heart of Wanchai.

Editor’s note: As we go to print, development and design for the

future of Lee Tung Street is moving forward. Renderings of the

project propose a completely pedestrian-oriented street with

a 3–5 storey shopfront; the taller buildings set back and hidden

away from the commercially-activated pedestrian zone.

The new Wanchai Market is located in the podium of a new

luxury residential building. A handful of other architecturally

historic buildings in Wanchai have or will be turned into

commercial or residential spaces without having to resort to

demolition. The outlook is positive for preservation in Hong Kong.

164 165

15 Ian Hau

Ian is Woods Bagot’s Asia Regional Practice Leader

for Urban Design. Ian has twelve years experience

in urban design and architectural projects in Asia,

the Middle East and Australia. During this time he

has developed a particular focus in environmentally

responsive large scale mixed use developments

for the private and public sectors. Ian has taught

architectural design at the University of Technology

Sydney, University of Sydney and Tsinghua University.

Based in Hong Kong, Ian has a keen interest in the

development of sustainable and compact cities

particularly with the rapid urbanisation in China.

16 James Charles Bermejo Acuna

James Acuna’s sustainability and preservation

interests stem from theoretical research on the

formulation of both slum organisation and high

end mixed use retail developments in Manila. This

research is concurrent with his studies at Cornell

and Columbia Universities in New York rooted both

in tradition and experimental design. James is

currently a design leader working within the lifestyle

sector at Woods Bagot Hong Kong, designing retail

projects for the Asian region.

01

04

07

02

05

08

03

06

09

10

13 14 15

16

11 12

01 Mark Kelly

Mark has more than twenty years of experience as

an architect and designer including time spent in

Australia and the United Kingdom. He has a broad

range of design skills specifically in commercial,

leisure, residential and specialist buildings. Mark

has developed a special expertise in highly serviced

medical research and laboratory facilities and the

masterplanning and design of such facilities. As the

Global Director of Sustainability, Mark leads our

Global Green Team of leaders in all our regions.

02 Megan Antcliff

Megan is an associate at Woods Bagot. Over the

past five years she has largely focused on strategic

planning, site masterplanning (including City Central)

and campus design for tertiary and vocational

education and research organisations, often

managing extensive consultation processes

and diverse stakeholder groups.

03 Sean Coward

Sean is a member of the Consulting Team at Woods

Bagot. Having been awarded a PhD in Psychology

for his research into task execution under pressure,

Sean is highly equipped to identify the attentional

and motivational factors that can inhibit staff

performance and satisfaction in the workplace.

04 Jason Marriott

Jason Marriott, Principal at Woods Bagot leads

the Beijing team with more than twelve years

of professional industry experience. Jason has a

solid understanding of the Chinese design process

and market design drivers. After leading the design

team that won the 2008 Beijing Olympic Village,

Jason became the chief foreign design architect

for the Olympic Village, where he obtained a

unique understanding of very large scale mixed

use developments, the Beijing residential market

and the Beijing development process period.

05 Earle Arney

Earle is a director and global board member of

Woods Bagot and is co-editor and contributor to

Woods Bagot’s research publication Public #3:

WorkLife. Earle is the design director for the Bank

of New Zealand project in Auckland which is an

association between Woods Bagot and Warren

and Mahoney Architects. The BNZ building has

achieved a design rating of Five Star Green Star.

06 Chris Mobbs

Chris is a senior consultant for the Workplace

Consulting Team at Woods Bagot. He has more than

fifteen years experience delivering organisational

change and in particular helping clients understand,

deliver and transition into workplaces that deliver

real business benefit.

Contributors07 Jason Gerrard

Jason is a director and co-founder of Gerrard Bown,

a Melbourne-based sustainability strategy consultancy.

He has extensive experience in corporate strategy,

management, sustainability and policy development

across a number of sectors including finance, media,

government, IT, consumer goods and manufacturing.

Jason holds a Masters of Science in Resource

Management and Environmental Sustainability

from the University of British Columbia (Canada).

He also holds a first-class honours degree in

Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor of

Commerce, both from Monash University.

08 Ivan Ross

Ivan Ross, Chief Operating Officer and Finance

Director of Woods Bagot, provides analytic and

strategic support to the Global Board and Executive.

Ivan manages all corporate services across the firm

and has been instrumental in initiatives such as

establishing the firm’s carbon neutral status and

the development of our new global information

management and collaboration systems. Ivan was

previously COO/CFO of listed internet recruitment

company, SEEK Limited and prior to that was a

project leader at Boston Consulting Group in New York

and Melbourne. He has an MBA from the Wharton

School of Business (University of Pennsylvania), a

commerce degree from the University of Melbourne,

is a qualified chartered accountant and is Green

Star accredited.

09 Nina James

Nina joined Woods Bagot in 2001 as a graduate

landscape architect. In her seven years with Woods

Bagot, she has developed a strong passion for

the environment and has continually looked for

opportunities to lead Woods Bagot towards an

environmentally positive philosophy. Nina established

the Green Team globally and has since been able to

train with the Honourable Al Gore, as an ambassador

for ‘The Climate Project’. Nina now works with

our Project Management Services Team, as an

environmental consultant, specialising in sustainable

landscapes, and has joined the Australian Institute

of Landscape Architects Environmental Committee.

