New Deloitte London office: a world-leading building for sustainability and wellbeing

Deloitte’s new UK and North West Europe headquarters at 1 New Street Square, EC4, is claimed to be the largest office in the world to achieve leading certifications for being both an exemplar green building and one designed to enhance the wellbeing of its people. The new 270,000 sq ft HQ, which Deloitte occupied in July, is the culmination of a four year programme redefining the workplace of the future for the firm’s people and clients. The space was designed by ID:SR with furniture supplied by Sketch Studios.

The flagship office has achieved the highest score for sustainability of any global commercial building fit-out. Using BREEAM, the leading green-building certification, Deloitte’s office scored a record 94%, far exceeding the ‘Outstanding’ threshold and in doing so, becoming the highest scoring BREEAM 2014 Refurbishment & Fit-out project in the world.

The firm also attained WELL Certified Gold – a prestigious distinction awarded by the International WELL Building Institute™ to workplaces that enhance people’s health and wellbeing. In securing this rating, 1 New Street Square is now the largest WELL Certifie Gold for ‘New and Existing Interiors project’ in the world. The office earned the distinction based on seven categories of building and operational performance including air, water, light, nourishment, fitness, comfort and mind.

A one-off opportunity

David Sproul, senior partner and CEO of Deloitte North West Europe, said: “We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved with 1 New Street Square and the precedent we have set in our world-leading building for sustainability and wellbeing that will benefit our people, clients and the environment. We had a once-in-a-decade opportunity to further strengthen and grow our London campus: this workplace will support a rapidly-changing talent pool and offers a huge range of different working activities and styles with spaces that can fuel creativity and will ultimately generate more collaborations across the business.

“Sustainability is important to us, and with the new building we have focused on really driving energy efficiency, utilising onsite renewable energy sources and procuring 100% green electricity. We have reduced water consumption and waste production, and we prioritised materials with a low environmental impact. It’s great to see these initiatives being recognised through the achievement of a BREEAM Outstanding certification.”

Gavin Harrison, real estate sustainability lead at Deloitte, said: “What we have achieved is industry-defining. On its own, our sustainability programme was world-leading in that we delivered the highest BREEAM 2014 fit-out score ever. Doing this alongside an important wellbeing strategy makes our project unique and reiterates our commitment to providing colleagues with the best workspaces. In delivering both and becoming the first office fit-out to attain BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Certifie Gold worldwide, we have redefined our blueprint for the workplace of the future.”

Supporting the Government’s first Green GB Week earlier this year, Deloitte has pledged to apply these sustainability and wellbeing principles to all future UK office fit-outs – delivering high environmental standards, optimising operational performance and providing the healthiest spaces for its people.

Deloitte started its Green Journey initiative in 2011 and has since seen building-related emissions drop 72% per employee. It has also eliminated single-use plastic cups from the London campus and ensured redundant office furniture from vacated offices was donated or recycled with nothing going to landfill.