In The Office MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
Banking on Green Building
sustainable workplace, after moving into the 6 Star Green Star One Shelley Street in Sydney. Research by the University of Technology Sydney, which tracked 2,500 Macquarie Bank employees over 15 months as they moved into their new high-performance office, found that the combination of activity-based working and world-class environmental attributes are escalating productivity to new heights.
Colliers International Managing Director of Office Leasing, Simon Hunt, has said. The design of ANZ’s office facilitates teamwork, offering a range of interconnected spaces to support individual and group working styles. “Staff resoundingly told us that their physical work environment is important for their individual productivity, and the recognition we have received through our Green Star ratings clearly shows that the ANZ Centre has gone a long way to meeting our staff’s expectations of their work environment,” Langan says.
As workplaces of the twenty-first century evolve into high-tech, flexible, mobile, and sustainable spaces, a surprising group of companies are leading the trend.
By Romilly Madew
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hink ‘bank’ and most of us imagine stultifying, cubiclefilled offices with pens chained down to desks. And yet many of Australia’s financial institutions are at the forefront of a workplace evolution. Driven by a desire to control costs, improve staff productivity and engagement, boost customer service, and meet corporate social responsibility obligations, banks are embracing spaces that foster creativity and collaboration, deliver savings through energy- and waterefficient design, and increase productivity through high levels of indoor environment quality. While in the past green buildings were seen as ethical and responsible, today sustainability is a smart business move.
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ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, Bendigo Bank, Adelaide Bank, ME Bank, and Macquarie Group all now operate from Green Star-rated buildings, and all have different motivations for doing so. Green Star ratings can be a clear expression of a company’s commitment to minimising its environmental footprint—and can deliver substantial cost savings into the bargain. Green Star-rated buildings not only emit around half the greenhouse emissions of non-green buildings, but they consume half the electricity. ANZ’s headquarters in Melbourne’s Docklands is an impressive example of a ‘world leadership’ sustainable building on a massive scale. At 82,000 square metres, this is the largest singletenanted 6 Star Green Star-rated office fit-out in the country.
According to ANZ’s Group General Manager for Property, Kate Langan, “The implementation of ongoing operational efficiencies, made possible by the ANZ Centre’s Green Star-certified environmental design, has reduced our annual electricity demand by more than 12 per cent since the building’s opening. This has translated into energy cost savings of around $200,000 per annum—a ‘good news story’ in a time when energy costs are rising.” At the same time, a sustainable workplace is becoming a powerful recruitment and retention tool. The Colliers International 2012 Office Tenant Survey found that a massive 95 per cent of tenants wanted to occupy a ‘green’ building, up from 75 per cent in 2010. “Green is now the norm— where it used to be a bonus in a building, it is now expected,”
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Over at the Commonwealth Bank, Jennifer Saiz, Head of Group Property, says that the high-quality internal environment at its headquarters in Sydney (which has 6 Star Green Star ratings for design, construction, and the office interior) has supported CBA’s transition to healthier and more efficient ways of working. “It’s been great to be able to provide a workplace that reinforces Commonwealth Bank’s commitment to our people, innovation, and sustainability. Our move to Commonwealth Bank Place in Darling Quarter has not only reduced our carbon footprint but has also improved collaboration and productivity in our teams.” Macquarie Group was one of the first companies to seize the opportunities presented by a
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Green Star ratings can be a clear expression of a company’s commitment to minimising its environmental footprint—and can deliver substantial cost savings into the bargain.
In fact, one group of participants in the study showed an average of 15-per-cent net increase in perceived productivity. As real estate represents around 7 to 8 per cent of general business costs compared to wages, which represent up to 80 per cent, a modest increase in productivity can make a large impact on a company’s bottom line. Green Star is also a method of measurement to help organisations verify their environmental aspirations. NAB undertook Green Star ratings to guide the sustainable transformation of its property portfolio. “We were seeking a holistic rating system that we could direct our project team to, so that there was no ambiguity around what we would be working together to achieve: leadership in environmental design. Green Star provided this for us,” says NAB’s Senior Manager Environment and Sustainability, Nicola Murphy. NAB has since achieved a number of Green Star ratings, and has committed to a Green Star – Performance rating for the operation of its Docklands headquarters in Melbourne. “Green Star certification is providing NAB and our stakeholders with the confidence that we are achieving our environmental design aspirations,” Murphy adds. NAB’s new office at 700 Bourke Street in Melbourne is a spectacular showcase for sustainability at work. More than 6,000 employees—including NAB’s
CEO—work in an open-plan environment that has been designed to encourage collaboration. Staff share 4,500 unallocated workspaces, as well as casual settings, dynamic meeting rooms, and collaborative spaces called ‘huddles’. This denser working ratio has enabled NAB to reduce the size of its office—which in turn reduces operational costs, minimises construction materials, furniture, and fittings, and lowers energy and water use. But NAB expects the savings on energy and water will be nothing compared to the productivity gains achieved in this new green landmark. As most banks now have extensive corporate social responsibility programs and have publicly committed to carbon reductions, their offices need to be energyefficient from both a credibility and a public relations perspective. When the management team at the Bendigo Bank decided to build its new 5 Star Green Star headquarters, they saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate that corporate social responsibility starts at home. Speaking at the building’s opening, Bendigo Bank’s former managing director, Rob Hunt, said that green initiatives were “good for customers, good for the environment, and good business for our bank.” This new workplace revolution is as smart as it is sustainable. Cutting costs, securing long-term asset value, improving productivity, attracting the top talent, and capitalising on the brand equity of a trusted rating system—with Green Star as the mark of quality—are why the bright banks are going green.
About Romilly Madew Romilly Madew is Chief Executive of the Green Building Council of Australia— Australia’s peak industry association responsible for creating sustainable buildings and communities. Romilly is known both nationally and internationally as an experienced green building, sustainable communities, and cities advocate.
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