Creating the Sustainable Workplace

What is the single largest cost in any facility? The Federal Facilities Council reports that, over the typical 20-year life of a facility, employees account for 90 percent of expenses, while initial construction and subsequent operation and maintenance costs account for only 5 percent each.

Because the greatest opportunity for increasing the business bottom line is in improving employee performance, providing inappropriate space or installing systems, furniture, and technology that only meet minimum standards can have disastrous long-term effects. Sustainable workplaces bring value to your operations by helping you create healthy, productive, innovative workplaces.

Are You Creating Long-Term Value for the Workplace?
Major corporations and government agencies are beginning to discover the strategic value of their workplaces as tools for maintaining a competitive edge, supporting their organization's mission, and achieving strategic goals. Through what we call the “sustainable workplace,” organizations can meet business goals, as well as environmental and socioeconomic goals, more effectively.

The GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy’s Office of Real Property is showing federal agencies the advantages of better, more sustainable approaches to the workplace, while the GSA Public Buildings Service is moving its customer services focus from a reactive mode to one of providing customer business solutions, including the workplace, with such programs as WorkPlace 20.20. Building professionals who expect to do business with the government in the future should be familiar with these concepts and the skills required to deliver them. These skills will enhance your services and improve the final product for your client.

Design Principles

A. Buildings and the Environment: Sustainable Development
Our built environment has a profound effect on the natural environment. While the U.S. represents only 19 percent of the world’s population, it consumes 75 percent of the world’s resources. In the United States, buildings consume 17 percent of the water, 33 percent of the energy, 40 percent of the raw materials, and 66 percent of the electricity. They produce, directly or indirectly, 40 percent of the landfill waste, 33 percent of the carbon dioxide, 49 percent of the sulfur dioxide, and 10 percent of the particulate emissions.

For facilities to support the workplace and create long-term value, organizations must make appropriate, long-term investments in their facilities. They can do this by understanding the human and environmental implications of their business functions, such that human and environmental issues are considered essential components of business processes rather than the consequences of those processes. This lets them make the most economical business decisions, the ones that have the lowest true life-cycle costs.

Sustainable development is a useful framework for making the right choices. It goes beyond good environmental practice with a more holistic approach that looks toward not just improving environmental performance but also economic and social performance. It is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come.

Sustainable facilities are a good investment for the public and private sector alike. They improve the quality and performance of the facility, reduce owner liability, and demonstrate that your organization is a good neighbor and citizen.

B. Buildings and People: The Integrated Workplace
People spend 90 percent of their time indoors, and much of that time is spent at work. Studies have shown that up to 30 percent of U.S. office workers suffer from health problems caused by sick-building syndrome. Since the biggest cost, by far, in any facility over its useful life is the salaries and benefits of its tenants, and since studies have shown that the workplace does affect the performance of those using it, a more effective workplace can offer profound organizational benefits that dwarf facility management costs.

Knowing this, can any organization afford to ignore the impact of the workplace? Real property can still be managed as overhead, with opportunities to reduce construction and operating costs. However, a more effective approach includes using it as a means to generate income and value for the organization through increased productivity and staff attraction and retention.

The GSA’s Innovative Workplaces Division is helping the government develop more effective work strategies and work space through the following programs:
• The Sustainable Development Program, which advocates sustainability as a holistic business philosophy, changing the way real property executives think about the workplace.
• The Telework Program, which makes it possible for people to work where they are most productive, balancing their professional life and personal lives.
• The Integrated Workplace Program, which links workplace concepts to business plans, using innovative space and work strategy solutions.

The Integrated Workplace Program provides a collaborative, multidisciplinary design strategy that considers the interaction of people, place, and tools to develop more effective, efficient work environments that accommodate individual work styles and alternative work strategies—allowing people to work when, where, and how they can be most effective. It allows the work space to fit the business, rather than forcing the business to fit the space. In addition, it provides better space and work-process flexibility to accommodate organizational changes quickly and economically.

