What are the Most Important Green Building Features? Access to Natural light, Proximate Public Transportation, Indoor Air Quality...

Posted by: YijunW

Research has shown that the top green building office features are access to natural light, good indoor air quality, and proximate public transportation from the office and investor's perspective. Simmons, Robinson, and Lee (2014) identified 18 green building features considered important by the office market. Their paper ranked quantitatively of more than 20 desired green office building features, where the top four features are access to natural light, proximate public transportation, good indoor air quality, and localized temperature control. Pivo (2008) found that the top five criteria from the property investor perspective are energy efficiency, public transit services, transit-oriented development (1), water conservation, and recycling by using a Delphi method (2) of leading property investors. Loftness (2004) indicated that improved indoor air quality is associated with a 0.5% to 11% increase in employee productivity and better daylight in office space is associated with a 5% to 15% productivity increase. Note: (1) In urban planning, a transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. (2) The Delphi method is a structured communication technique or method, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts. The experts answer questionnaires in two or more rounds. To read more, please visit: http://pages.jh.edu/jrer/papers/pdf/past/vol38n03/9863-04.423_452.pdf