Major finance players lead eco-office trend

Large corporations are facing up to their environmental responsibility

By Victoria Young
Thu 18 Jan 2007

A trend for eco-friendly offices and environmentally responsible business practices is being driven by big businesses.

Major players in Australia's finance sector are jumping on the environmentally sustainable business bandwagon - but smaller firms are bucking the trend.

Large corporations were facing up to their environmental accountability by relocating to, or building, eco-friendly offices, project management company hamiltonthomson director Max Thomson said.

"This buzzword, corporate social responsibility, is driving it. It's now become accepted that you've got to have good environmental credibility to be able to say your corporate social responsibility rating is good. Large financial institutions see it as something they cannot avoid any more," Thomson said.

The workplace specialist was responsible for the 'green design' of the new offices of Rabobank, a global leader in sustainability-orientated banking, at Darling Park, Sydney. Current clients include Morningstar and Balmain NB.

Smaller Australian banks and non-bank lenders are slower to show their support for eco-offices, which cost about 2 per cent more to develop.

"That's because it's very difficult to define a tangible payback. There are lots of feelgood and intangible benefits, like staff retention, but it's very difficult to put a total figure beside it," Thomson said.

In June 2003, Westpac became the first Australian bank to adopt the Equator Principles, a global financial industry benchmark for determining, assessing and managing social and environmental risk in project financing. ANZ followed in December 2006.

Tips for a greener workplace from hamiltonthomson:

. Sign up for green power
. Buy plants
. Switch lights off
. Save paper
. Clean air-conditioning ductwork annually
. Recycle
. Use "green" furniture.

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