GSA’s “Hallmarks of a Productive Workplace” include the important qualities every work space should have:
• Spatial Equity. Design the workplace to meet the functional needs of the users without compromising individual access to privacy, daylight, outside views, and aesthetics.
• Healthfulness. Create workplaces with a clean, healthy building environment, free of harmful contaminants and excessive noise, with access to air, light, and water.
• Flexibility. Choose work strategies that support employee work/life balance and workplace configurations that can be readily restructured to accommodate key functional changes with a minimum of time, effort, and waste.
• Comfort. Use workplace services, systems, and components that allow occupants to adjust thermal, lighting, acoustic, and furniture systems to meet personal and group comfort levels.
• Technological Connectivity. Enable full communication and simultaneous access to data among workers at both on-site and off-site workplaces.
• Reliability. Support the workplace with efficient, state-of-the-art heating, ventilating, air conditioning, lighting, power, security, and telecommunication systems and with easily maintained equipment with backup capabilities to minimize downtime.
• Sense of Place. Endow the workplace with a unique character, appropriate image, and business identity to foster a sense of pride, purpose, and dedication within the individual and the workplace community.

To these qualities, we would add that the workplace should also have an element of “fun.”

C. The Sustainable Workplace
Combining the concepts of sustainable development and the integrated workplace yields the sustainable workplace: one that improves occupant health and performance, respects the environment, maximizes human capital, supports a more efficient organization, and makes the most efficient use of resources. A powerful concept for creating truly world-class workplaces, the sustainable workplace is a way to provide the most effective work strategies and environments that accommodate individual work processes and organizational goals and identify ways to maintain and operate them at the greatest benefit—in other words, at the lowest, true life-cycle cost. When sustainable workplace concepts inform your workplace decisions, chances are you will make the right decisions—those that benefit the project constituents, the environment, and the bottom line.

A sustainable workplace benefits the organization in many ways:
• It supports new ways of working.
• It is flexible, reducing churn costs.
• It increases productivity.
• It enhances organizational brand and image.
• It improves employee satisfaction and comfort.
• It assists hiring and retention.
• It enhances business performance.
• It improves the bottom line.

Workplace Solutions

Rethinking the Role of the Workplace
Effective workplaces should go beyond simple function and aesthetics to become strategic business tools. What can building professionals do to improve the federal workplace—or any workplace? First, they must expand the services they provide, making them more relevant to today’s organizational and workplace needs. Building professionals must be advocates for change and partners in shaping the strategic goals of the organization. To do that, they must use a more integrated, sustainable approach to projects, incorporating new skills such as organizational development, change management, and performance measurement into their portfolio of services. Second, they must be able to convince all levels of management and get buy-in from all levels of the organization, involving all stakeholders—including the design team, the owners, and the tenants—in the development process.

A Case Study: The Office of Real Property’s Integrated Workplace
Typical government work space consists of furniture of various vintages and sources, awkwardly arranged in poorly lighted, confined spaces. Shared “amenities” sometimes include poorly located and confusing executive suites and staff administrative areas as well as ill-used and ill-equipped conference rooms. Office space is often gloomy, with inflexible, inequitable workstations and limited opportunities for staff interaction. This described the condition of our own offices at GSA’s Office of Real Property, as shown below.

Our new workplace was developed using integrated-workplace concepts. Using an integrated-workplace approach requires that you first define the goals of your project. The staff and management defined our workplace needs and goals. In addition to improving the looks and function of our space, they wanted a workplace that “fosters innovation and communication, provides a healthy and satisfying environment, and supports high-quality work.” Other goals included space that is easier to reconfigure and adapt to individual preferences and organizational changes, makes better use of our available square footage, and would serve as a learning environment for testing integrated-workplace concepts.

The next step is to determine how you work and the critical organizational issues that should be addressed in the new workplace. Through team meetings, staff workshops, focus groups, surveys, and interviews, we determined that the most important issues were privacy and noise, user adaptability, and control of lighting and temperature. We also identified ergonomics, team meeting space, and storage as priorities. Management also wanted increased opportunities for staff interaction, team collaboration, and telework support.

With a limited budget, the design solution focused on modular, freestanding furniture and simple space improvements. Existing space was reconfigured to make better use of it. The final configuration is more in keeping with the original building layout of private offices along a public corridor. This arrangement moved the secondary internal circulation of the old open-plan office back into the original corridors, which freed up usable space and created opportunities for staff interaction. As a result, wasted space was recaptured to create three small meeting rooms and a community room in the same rentable area. In total, more than 900 square feet (12 percent of the total space) was recaptured for better use.

