According to Bligh Voller Nield, sustainability in commercial property doesn’t stop at the environment.

The architectural firm’s work on the Bendigo Bank project has proven that sustainability should stretch beyond environmentally sustainable development (ESD) and touch on business leadership and community engagement.

Bligh Voller Nield (BVN) has designed the new Bendigo Bank headquarters building in conjunction with Gray Puksand.

The design phase has been ongoing for the past 18 months, and the $75 million project is due for completion next year.

It will house 1000 Bendigo Bank staff in the heart of the Victorian city.

BVN principal Bill Dowzer says the commitment of the bank’s senior management to its headquarters project reflected its wider business principles.

“They’ve been incredibly engaged in the process,” Dowzer says. “What was really good about Bendigo Bank was that they saw themselves as a leader.

“They wanted to look at sustainability in its complete sense – in terms of the community … and also environmental initiatives.

“It was looking at their values … how they treated people, making people feel comfortable in their own environment. It was about the quality of the space as well as all the environmental initiatives you can use.”

The project, located in the heart of Bendigo’s CBD, involves the construction of a new square for the city. Unusually, the staff carpark is located 300m away, driving Bank staff past local shops.

“It was really an urban consolidation project,” Dowzer says. “The bank saw having 1000 staff going to work every day in the CBD of Bendigo as enlivening the city.”

THE RISE OF ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

BVN’s work on the Bendigo Bank project comes at a time of growing awareness of environmentalism and ESD – not just by staff, but by corporate management.

“Everyone engages with it,” Dowzer says. “It’s a fundamental shift.

“People are more aware of issues such as offgassing of materials and the quality of the air.”

He says managers now understand the importance of ESD to the health of their business.

“Companies are awakening to the possibility that a building or space is now a business tool and not just a facility,” Dowzer says.

“In a very competitive labour market the quality of your work environment is paramount to your people’s engagement with the business. The use of space allows you to effect change within your business.

“You have to have senior (management) buy-in … for a project to be the most successful.”

While some businesses decry the cost of ESD initiatives, Dowzer says the bigger risk is not to innovate via sustainability.

“Businesses can’t remain static. We have to adapt faster,” he says.

“I would say innovation is an imperative to doing business. It’s a necessity to survival.

“But I think there is sometimes a slowness to adapt within the commercial property industry.

“Tenants are usually quite sophisticated businesses that understand people are their key assets.

“Tenants are finding that current buildings don’t satisfy their requirements.”

While some in the industry have already written off older, existing stock as unsuitable for ESD upgrade, Dowzer sees opportunity in their rebirth.

“I don’t think … they’ll be written off. I think they need to be reinvigorated,” Dowzer says. “What this means is you can go to town on older buildings. There is a brilliant opportunity to reposition a lot of the older stock.

“In the city we’re seeing quite a few buildings that have the opportunity to be repositioned for smaller tenancies.

“There are a lot of people now looking at putting chilled beams into older buildings.”

THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB

Dowzer has some issues with the current crop of ESD rating tools for commercial property.

“If you’re just clambering for the (ratings) points … you can miss the point of the building. You won’t get the advantage,” Dowzer says.

“That’s the biggest issue for rating tools – they’re quantitative, not qualitative.

“Qualitative is completely personal. It affects people’s choices. You can’t underestimate that …”

He argues that, when partnered with good design, ESD initiatives can produce results even if they don’t reach the highest possible ratings.

“Good design will get you a good return in combining the qualitative and the quantitative.”