Citi Tower will be the bank’s most environmentally-friendly building globally once the work is complete
(Picture: Citi)Let’s settle this once and for all: the office isn’t dead.
Citi has become the second major American firm in as many weeks to splash out on London buildings. The US bank follows Google, which bought a development behind Tottenham Court Road last week for £750 million. Both are doing up their blocks. Smart money is betting on the office.
Investment is partly a reflection of the changing ways we work. Hybrid work means staff need fewer cubicles and more “meeting pods” when they are in the office. Citi is building “well-being zones”, whatever they are.
But there’s another force at work: the rise of green offices.
Most major companies have now made some sort of pledge to clean up their carbon footprints. They just need to figure out how.
Offices are a good place to start. Buildings — both commercial and residential — contribute around 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint, according to the UK Green Building Council. Improvements can bring that down by reducing energy and water usage.
Property insiders say we are at the beginning of a great wave of eco-investment as landlords refurb blocks to attract climate-conscious firms and owner-tenants like Google and Citi do up their places up to help hit targets.
As we detailed last week, Goldman Sachs has just bought into a £500 million London Bridge development said to be “Paris proof” — in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement on limiting climate change. We’ll see plenty more deals like this as time goes by.
All this means green offices are, ahem, becoming hot property. Soon, eco-standards will decide rents: a “dirty” block will be cheaper, just as coal carries a heavy discount to greener fuel. Both risk reputational stain: just as most City of London fund managers wouldn’t be caught dead backing a thermal coal mine these days, soon companies will be ashamed to rent space in gas-guzzling buildings that leak heat.
For the office workers reading this, it’s time to ask yourself: how green is your office?
The future of the planet may depend on the answer.
