Focusing on the social and local is the route to workplace sustainability
COMMENT Sam McClary’s leader – Has Brexit blown it for spec development? – raised a multitude of interesting questions about the state of the speculative development market and the issues driving it.
But the truth is that it is not just economic factors making office developers pause for thought. Technology, changing working practices and a growing emphasis on ESG are causing a shift in what occupiers want.
With the office continuing to play a role in most of our lives – in most cases now by choice rather than obligation – high-quality workspace in the right location will always be viable and welcomed if it benefits the local community as well as occupiers, with amenities and spaces that bring value to both the property and the surrounding area.
COMMENT Sam McClary’s leader – Has Brexit blown it for spec development? – raised a multitude of interesting questions about the state of the speculative development market and the issues driving it.
But the truth is that it is not just economic factors making office developers pause for thought. Technology, changing working practices and a growing emphasis on ESG are causing a shift in what occupiers want.
With the office continuing to play a role in most of our lives – in most cases now by choice rather than obligation – high-quality workspace in the right location will always be viable and welcomed if it benefits the local community as well as occupiers, with amenities and spaces that bring value to both the property and the surrounding area.
Thinking local
While sustainable, grade-A offices are common in city centre settings, local workspaces in more mixed communities have, for too long, been overlooked. Here, there is a real opportunity to contribute to the ESG agenda by refurbishing older and less sustainable properties while enabling organisations and individuals to contribute to the life of local communities.
Occupiers spend locally, benefiting cafés, bars and restaurants, helping to support the local business ecosystem. Post-Covid 19 people are keener to work, live and spend more of their leisure time in their local neighbourhoods.
This combination of reusing buildings while providing community benefits and reducing the necessity for long commutes is far more sustainable than any large-scale, state-of-the-art, city-centre office tower, could ever be.
In London and many larger UK cities there are popular and well-connected neighbourhoods, such as Hackney, Putney and Chiswick, where industrial or other commercial buildings have fallen out of use. Given market conditions and changing occupier priorities, this is an enormous opportunity.
Neighbourhood workspaces
Our ESG-led Akoya venture is deploying £1bn to create sustainable and convenient workplaces in flourishing neighbourhoods in and around Greater London. Over £500m of this has already been deployed in assets in Twickenham, Putney and Croydon.
The 15-minute city concept has been a source of much debate recently. But, putting the term to one side, at its heart, the idea of being able to access the amenities needed for daily life in an environmentally friendly way must be a guiding principle for sustainable planning.
Neighbourhood workspaces are ripe for this agenda. But by being located close to transport hubs they can also ensure access to those outside the immediate area via greener forms of transport.
This is not the end for speculative office development and there will always be some areas that will have a higher density of offices than others. But as we gradually shift to a more locally focused and sustainable way of life, market forces and technology are combining with new trends to mean that repurposing redundant buildings in a neighbourhood will play a growing role in the world of workspace.
Jon Cochrane is director of asset management and sustainability at Brunswick Property Partners
