Sustainability metrics for commercial buildings in Sweden

Abstract

Purpose

Environmental rating systems typically focus on building characteristics at a specific point in time; but from investment and valuation perspectives, actual performance over time should be the most important thing. Newly constructed commercial buildings today usually come with a high degree of technically advanced installations and a wide range of monitoring possibilities. This provides us with the possibility of monitoring a building’s in-use performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how frontrunners in the Swedish green building market actually monitor their new buildings, and look for similarities in that area.

Design/methodology/approach

By investigating a selected case study, conducting a survey and follow-up interviews among Swedish real estate companies and finally studying the available industry information, this paper considers what key performance indicators real estate developers choose to monitor as well as how they go about collecting and using the data. By doing this, we can get an idea of what is already monitored and to what extent. The case study also provides an insight into what is technologically possible.

Findings

A comparison of the gathered data from this study is then made with information that investors and property valuers would be expected to be interested in. The results show that these data are, to a large extent, information that the frontrunners already gather, but it is not made publicly available. One area where important information is lacking, however, is data about indoor climate.

Research limitations/implications

The study is solely focussed on commercial buildings in Sweden and also on real estate owners with a high sustainability profile.

Originality/value

This paper presents a starting point in introducing the research area of the continued sustainability performance of our built environment. In order to understand and improve the environmental performance over time of our buildings and the connection to potential value, it is important to know what we can and should monitor.

Citation

Sundfors, D.O.F. and Bonde, M. (2018), "Sustainability metrics for commercial buildings in Sweden", Property Management, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 521-543. https://doi.org/10.1108/PM-02-2017-0010