The Economics of Sustainable Tall Buildings

In this article we approach sustainability within the tall building sector through the framework of the Triple Bottom Line. Drivers, opportunities and barriers to sustainable tall building development are described. Consideration of these factors highlights a lack of benchmarking data on which to base legislation, investment decisions, and tenants' property choices. Quantification of traditionally unmeasured benefits of tall buildings, particularly with respect to necessity, infrastructure, and building use, is required to explore the case for classifying and quantifying their sustainability. The industry stakeholders will only attend to these wide-ranging issues if opportunity for financial profit is improved by their inclusion. Thus, integration of sustainability data throughout the supply and demand sides of the industry must be translated into financial costs and benefits. The collection, analysis and dissemination of this information is a major challenge and opportunity which is of current relevance to the tall buildings market internationally.