10 Most Sustainable Office Buildings Worldwide

The most sustainable office buildings are the ones that can prove it: The Edge in Amsterdam (BREEAM Outstanding, 98.36%), the Bullitt Center in Seattle (Living Building Challenge certified in 2015) and the Pixel building in Melbourne (6 Star Green Star with a perfect 105 points, plus LEED Platinum) are three of the clearest examples. This guide is for architects and students studying sustainable office building design. For each of the ten buildings below we checked the certification against the certifier or a project-team source, separated measured results from design targets, and removed figures we could not trace.

Climate change has made sustainability a basic requirement of good design, not an optional extra. Rating systems such as LEED, BREEAM, Green Star and the Living Building Challenge give clients a way to compare projects, but they measure different things, so a score only means something when you know which system, version and stage it refers to. For the wider principles, see our explainer on what is sustainable architecture.

What sustainable office building design has in common

Across the ten buildings, the same few strategies recur: deep daylight through atria or narrow plans, natural or mixed-mode ventilation, thermal mass to even out temperatures, on-site or near-site renewable energy, rainwater reuse, and reuse of existing structures instead of demolition. The Bullitt Center in Seattle combines nearly all of them in six storeys, which is why it is often used as the benchmark for sustainable architecture in offices.

10 most sustainable office buildings worldwide

1. The Edge, Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Edge, in the Zuidas business district, was designed by PLP Architecture for the developer OVG Real Estate, with Deloitte as the main tenant. Its 15-storey atrium faces north, bringing daylight into the offices and helping to ventilate them. The building received a BREEAM Outstanding rating with a score of 98.36% and won BRE’s 2016 award for offices (new construction), according to BRE’s case study, which also reports that it uses 70% less electricity than comparable offices and draws its heating and cooling from an aquifer thermal energy storage system.

Solar panels cover the south façade and part of the roof, and further panels on the roofs of nearby University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences buildings, about 4,100 m² in total, feed the grid on the building’s behalf. Earlier versions of this article placed that 4,100 m² on The Edge’s own roof, which was wrong. LED lighting on a networked system with sensors for occupancy, temperature and CO2 can be adjusted from a smartphone app. The Edge shows how sustainable office building design can combine passive daylight with digital building controls.

2. Bullitt Center, Seattle, USA

The six-storey Bullitt Center, designed by The Miller Hull Partnership for the Bullitt Foundation, opened in 2013. In April 2015 it became the first office building to achieve Living Building Challenge certification, after a full year (2014) of net-zero energy and water performance, according to the Bullitt Center’s announcement. A rooftop photovoltaic array of about 14,000 sq ft (1,300 m²) supplies all its electricity, the Urban Land Institute case study reports, and rainwater is stored in a 56,000-gallon (about 212,000-litre) cistern. Composting toilets process waste on site.

3. RB12, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

RB12 is a retrofit rather than a new building: Triptyque (São Paulo and Paris) renovated a 1960s office block on Avenida Rio Branco for the developer Natekko, and the work was completed in 2016, as ArchDaily’s project record lists. Photovoltaic panels on the façade generate electricity, a bioclimatic façade of angled glass and louvres controls daylight and heat, planted terraces help to cool the interior, and rainwater is reused for irrigation and toilets. We found no third-party certification for RB12, so its performance claims are the design team’s own.

4. Pixel, Melbourne, Australia

Pixel, a small office building in Carlton designed by Studio505 for Grocon and completed in 2010, achieved a perfect score of 105 points under Green Star Office Design v3 (6 Star) and LEED Platinum, according to its engineers’ Integral Group project record. It was designed as carbon neutral, generating its own power and collecting its own water. Its colourful façade combines fixed shading louvres, double glazing and solar panels, with a green roof and rainwater collection above. Pixel shows that sustainable office building design works at a small scale too.

5. 1 Angel Square, Manchester, United Kingdom

1 Angel Square, designed by 3DReid as the headquarters of the Co-operative Group and completed in 2013, achieved BREEAM Outstanding with a score of 95.16%, the highest UK score at the time, according to the contractor BAM’s case study. It was designed to cut energy use by 50% and carbon emissions by 80% compared with the Co-operative’s previous Manchester offices; these are design targets, not measured results. A double-skin façade and exposed concrete thermal mass moderate temperatures, the atrium’s stack effect drives ventilation with heat recovery, and a combined heat and power plant runs on rapeseed oil.

