Guest editorial

Citation

Wilkinson, S. (2012), "Guest editorial", Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre.2012.31214aaa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Volume 14, Issue 1

This special thematic issue of the Journal of Corporate Real Estate considers the overlap between commercial buildings and sustainability.

What do we mean by sustainability? Typically our reference point for understanding sustainability is based on the Brundtland definition of sustainable development in Our Common Future (WCED, 1987), which seeks to meet the present needs of society without irreversible damage to the environment, thereby compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. A sustainable approach recognises the inextricable relationship between the environment, society and the economy; however, getting the balance right presents significant challenges globally. In the context of the built environment, the philosophical argument is that unless our commercial building stock connects with the wider environment, and engages with economic and social issues, it cannot succeed in the context of sustainability. In this way, the concept of sustainability is recognised as being of critical importance to commercial property, and likewise, commercial property to sustainability; but how can this be translated in a more meaningful way? How can we comprehend and translate the requirements of commercial property to the achievement of sustainability? This is the essence of the content of the papers in this special edition of the journal.

The built environment occupies a central position in the quest towards sustainability globally. In recent years, there has been extensive enquiry into the role of built assets in the context of their impact on resource consumption and on emissions in construction and in use. We are approaching a point where some evidence is beginning to emerge in a number of areas affecting sustainability and commercial buildings in respect of added value, improved performance, tenant perceptions and experiences, and how sustainability is perceived to affect organisational image. Commercial buildings and sustainability have a wide embrace from design and construction to occupation and management, from leasing and legal arrangements to disposal at the end of the life cycle.

In their paper examining “Whether environmental factors matter: some evidence from UK property companies” Bob Thompson and Qiulin Ke focus on how corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown to become a driving force affecting contemporary business decision making. Currently industry perceives CSR as a cost item with benefits accruing to the occupiers in respect of improved working environments, increased productivity and reductions in absenteeism rather than the landlords who make the investment. Using a quantitative approach, this paper measures the impact upon performance of listed UK property companies of their CSR policies and environmental statements using their adjusted share price as a performance measure. CSR policies and environmental statements are scored using incidence analysis within their annual reports in the public domain to establish the weight placed upon CSR issues in this formal documentation. The CSR index generated, together with other firm-level control variables, is set against a price index adjusted for market movements to determine whether the quality of CSR has any impact on property companies’ performance and whether shareholders are willing to pay price premium for the high quality of CSR proxied by the CSR index. In this paper, we see how the economic philosophies known as the “shareholder model” espoused by Milton Freidman that the “one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits” has moved towards a “stakeholder model” advocated in 1984 by Peter Drucker where for a business to succeed, the stakeholder society in which it operates must also thrive. In this way, it is in an organisation’s interest to contribute to the advancement of that society. These views illustrate the contrary ends of the social responsibility spectrum and reveal the healthy debate that has raged about CSR over the preceding five decades. The findings reveal that changes are afoot.

The second paper explores the relationship between sustainable buildings, environmental awareness and organisational image. The study examines the occupants’ assessment of the environmental design features of sustainable buildings and the assessments of environmental awareness and organisational image. To test the hypothesis, data were collected via questionnaire surveys from 175 participants occupying Gold rated LEED certified commercial buildings. The findings present the evidence for direct relationships between occupant’s assessments of sustainable office buildings and the relationship to environmental awareness and organisational image. The significance of this work is that it connects sustainable buildings to organisational benefit and values; in other words it is another way of exploring whether environmental factors matter.

Coming back across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, the third paper illustrates the preferences that tenants have in office stock in Helsinki. A team of Finnish researchers led by Jessica Karhu sought to determine end-user preferences of corporate occupiers in the capital. Using a case study approach, data were collected via an online questionnaire survey. Nine sustainable building attributes were ranked on a five-point Likert scale. The findings revealed the preferences and will help building owners and organisational management to target the measures that tenants value most.

The final paper discusses a further aspect of commercial property in Scandinavia; in Stockholm. Magnus Bonde examines the challenges landlords face when changing existing leases to promote greater energy efficiency. Globally, we are endeavouring to find new ways of managing the issue of so-called “split incentives”, which occurs when a lease does not require the tenant to pay energy bills directly and, therefore, the tenant does not benefit when an owner upgrades a buildings energy efficiency lowering the energy bills. The research adopted a case study approach evaluating an attempt implement a green lease in an office building. The difficulties in changing existing lease arrangements are explained as the project team endeavour to progress their plan to adopt a “green” lease.

One of the aims of this special edition has been to engage in a wider discussion on the issues of sustainability that affects commercial buildings. This issue brings together contributions from authors from different countries, backgrounds and perspectives; though the issues they cover arise on a daily basis globally. It is an opportunity to benefit from the sharing knowledge gained by those who are actively engaged in the field, and provide assistance to those who may be grappling with these issues, by increasing awareness of guidance and suitable approaches that are available to promote sustainability in our commercial property stock. Not only do we need to be able translate sustainability into practical everyday decisions, but also to convince others of the wider benefits of adopting sustainability for ourselves and the generations to come.

Sara WilkinsonGuest Editor