Jury still out on green work buildings

Speaking at Sustainable Business – the Event Miles Keeping of property consultants GVA Grimley said that what companies said in polls and what they did often failed to match up but that there was a growing awareness that the green credentials of a property would have an increasing impact on its value.

John Fiennes from the Government Department for Communities and Local Government spoke about what policy could, and could not, hope to achieve in this area.

He outlined the thinking behind energy performance certificates and the requirement to display energy data in commercial property as well as the scale of the challenge – with non-domestic buildings accounting for around a fifth of the UK’s total carbon emissions.

“What needs to happen to get to a low carbon workplace?” he said.

“Well, the first thing is different patterns of behavior of energy use to minimize the wastage that we see at the moment.

“The second part is obviously greater energy efficiency through fabric, through services and appliances.”

Nick Treffens of the Lincolnshire-based green events venue the Epic Centre outlined how the building put theory into practice with a raft of eco-features from a green roof and rainwater harvesting to natural ventilation and a wide array of renewable energy systems.

Sam Bond