10 Dan Bulmer

Dan is a prominent urban designer and project leader

at Woods Bagot having worked in the Middle East,

the UK and Australia. He holds Royal Chartered status

and has focused his knowledge and experience in

sustainable masterplanning and regeneration. Dan

has worked on some of the largest development

projects in the UK during his time with EDAW, and

also gained significant experience from initiatives

in the north of England. Dan received his Masters

from the University of Manchester in 2002, and

was granted the RTPI Prize for best graduate when

he completed his Diploma of Urban Design at the

University of West of England.

11 Susan Stewart

Susan originally joined Woods Bagot as a workplace

change and communications consultant but was

shortly after recruited to help the firm develop and

implement a range of cultural change projects as the

Strategic Development and Change Manager. Susan

has over ten years experience in communications

and marketing, and more recently in change

management and strategy. She holds a Master of

Arts (Communication Management) and a Graduate

Diploma in Public Relations from the University of

South Australia; along with an undergraduate honours

degree from the University of Melbourne.

12 Professor Jiang Yi

Professor Jiang Yi currently serves as Vice Dean of

the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University and

is the Head of the Department of Building Science

and Technology. Jiang Yi has played a significant

role internationally in the field of building energy

efficiency, especially in China, and is Deputy Head of

the Chinese HVAC Association, Vice Chairman of the

Chinese Association of Refrigeration, and a member

of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and

Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). In addition,

Jiang Yi serves on the editorial board of three

journals, including the International Journal of CISBE,

International Journal of Ventilation and Chinese

Journal of HV&AC.

13 Hsuhan Chiang

Hsuhan is a member of the Woods Bagot Consulting

Team. His major focus is workplace design strategy,

investigating the characteristics of design that affect

business operations, including floorplate attributes,

daylight penetration, building types and location.

Hsuhan’s skills span other areas of the business

and he was integral to the compilation of one of

Woods Bagot’s education publications, Creating new

generation learning environments on the university

campus. Hsuhan has a keen interest in the concept

of vertical farming and the multiple roles our

buildings can play in recycling inner city waste whilst

simultaneously producing fresh food, water and

energy for surrounding areas.

14 Rob Deutscher

Rob is a qualified architect and urban designer of

Woods Bagot with over twenty years of experience

working within Australia, Asia and the UAE. Rob

currently teaches one of Melbourne University’s

fifth year design studios and recently chaired the

forum discussion, ‘Talk about Melbourne’, which

brought together expert thinking about the future

of Melbourne. Rob’s research work includes a paper

titled ‘Traditionally horizontal versus globally vertical’

which explores how traditional societies can

reorganise in the face of global competition.

166 167

Loy, D. (2007, September). Energy-policy framework

conditions for electricity markets and renewable

energies. German Federal Ministry of Economic

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16, 2008, from http://www.gtz.de/de/dokumente/

en-windenergy-china-study-2007.pdf

Mackey, R. (2007, August 30). Answers from Lu Zhi.

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Martinot, E. (2007, June). New report: China’s

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The colour of money:

The business case for sustainable design

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City Central: Trevor Mein

MCCD: Brookfield Multiplex Constructions Pty Ltd

Attitude to action

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S.E.E. breeze: The impact of indoor air quality

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Notes

1 Schools in the US have a more immediate economic

concern, with a significant proportion of government

funding allocated according to student attendance.

Some authors (e.g. Mendell & Heath, 2005) have

pointed out that improved facilities are capable of

reducing the rate of absenteeism, thus attracting

funds which can then be used to further upgrade

services and facilities.

2 A significant portion of this literature comes from

a large-scale research programme carried out by

The International Centre for Indoor Environment and

Energy (ICIEE), who have since received funding to

extend their research to IAQ in schools.

3 Contrary to popular opinion, ventilation has little

to do with increasing oxygen levels. Oxygen is

consumed at the rate of 0.36 L/minute per person for

seated occupants (ASHRAE, 2001); significantly less

than even the most impoverished ventilation rate.

The dilution of CO2—which is produced much more

quickly than oxygen is consumed—is of comparably

greater concern.

ReferencesGlobal issue. Personal impact.

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Sense and sustainability

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1 SecondLife: An internet-based virtual world

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Sustainability: Strategy or spin

This article first appeared in The Age, April 26, 2007.

City Central: A sustainable high

peformance workplace

Notes

1 A detailed description of the history and major

design features of this development can be found in

Public #3: WorkLife.

2 In the graphs that follow, each bar representing

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of these whiskers define the range within which the

true population average is likely to fall.

3 Effect size was calculated in this instance by

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(i.e. a neutral response indicating neither agreement

nor disagreement).

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Ross Williams

A holistic approach to sustainable development:

The UK regeneration experience

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The future of sustainability

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Notes

1 The role of an Activity Centre is to increase housing

choice, reduce urban sprawl, make more efficient

use of existing infrastructure and create a more

sustainable urban form. As such they need to meet

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Tile sign, p. 113, Pascalle Male

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Wind power, p. 125, Anna Hickman

Grafitti, p. 136, Michael Castledine

Taxis, p. 137, Mark Marin

Tram, p. 146, Pascalle Male

Kettle and pancakes, p. 147, Mauro Resnitzky

No fishing sign, p. 156, Candice Tirao

Baskets, p. 157, Hannah Gonzalez

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