In most commercial buildings, occupants are the largest expense and the largest revenue generator.  Most commercial buildings are built as places for people to work, and high-performance buildings help people perform at their best.  A comprehensive “green” retrofit can easily generate an increase in revenue that fully pays for the retrofit in less than five years, and sometimes less than two.  In an office building with a tight labor market and high turnover, the payback may be less than a year, with reduced costs for training and recruitment.  Green branding attracts new recruits, and a high-performance working environment increases employee retention.

In high-performance buildings with good lighting, good temperature control, and plenty of clean air, office workers, students, warehouse workers, and shoppers all tend to be happier, healthier, more likely to show up, and more likely to accomplish better results.  Although this observation is not well known yet, it has been documented with research of single case studies, and analysis of multiple buildings.  Energy efficiency retrofits can be marketed as components of comprehensive green retrofits, if the target audience includes the Director of Human Resources, Director of Marketing, the CFO and the CEO, in addition to the Facilities Manager.

A comprehensive green retrofit might cost $10 to $30/SF.  This cost is comparable to the tenant improvement allowances that often accompany the beginning or renewal of a lease.  This market dwarfs the cost savings available from energy efficiency alone, which is typically less than $1/SF-so the payback period based on utility savings is beyond the time horizon of most businesses.

However, in an office building, annual labor costs could be $300/SF to $600/SF.  A comprehensive green retrofit can easily increase productivity by 3% to 7%, yielding a return of $9 to $42.  The payback for a $20/SF retrofit would be less than two years, and possibly less than one year.  In addition, decreased turnover could yield another $25/SF.  With both of these benefits, the simple payback period is very likely to be less than two years, and could be less than six months.