Green Workplace Interiors
Workplace ROI through LEED-CI.
Green is good-including in the workplace. While green is good for obvious environmental reasons, sustainable design is also proven to support and enhance human factors and business results. Experience, and related research bears out this thinking. The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating program, for example, is widely seen as a way to improve a building's environmental profile and energy usage. Yet it's also been proven to boost workplace effectiveness and return on investment (ROI). A 2009 Michigan State study found that groups moving to LEED office buildings missed less work and put in almost 39 hours more per person annually. The total bottom-line benefit from gains related to fewer allergic reactions, reduced stress, and the productivity boost ranged from $69,601 to more than $250,000, the study showed.
Yet there are even greater returns. Today, leading companies and institutions are using LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI)-which certifies the sustainability of tenant improvements and interior renovations-as an opportunity to transform their business culture and even enhance their brand. Add gains in energy efficiency and the market value of a space, and it becomes hard to imagine not building green.
The key to linking LEED to ROI and other valuable measures of core organizational effectiveness is to plan early and strategically. The experience of several leading office tenants across the country demonstrates why; highlighting how six tactical solutions lines of attack create measurable value through green interiors. What's more, these applications are surprisingly achievable and economical when LEED-CI is viewed integral to project planning rather than as an “add-on" to interiors projects.
Read the full article, “Workplace ROI Through LEED-CI" to see the strategies these organizations adopted to improve performance, why they chose LEED-CI as part of the answer and what was delivered.