Abstract
There is increasing literature demonstrating the link between building indoor environmental quality, and occupant health and productivity, driving the corporate real estate industry to investigate how to integrate wellness features in both new and existing building stock. Meanwhile, new voluntary standards to promote occupant health are becoming adopted alongside sustainability standards. As commercial building owners and tenants seek to improve occupant conditions and incorporate wellness, apparently conflicting priorities must be balanced, particularly improving indoor environmental conditions has the potential to increase energy. This paper presents a framework to consider retrofits holistically and considering the benefit of improved conditions both qualitatively and quantitatively. Where poor conditions exist, published literature demonstrates a lost productivity cost that exceeds typical building energy costs, and this is quantified in the financial analysis presented. Energy retrofits provide a unique opportunity to integrate wellness-enabling features because the energy savings can offset marginal energy or operating cost increases for particular wellness interventions. This paper presents a flexible, customizable framework to develop potential retrofit bundles and evaluate them considering economic, sustainability, wellness, risk and occupant experience factors to identify the optimal zone of retrofit. An illustrative case study using real building data demonstrates how the framework might be applied to a real project and customized to achieve unique stakeholder priorities.
Highlights
Wellness and productivity are significant considerations for businesses, as staff costs typically make up 50%–85% of the budget [1,2]
Risk and qualitative/wellness effects were considered to be the most important, leading to the recommendation and stakeholder acceptance of Bundle 3, which formed the basis for the renovation and resulted in rapid leasing of this property
Energy conservation measures provide direct, quantifiable savings when incorporated into building retrofits and have become a standard component of renovations; wellness enabling by these retrofits can achieve a far higher economic value to the occupier than the energy conservation measures themselves when productivity is considered
Summary
Wellness and productivity are significant considerations for businesses, as staff costs typically make up 50%–85% of the budget [1,2]. While energy costs (either paid directly or indirectly) represent a small fraction of the total cost of doing business for the average occupant, wellness features can have a much larger impact; there is increasing discussion in the Corporate Real Estate (CRE) industry on how to improve occupant health and wellness. [4] is the WELL® Building Standard [5], which was created to allow certification of buildings designed and operated to promote occupant wellness. Market demand for high building energy performance is driving increased investment to achieve higher building energy ratings by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) [6] and increasing adoption of sustainable certifications in the larger CRE community [7,8,9]. Because energy retrofits are commonly occurring in buildings, this provides an opportunity for incorporation of wellness enablers
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