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Article
Publication date: 14 April 2020

Sara Jane Wilkinson and Sarah Sayce

About 27 per cent of the total UK carbon emissions are attributed to residential buildings; therefore, improvements to the energy efficiency of the stock offers great potential…

Abstract

Purpose

About 27 per cent of the total UK carbon emissions are attributed to residential buildings; therefore, improvements to the energy efficiency of the stock offers great potential. There are three main ways to achieve this. First is a mandatory approach, minimum energy efficiency standards are set and applied to new and existing buildings. Option 2 is voluntary, using energy ratings that classify performance to stimulate awareness and action. Third, financial measures, incentives and taxes, are applied to “nudge” behaviours. Most westernised countries have adopted a combination of Options 2 and 3, with the belief that the market will incentivize efficient properties. The belief is voluntary measures will stimulate demand, leading to value premiums. This paper aims to seek a deeper understanding of the relationship between energy efficiency and the value of residential property in Europe and, by so doing, to determine whether stronger policies are required to realise decarbonisation.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reviews the current academic literature and large-scale quantitative studies conducted in Europe, mostly using hedonic pricing analysis to seek a relationship between energy performance certificates (EPCs) and either capital or rental values. It compares these to the reported findings of three case study projects that take a variety of different research approaches, all of which have the ambition to understand market behaviours and stimulate occupier or/and owner demand for energy efficient buildings.

Findings

The large-scale academic study results generally show a positive relationship between observed market prices and EPCs, which are commonly taken as surrogates for efficiency; however, outcomes are variable. One large study found energy upgrades may increase value, but not to the point where costs outweigh the value gain. Other studies found high returns on investment in energy efficiency technologies. The case study projects, however, revealed a more nuanced set of arguments in terms of the relationship between energy efficiency and market behaviours. Whilst there is some evidence that energy efficiency is beginning to impact on value, it is small compared to other value drivers; other drivers, including health, well-being and private sector finance deals, may prove more powerful market drivers. Further, the empirical findings reported point towards the emergence of a “brown” discount being more likely to be the long-term trend than a green premium. It is concluded that the current levels of action are unlikely to deliver the levels of decarbonisation urgently needed.

Research limitations/implications

This is a desktop study of other European studies that may have collected data on slightly different variables.

Practical implications

This study shows that more action is required to realise decarbonisation in new and existing residential property in the European states considered. The sector offers potential for substantial reductions, and other mandatory approaches need to be considered.

Originality/value

This is a timely review of the current outcomes of European programmes (EPCs) adopted in several countries to increase energy efficiency in the residential sector through a voluntary mechanism. The results show that more action is needed.

Details

Journal of European Real Estate Research , vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-9269

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 September 2023

Kusal Nanayakkara, Sara Jane Wilkinson and Dulani Halvitigala

This paper aims to examine how the existing organisational culture of organisations changed with the introduction of activity-based working (ABW) office layouts from the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine how the existing organisational culture of organisations changed with the introduction of activity-based working (ABW) office layouts from the employees’ perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire was used to measure the influence of introducing ABW. The study focused on three different industry sectors in Australia – financial, IT and government – and one organisation from each sector who had introduced ABW during the period of 2012–2019 was selected. The Competing Value Framework was used to measure the dimensions of organisational culture. A paired sample test was used to measure the changes in employees’ perceptions after the layout changes.

Findings

Findings identify that the nature of workplace designs has a considerable impact on an organisation’s corporate culture which can be used to leverage and change its culture. However, some noticeable discrepancy between the perceptions of public and private sector employees was identified, where public sector employees felt that standardised procedures still governed their actions even in ABW layouts.

Originality/value

This research highlights that workplace designs directly influence culture by supporting the engagement, motivation and behaviours of the employees. It emphasises the importance of in-depth examination of the behavioural and attitudinal characteristics of employees to obtain a better understanding of how they interact in ABW layouts. Such an analysis provides the context for a more inclusive understanding of the operation of modern office layouts.

