SAS's green office tackles the "sneeze factor"

Software company SAS Institute expected to gain plenty of commercial benefits when it drew up plans for an environmentally sustainable Canadian office, but it never could have predicted one of the advantages of the new building – staff stopped sneezing.

"Since we've moved offices there have been a lot fewer sneezes and sniffles among the staff," observed one worker at the new office block in downtown Toronto. "The old building was very claustrophobic and it seems that the open design of the new place is improving people's health."

According to Carl Farrell, president of SAS's Canadian operations, this benefit was fully intended, with the office having been designed to combat the " sneeze factor".

"When air is moved round a traditional office [germs in the air] tend to sit at head level," Farrell explained. "But with the new building the architects have designed it in a way that air circulates so that [contaminated air] is moved away faster. All the infrastructure is underneath the floor and it means the air circulates 10 to 15 times faster than with a traditional air con system. There are stats showing each sneeze is gone in five minutes as opposed to around 20 minutes."

Farrell is convinced that this is a valuable improvement in his staff's working environment. "In the IT sector employees are your main differentiator so you want to make sure they are in an environment that is comfortable and that sickness rates are down," he argues. "Staff retention is also a key issue so environmental factors definitely have a business value."

Besides an improvement in employee health, SAS's $30m "green office" has also delivered plenty of other, more tangible, financial benefits.

Most notably, the company has seen its utility bills slashed as the use of glass walls, energy efficient heating and air conditioning, and a grey water system have cut energy use by 30 per cent compared with a conventional office of a similar size.

Farrell said that each of these innovations cost 20 to 30 per cent more than traditional office infrastructure, but insisted that the lower bills meant that the extra investment would pay for itself within five years.

"We have a grey water system, which means we need two systems – a clean water system and a grey water system," Farrell said. "Up front it meant we needed a huge tank to collect water underneath the car park and two sets of pipes, but it means our use of water is very low in a downtown area that is very sensitive about water usage. When you look at the cost of water, over time it soon pays for itself."

The building's location was also selected to limit staff's environmental impact, with seven major public transit routes within a quarter of a mile, and showers and indoor bicycle parking available for those who want to bike to work.

These various design innovations, coupled with the use of locally sourced and recycled materials during the construction process, resulted in the building becoming the first commercial property in Toronto to be awarded the US Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification when it was opened in 2005.

For Farrell, LEED certification is far more than some corporate gong. "We get a lot of respect from our customers for LEED certification," he said. "It has made us a showcase to try and attract business into Toronto. I was speaking to the mayor recently and there are now a large number of other companies in the city trying to gain LEED certification. It has become a differentiator for SAS. "

But Farrell hopes that the company's "green office" will not remain a competitive differentiator for much longer. "I believe that globally these types of measures will be implemented," he said. "Corporate organisations put a lot of pressure on the environment and the pressure, whether it is draconian legislation or not, will come for them to be more friendly to the environment and use less energy. The pressure will come and will have to come, so being ahead of the curve on this is a good business decision."