The following design solutions grew out of addressing the major issues and business strategies:
• More privacy, less noise. Larger, open spaces were divided into smaller, five-person suites (as shown above), helping to reduce noise and distractions. Moveable partitions allow tenants to vary the degree of visual privacy. Protocols for noise control have also been instituted.
• User adaptability and mobility. All furniture is easily moveable, with heavier pieces on wheels. All staff members can adjust their work spaces to suit their own work styles—open or closed, right or left handed, facing in or out, and so on. A new phone system allows call forwarding to any number, for seamless mobility.
• More daylight. Existing suspended ceilings were cut back at the windows and door transoms to provide more natural light, translucent panels were used to separate workstations, and overhead storage was eliminated, reducing shadows on the work area. • Temperature control. The budget allowed only for simple changes. Existing window air conditioners (which allow for local control) were located more uniformly, with ceiling fans in each office.
• Storage. Workstation storage includes towers, file pedestals, and bookshelves, all on wheels for easy mobility. Additional storage is provided in a common lateral file in each suite, the community spaces, and the library. A long-term file area is also provided.
• Ergonomics. Employees were given the opportunity to test four different ergonomic task chairs and select the one that worked best for them. Other improvements include new adjustable keyboard trays with an integral mouse pad and the ability to orient computer monitors to avoid window glare. Overhead light fixtures were reduced in number, and task lighting was added at the desktop.
• More collaboration/teaming. A small meeting area in each suite, as well as the ability to open up workstations to each other, supports collaborative work. A community room, three small meeting rooms, and use of common circulation provide more opportunities for both formal and informal discussions.
• Sustainability. “Green” materials and practices for the project include sorting and recycling of paper during preconstruction moves; use of paper recycling wastebaskets; use of recycled content in all furniture, fabrics, and carpet; and use of 100-percent-recycled vinyl flooring in the kitchenette. Overhead lighting fixtures were reduced by more than 30 percent and replaced with energy-saving fixtures. Other features include the use of ENERGY STAR^®-rated ceiling fans with dimmable fluorescent lights, compact fluorescent lamps in the desk lights, separate switching of light fixtures, and power strips with motion detectors.
• Flexibility. Because furniture and partitions are freestanding, occupants have the ability to completely personalize their workstations, minimizing downtime and reconfiguration costs and simplifying maintenance. Conference room tables are modular, allowing easy rearrangement. And the community space features a low-profile access floor and modular wiring. All spaces use modular carpet tiles.
• Alternative workplace strategies. In addition to the physical work-space changes, the Office of Real Property uses telework, telework centers, and desk sharing. The new workplace provides touch-down space for employees who work full-time outside the office, call forwarding and cell phones, laptop docking stations, and remote e-mail and computer network access.

The cost of providing flexible space using Integrated Workplace strategies was comparable to that of a conventionally planned space, even with some increased planning costs. We believe that this approach resulted in fewer construction changes. Fit-up costs can be tailored to meet any reasonable budget. Total move-in cost for this space, including design fees, space renovation, and furniture, was $49 per rentable square foot. This did include the use of “free” in-house design expertise and access to free surplus carpet, helping to reduce costs.

The Office of Real Property’s Integrated Workplace Program demonstrates that a greatly improved work environment can be created on a limited budget. Our new work space provides completely mobile workstations that have already proved their worth. All occupants have made changes to their workstations to better suit how they work. The mobile furniture offers benefits to the building management, too. Since it is much easier to move furniture, maintenance and repair times are greatly reduced. In two instances, damage to the building and furnishings from piping leaks was avoided because the furniture could be relocated within minutes to give repair crews access.

Time to relocate staff is also greatly reduced. When staff members move to a different workstation, they merely have to roll their fully loaded storage units to the new location, saving hours of packing and unpacking and saving both moving and downtime costs. Workstations are more equitable, with each person getting the same size space and better access to daylight.

The new community room (as shown below) serves as the heart of the office, where staff members can get their mail, make copies, log on to the Internet, read, work, meet, eat lunch, exchange ideas, and take short breaks. Small meeting rooms support more collaborative and intense individual work. The front office is now located adjacent to the elevator lobby for better visibility and visitor access, maximizing the Office of Real Property’s identification.

