The “green” refurbishment of commercial property

Reviews current key areas of acknowledged best practice in “green” design and building management systems including the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method, Eco labelling and “green” building materials profiling systems. Identifies and discusses specific problems and “green” refurbishment techniques using examples drawn from recent case studies from commercial portfolios: energy and resource use; internal environmental services and systems; planned “green” maintenance programmes and techniques; “green” building management issues; and cost analysis of “green” refurbishment; cost effectiveness, viability and recovery of investment. The examples cited are from recent case studies undertaken by the Environmental Research Group at Oxford Brookes University as part of an ongoing collaboration with a number of major commercial property owners.