6. CH2 (Council House 2), Melbourne, Australia

CH2, the City of Melbourne’s office building designed by DesignInc with the city’s own team, was completed in 2006. It was the first purpose-built office in Australia to receive a 6 Star Green Star rating, first for design and later for the as-built building, as the Green Building Council of Australia case study describes. It supplies 100% fresh air with a complete change every half hour through natural ventilation ducts, uses wind turbines for night purging, and stores coolth in phase-change material for chilled ceilings. Earlier versions of this article gave its completion as 2013; that was wrong. For students of sustainable office building design, CH2 shows how far passive systems can go in a city with hot summers.

7. Federal Center South Building 1202, Seattle, USA

This regional headquarters for the US Army Corps of Engineers, designed by ZGF Architects for the General Services Administration and completed in 2012, replaced a 1940s warehouse on a brownfield site. Around 200,000 board feet of structural timber salvaged from the warehouse was reused in a composite beam system, according to the AIA COTE Top Ten entry. The building later received LEED Platinum; the live version of this article said it was Gold “one point below platinum”, which is out of date. Horizontal shades and vertical fins control solar gain, and rainwater is harvested for reuse, showing what careful sustainability thinking can do with a reused site.

8. Genzyme Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The Genzyme Center, the 12-storey headquarters of the biotechnology company Genzyme designed by Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner, was completed in 2004 and received LEED Platinum in 2005, according to the architects’ project record. Heliostats and fixed mirrors on the roof direct sunlight into the full-height atrium, where prismatic ceilings, reflective “chandeliers” and a light wall spread it deeper into the floors; the atrium also works as the return-air path. Its exposed concrete structure provides thermal mass. Earlier versions of this article described it as home to several biotech companies; it was built for one.

9. One Embankment Place, London, United Kingdom

PwC’s London office above Charing Cross station, a 1990s building refurbished by TP Bennett, achieved BREEAM Outstanding with 96.31% in 2013, then the highest score for any building, new or refurbished, as The Construction Index reported. Its tri-generation plant runs on biofuel refined from locally collected waste vegetable oil, and BRE’s case study gives the category scores behind the rating. The Edge’s 98.36% overtook it in 2016. It is a strong argument that sustainable office building design starts with the buildings we already have, a point that applies to construction everywhere.

10. Powerhouse Kjørbo, Bærum, Norway

Snøhetta and the Powerhouse alliance renovated two 1980s office blocks at Kjørbo, near Oslo, completing the work in 2014. The project was designed to be energy-positive over its lifetime, producing more energy than it uses, including the energy embodied in its materials. It received BREEAM-NOR Outstanding at the design stage, according to Snøhetta’s project page, and its energy need was reported as about 90% lower after renovation. Solar panels, a heavy insulation upgrade, natural ventilation assistance and efficient lighting do most of the work.

How the certifications were verified

For each building we looked for the rating in a source that can confirm it: the certifier (BRE, the Green Building Council of Australia, the International Living Future Institute), the owner, or a member of the project team, and we recorded the score and year. Where only design targets were published, such as 1 Angel Square’s 50% energy reduction, we say so. Where no certification exists, as for RB12, we say that too. We did not have access to search the full USGBC and GBCA project directories, so the LEED entries rely on the project teams’ and trade press records; the editor should confirm them in the official directories before publication.

Three cautions apply when you compare buildings or use them as precedents for sustainable office building design. First, BREEAM, LEED, Green Star and the Living Building Challenge are different systems, so a percentage in one cannot be compared with points in another. Second, design-stage ratings predict performance; only in-use certification, such as the Living Building Challenge’s year of measured data, proves it. Third, ratings are tied to a scheme version, and a record score in 2013 may not be a record today.

Verified building table

The table summarises each building’s rating, the stage it applies to and the source used, so you can see at a glance which claims are certified and which are design intentions.

If you are developing a brief, start with the strategies these buildings share, then choose the rating system your client and market recognise. For a larger-scale view of the same ideas, see how BIG reveals a masterplan for the “most sustainable city in the world”, and browse more sustainable projects on Arch2O.

Sources and further reading

• BRE: The Edge, Amsterdam case study
• Bullitt Center: Living Building certification (April 2015) and ULI case study
• ArchDaily: RB12 / Triptyque
• Integral Group: Pixel Building
• BAM: One Angel Square, Manchester
• Green Building Council of Australia: Council House 2 case study
• AIA COTE Top Ten: Federal Center South Building 1202
• Behnisch Architekten: Genzyme Center
• BRE: PwC One Embankment Place case study
• Snøhetta: Powerhouse Kjørbo