As zero energy office buildings become more common, their benefits are increasingly well-understood. Those benefits include:
- Environmental stewardship. Building a zero energy office building shows a clear commitment to protecting natural resources and providing an inspiring workplace for employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
- Improve occupant comfort and satisfaction. Zero energy buildings can provide benefits to occupants that go far beyond saving energy. Below are resources to learn more about occupant satisfaction:
- Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics has summarized recent findings for productivity gains and healthy gains related to views, natural ventilation, and daylighting (Building & Decor, 2018).
- The World Green Building Council’s Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices: The Next Chapter for Green Buildings guide discusses effective building design for visual and physical comfort to improve productivity (WGBC, 2014).
- Prepare for the future with sound fiscal management. Zero energy offices are extremely energy-efficient, which reduces operating costs as well as exposure to future energy price volatility. The cost of designing and building a zero energy office can be comparable to that of a conventional office, making zero energy a sound business decision.