Value creation for tenants in environmentally certified buildings

ABSTRACT

Previous research suggests that environmental certification (EC) affects rental rates in non-residential buildings, but there is still little understanding of how tenants differentiate such buildings from those without EC. This paper examines whether and how tenants perceive value creation in EC premises in Sweden. The findings (based on 29 questionnaire responses and 14 interviews with tenants in EC buildings) inform landlords and tenants on the development of EC strategies for improved organizational outcomes. EC creates value for tenants principally as support for their environmental management and reporting (e.g., low energy demand). EC is important for tenants internally, raising employee environmental awareness and improving employee attraction and retention. Tenants are generally positive about employee morale, indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and rental costs. However, it is not clear if such perceptions are dependent on features of modern premises in general, such as new fixtures, fittings and furnishings, and space-efficiency or from some EC-related feature. Tenants do not identify health or productivity increase in their EC premises. Findings suggest that the research focus should be shifted from investigating health and productivity increases through IEQ improvement to understanding the motivational improvement through value alignment with employees through EC.

KEYWORDS:

• buildings
• environmental certification
• environmental management
• landlords
• tenants
• value creation
• workplace

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support of project partners Jernhusen, Vasakronan, Landstingsfastigheter Dalarna, Fabege, Fastighetsägarna i Stockholm, Akademiska hus, NCC, Schibsted and Sweden Green Building Council. They are also grateful to the tenants who freely gave of their time to complete questionnaires and participate in interviews in the research presented here.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCiD

Nils Brown http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9469-6023

Notes

1 To ‘make hay’ out of something is an idiomatic phrase meaning to attempt to exploit that something for great benefit. The English idiomatic phrase is used here to reflect most faithfully the interviewee’s exact quote in Swedish – ‘att slå mynt av’ – literally translated as ‘to make coin of’.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Swedish Research Council Formas [grant number 2011-224].