Sustainable Workplace: Space Planning Model to Optimize Environmental Impact

Abstract

The construction sector is one of the main sources of environmental degradation in the world. Data demonstrates that commercial assets are the most intensive consumers of resources. Among those, the largest amount of buildings’ emissions comes from office building operations. Buildings’ impact on the environment does not depend only on energy and material consumptions; but several studies demonstrate that sustainable savings could be achieved through occupants’ trainings. To develop a model for assessing the sustainable performance of office buildings which accounts also for occupants’ behavior, authors worked with the Real Estate Center of Politecnico di Milano and the Joint Research Center PropTech of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano. Through this cooperation, a tool is under development that: I.Assesses the quantity of space needed by organizations, based on the employees’ ways of working; andII.Evaluates how much space occupancy and utilization may influence the sustainable performances of office buildings. This paper describes the general functioning of the tool and looks at the contribution that PropTechs (Properties Technologies) can give to its implementation. Even if PropTechs are introducing digitalization in several real estate processes, few of them are focusing on the environmental. This study reviews the existing Italian PropTechs and selects those that could add value to the proposed tool. The analysis allows to define strengths and limits of the existing tools, helpful for implementing a new tool based on real needs of building managers. The tool aims to reduce the environmental impact of office buildings by suggesting more sustainable and user-oriented strategies.