A new report has analysed the costs and savings associated with a range of sustainable building strategies and challenged the perception that sustainable buildings are more costly to construct.
The report commissioned by The Building Research Establishment (BRE) and building consultancy firm the Sweett Group has processed the cost data from three case study projects to produce detailed capital and operational cost information. The three buildings analysed in the report were an office, secondary school and community healthcare centre.
The Delivering sustainable buildings: savings and payback report presents the actual costs of a range of sustainable strategies including energy efficient lighting, heating and cooling in each of the three case studies. It then reveals the associated paybacks that are delivered through reduced energy costs.
For lighting it identifies the installation of high frequency ballasts and the introduction of zoning to allow for local occupant control as low-cost quick wins. In the case of the school it also investigates the implementation of a lighting strategy that includes the addition of separate lighting controls in classrooms.
The researchers concluded that achieving the lower BREEAM ratings can incur little or no additional cost. The report argues that targeting the higher BREEAM ratings, and so more challenging levels of sustainability, incurs some additional cost but this is typically less than 2 per cent.
"This study adds to a growing body of work on the costs and value of sustainability," said Yetunde Abdul of BRE, one of the report's authors. "It provides further strong evidence that a sustainable approach need not add significantly to building costs. And, where there are additional capital costs, these can be repaid relatively quickly through the reduced costs of operating the building."
