SR96 Implications of climate change for the construction sector: Office buildings (2007)

This is the third report in a series prepared during research into the implications of climate change for the construction sector. It deals with climate change impacts on office buildings, extending the research of the first report on houses (SR94).

Climate change impacts on office buildings are similar to those for houses for many climate change factors, with the exception of: damage from flooding, stormwater flooding, overheating, heating and life cycle greenhouse gas emissions.

Office buildings may be more susceptible to climate change-induced flooding damage than houses. Detecting changes in flooding incidence for office buildings in highly urbanised areas is expected to be more difficult than for houses, as the drainage characteristics of the cityscape have changed much historically and will continue to change in the future.

The life cycle GHG emissions of office buildings have been studied in brief to find estimates of yearly GHG emissions for various building phases. In order from largest to smallest they are transport of office workers, operating energy, refurbishment, initial manufacture and leakage of CFC and HCFC from HVAC systems.