New Zealand Commercial Design Trends Series NZ Commercial Design Trends Vol. 34/01C | Page 87

climate change and reduce energy consumption
impact the sector. Yet many building owners and
investors are locked into relying on more traditional
ROI metrics, designing for the short term while
ignoring the importance of designing buildings for
the longer term.
We need a new ROI model which accounts for
financial as well as non-financial benefits such as
improving employee productivity and wellbeing,
while maintaining design flexibility to plan for a
rapidly changing future.
Buildings of the Future have marginally higher
start-up costs (2-6% more expensive than tradi-
tional buildings) in the short term. But they can
deliver significant savings, with a good ROI being
achieved quickly – in six months to two years – if
focus is given to heating, ventilation, air condition-
ing (HVAC), lighting and some types of electrical
loads.
This can lead to a 10-50% reduction in operating
costs against traditional buildings. This approach
also reduces maintenance costs by 8-12%,