Using integrated-workplace concepts, the Office of Real Property has developed a more responsive workplace that can be adapted and improved, meeting today’s needs and tomorrow’s challenges.

GSA’s Role

Achieving a sustainable workplace must be a conscious, planned effort involving all levels of the organization. Communication and training are crucial to attaining the necessary awareness, skills, and knowledge for transforming the organization into a sustainable-workplace culture.

Through our publications and programs, we at GSA are helping the federal government to create sustainable workplaces. We are developing guidelines and meaningful metrics that measure and track the performance of facilities and employee productivity and satisfaction to transform the ways we look at our everyday jobs. Several technical programs and guides are available:

• GSA Sustainable Design Training. The GSA Public Buildings Service has developed a comprehensive, sustainable design training program for its technical and procurement employees. It has also revised its facilities standards and lease solicitations to incorporate sustainable considerations. Contact Don Horn, don.horn@gsa.gov.
  
• GSA Real Property Sustainable Development Guide and Videos. As part of its training efforts, the GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy has produced the GSA Real Property Sustainable Development Guide, a compendium of information on sustainable development, and two videos: one with excerpts of the speech given by William McDonough, FAIA, at the Sustainability 2000 Workshop, and a second about Ray Anderson, founder of Interface Inc., on becoming a fully sustainable organization. Contact Jonathan Herz, jonathan.herz@gsa.gov.
  
• Integrated Workplace. “The Integrated Workplace: A Comprehensive Approach to Developing Workspace” describes important considerations for work spaces and work strategies. GSA is also developing a business case for innovative workplaces. Contact Rob Obenreder, rob.obenreder@gsa.gov.
  
• WorkPlace 20.20. The GSA Public Buildings Service’s WorkPlace 20.20 Program helps create workplaces that best support the strategic and organizational objectives of government agencies. It is a process that goes beyond traditional space design efforts, establishing a strategic business focus for the workplace. The process is currently being used in pilot projects around the U.S. Contact Kevin Kelly, kevin.Kelly@gsa.gov.
  
• Real Property Performance Measures. The GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy, in concert with other federal agencies, has developed seven key performance indicators to assist federal agencies assess the performance of their real property assets. Contact Shirley Morris, shirley.morris@gsa.gov.
  
• The GSA Cost per Person Model. This Excel-based model is a new approach to measuring the 21st-century workplace that can help federal agencies estimate their total workplace cost per person, including administrative, as well as real estate, cost components. Contact Ray Wynter, ray.winter@gsa.gov.

More information and publications are available on our Web site: www.gsa.gov/realpropertypolicy.

Reaching and maintaining a sustainable workplace is a process of continuous learning and re-examination. We hope that these ideas will start you on your way to creating sustainable workplaces and sustainable business enterprises. You are probably already using some of the building blocks of a sustainable workplace such as designing for work function, using a team-based design approach, recycling and reducing trash, buying green products and services, and using materials with recycled content. And you may be ahead of the curve by using telework and other alternative workplace arrangements, implementing waste prevention strategies, increasing real and personal property recycling, getting management and facilities people to think strategically about the workplace, and training people to think about sustainable solutions.

You can create the office of the future today—it’s called the sustainable workplace.

Robert S. Obenreder, AIA, is a program expert in GSA’s Innovative Workplaces Division. A registered architect with 23 years’ experience in the public and private sectors, he currently leads the Office of Governmentwide Policy’s Integrated Workplace Program, promoting federal work space that is based on an organization's business strategy and easily accommodates change.  Obenreder holds a Master of Architecture degree from The Catholic University of America and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Notes

ⁱ Federal Facilities Beyond the 1990s: Ensuring Quality in an Era of Limited Resources. Summary of a Symposium (1997), Federal Facilities Council, Technical Report #133. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, p. 4.

ⁱⁱ Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 1996.

ⁱⁱⁱ Bill O'Dell, AIA, HOK Architects. "A Sustainable Design Process," EnvironDesign3 Conference, Baltimore, April 29 to May 1, 1999.

^iv Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Little Brown & Company, 1999, p. 85.

^v U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1991b, “Indoor Air Facts No. 4 (Revised): Sick Building Syndrome.” Washington, D.C., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 402-F-94-004.