Delivering sustainability in office building refurbishment

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

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