Details

Facilities , vol. 41 no. 13/14
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-2772

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 January 2021

Kusal Tharinda Nanayakkara, Sara Jane Wilkinson and Sumita Ghosh

Office layout arrangements have a significant influence on many important aspects of organisations, and design firms need to liaise with the client to determine the most…

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Abstract

Purpose

Office layout arrangements have a significant influence on many important aspects of organisations, and design firms need to liaise with the client to determine the most appropriate design process. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors design firms consider when designing new office layouts and the nature of future offices from the design and workplace strategist firms’ perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative study comprising interviews with leading international and nation design firms and workplace strategy consultant firms in Australia. Qualitative data was analysed using a thematic approach, which adopted within case, and across case, analyses.

Findings

Research identified major factors considered when identifying appropriate workplace strategies. These included the existing and preferred culture of the organisation, the level of flexibility required, functionality and technology requirements, acoustic strategies, sense of community and generation gap between employees. Participants believed future offices would be technology driven, community oriented, sustainability, health and well-being focussed, smaller in size with satellite offices, such as co-working and office spaces.

Research limitations/implications

This research has implications for industry and academics, as it provides an in-depth understanding of workplace specialists’ and design firms’ perceptions of clients’ contemporary and future requirements from office spaces. It also illustrates what they look at when designing office spaces for large corporates.

Practical implications

Research demonstrates how the office environment should match with the physical and psychological needs of the organisation and its employees. Findings have practical applications to professionals in human resource management and the design, management, development and valuation of office buildings.

Originality/value

This paper provides in-depth insights into how design firms and workplace strategists meet organisations’ changing demand for physical spaces, their main considerations in developing new workplace strategies, process followed and nature of future workplace in Australian context.

Details

Journal of Corporate Real Estate , vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-001X

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Facilities , vol. 42 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-2772

Article
Publication date: 28 April 2014

Sara Jane Wilkinson

This paper aims to study the adaptation of low grade commercial buildings for sustainability in Melbourne. Informed adaptation of existing stock is imperative because the…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study the adaptation of low grade commercial buildings for sustainability in Melbourne. Informed adaptation of existing stock is imperative because the challenge of attaining sustainable development in the 21st century will be won or lost in urban areas. Local authorities promote adaptation to reduce building related energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The City of Melbourne aims to retrofit 1,200 central business district (CBD) properties before 2020 as part of their carbon-neutral city strategy. Australian cities date from the early 1800s to the present day and the concepts of adaptation and evolution of buildings and suburbs is not as well-developed or entrenched as in other continents. As such, there is a pressing need for greater knowledge and awareness of what happens to buildings over time.

Design/methodology/approach

This research examines all building adaptation from 1998 to 2008 within the Melbourne CBD. This paper concentrates on the question: what is the pattern of adaptation within low grade office buildings over time? Using the Melbourne CBD as a case study, the research analysed all commercial building adaptations in Melbourne. Here a range of office building types are selected and profiled to discover what happened to them during the period and to ascertain what may be learned as a result to inform future adaptation strategies and policies.

Findings

Adaptation of existing buildings is vital to deliver the emission reductions required to transition to carbon-neutral urban settlements. In the short-term, it is opportune to capitalise on existing behaviour patterns in respect of adaptation and to “learn how buildings learn”, rather than seek to instigate major changes in behaviour.

Research limitations/implications

The researcher acknowledges that the depth of analysis for each individual case does not attain levels achieved through a purely qualitative approach to data collection and that this is a limitation of this method of data collection.

Practical implications

Examination of adaptation patterns showed that the events were similar regardless of age or location and typically involved multiple adaptations to separate areas within buildings such as office floors, lobbies and foyers. Such a pattern misses the opportunity to benefit from economies of scale or to incorporate more extensive adaptations to reduce environmental impact of the building as a whole.

Social implications

The patterns of ownership and relatively short-term multiple tenancies compound the piecemeal approach to adaptations in this sector of the market. Moving forward, a more holistic approach is required to optimise adaptation and sustainability benefits and to minimise unnecessary waste.

