Landlords and occupiers collaborate on sustainable agendas

The Culture Beyond the Physical round table, sponsored by Ultimate Commercial Interiors, dove deeply into the multifaceted relationship between workspace design, organisation values and employee experience in creating a thriving, productive and cohesive culture at work.

The group met at Ultimate Commercial Interiors’ Hive facility in Cross Hills, Airedale – an award-winning £4m facility that houses Ultimate’s offices and showroom.

Participants also focused on how sustainability and green factors were changing behaviours and choices.

“When you’re advising occupiers, almost the first question you ask is ‘where do you sit on the ESG scale?’,” said Paul Fox, director at Fox Lloyd Jones. “Once you understand that, it fundamentally drives what buildings you show that party.”

Although occupiers had been hesitant to properly invest in sustainable workspaces, there is a shift in attitudes.

“The bit that’s not yet happened is people paying the real premium rents because it costs more,” he said.

“But I think we’re at a tipping point where we’re really close to people paying a real premium rent for that tick-box building that has all of the badges of EPC A, Breeam Excellent, and everything that an occupier wants to be seen to be green and sustainable”

Eamon Fox, partner at Knight Frank, believes that “occupiers want this green agenda embraced”.

He said: “We’ve tracked about the 18% sales premium on green buildings, and then about a 10% increase on rents. I think the viability is there.

“Really building solutions around that ESG and boardroom agenda is where we’re at. The landlord and occupier are starting to become very aligned in terms of what they’re trying to achieve.”

Ben Parkes, from developer Bruntwood SciTech, agreed there is a consensus on the direction of travel in the sector.

“Everyone is under the same impression that sustainability is the next big thing, and everybody needs to achieve that,” he said.

“It is adapting their cultures. We’re seeing it in manufacturers with carpets now, where before it was ‘right, we’ve got to strip out carpet, just send it straight to landfill’, now it is ‘how can we recycle that element there?’. We’re seeing that a lot more.”

In fact occupiers are beginning to consider what happens when they leave, even before they move in.

“It’s not just that initial ‘let’s put all of these sustainable products in’, it’s how can you make the space sustainable during the course and then after?,” said Parkes.

“So why don’t you have a meeting pod, or a phone pod, rather than putting partitions up that you’re going to strip out in five years, when you’re potentially not going to be here?”

Andrew McLean, director at TP Bennett, said: “A lot of our clients are wanting to re-purpose or re-use furniture that they’ve currently got. Even if it’s 5-10 years old, it’s still pretty decent.

“Lloyds, as an example, took a load of space in Wellington Place, and almost all of their furniture they’ve repurposed. That’s great for their ESG agenda – and when you walk around that space, you can’t tell the difference between what’s been repurposed and what is new.”

Marie Brasnett-Miller, senior facilities manager at Switalskis, said the law firm is “looking at different things as we go along”.

She said: “The workspace with Bruntwood is a lot more energy efficient than the one we’re in at the moment. Obviously energy efficiency also saves money, when all the bills have gone through the roof as well.

“This two-way approach to this – you can be flying the flag of ‘we’re looking after the world in the future’, but you’re also actually saving money in the background – is a good thing.”