Originality/value

A real danger is that numerous adaptations over time which may seem “sustainable” within the context of the one adaptation may not be sustainable in the context of the entire building over the whole lifecycle or the city over the long–term, and this is a challenge we must attend to.

Details

Facilities, vol. 32 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-2772

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2015

Perry Forsythe and Sara Wilkinson

The purpose of this paper is to quantify and profile the indicative amount of retrofits in office buildings as a necessary step in quantifying the recurring embodied energy in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to quantify and profile the indicative amount of retrofits in office buildings as a necessary step in quantifying the recurring embodied energy in office buildings. Buildings are a major source of energy usage and emissions, and office buildings are a significant contributor to this situation. Life cycle assessments in this area have tended to neglect the potentially large impact arising from recurring embodied energy associated with office fit-out – which is often akin to a short-term consumable rather than a long-term durable in many multi-storey buildings.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used building permit data from the Melbourne Central Business District (n = 986) over the period 2006-2010 (inclusive) to quantify the number of retrofits and related trends. Building on this, a small number of targeted case study buildings were used to probe specific issues in profiling trends associated with high-frequency trends arising from the main sample.

Findings

The data show that the number of retrofits varies according to location, grade, size and the age of buildings. Using the case study data, there is initial evidence to suggest that between 46 and 70 per cent of the floors in a high-rise office building will undergo retrofit in a five-year period. Further research should apply these data to recurring energy modelling for office buildings.

Research limitations/implications

One limitation which applies to this study is that the research is limited to a defined geographical area in one Australian city, Melbourne. Secondly the study covers a specific period, and the number of retrofits may be affected negatively or positively depending on the prevailing market conditions.

Practical implications

This paper raises important questions in respect of life cycle carbon emissions in the context of prevailing trends to shorter lease terms and practices around fit-out.

Originality/value

The retrofit of office buildings tends to go unnoticed and unmeasured in the debate about sustainable buildings. The paper provides original thought development and important measurement input which will assist in providing a more accurate and meaningful life cycle assessment of office buildings.

Details

Facilities, vol. 33 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-2772

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 October 2016

Alexandra L. Ferrentino, Meghan L. Maliga, Richard A. Bernardi and Susan M. Bosco

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in…

Abstract

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.

Details

Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-973-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 November 2019

Lauren Gurrieri and Jenna Drenten

The purpose of this study is to explore how vulnerable healthcare consumers foster social support through visual storytelling in social media in navigating healthcare consumption…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore how vulnerable healthcare consumers foster social support through visual storytelling in social media in navigating healthcare consumption experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a dual qualitative approach of visual and textual analysis of 180 Instagram posts from female breast cancer patients and survivors who use the platform to narrate their healthcare consumption experiences.

Findings

This study demonstrates how visual storytelling on social media normalises hidden aspects of healthcare consumption experiences through healthcare disclosures (procedural, corporeal, recovery), normalising practices (providing learning resources, cohering the illness experience, problematising mainstream recovery narratives) and enabling digital affordances, which in turn facilitates social support among vulnerable healthcare consumers.

Practical implications

This study highlights the potential for visual storytelling on social media to address shortcomings in the healthcare service system and contribute to societal well-being through co-creative efforts that offer real-time and customised support for vulnerable healthcare consumers.

Social implications

This research highlights that visual storytelling on image-based social media offers transformative possibilities for vulnerable healthcare consumers seeking social support in negotiating the challenges of their healthcare consumption experiences.

Originality/value

This study presents a framework of visual storytelling for vulnerable healthcare consumers on image-based social media. Our paper offers three key contributions: that visual storytelling fosters informational and companionship social support for vulnerable healthcare consumers; recognising this occurs through normalising hidden healthcare consumption experiences; and identifying healthcare disclosures, normalising practices and enabling digital affordances as fundamental to this process.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 33 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 14 October 2022

Petra Nordqvist and Leah Gilman

Abstract

Details

Donors
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-564-3

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1985

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover…

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Abstract

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

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