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RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION 113

building project. If a professional service firm, say a law firm, retained just one good
attorney, typically billing $300,000 to $400,000 per year, with $200,000 to $250,000
gross profit, that would more than pay for the extra cost of a green building or green
tenant improvement project, if such measures would keep that lawyer at the firm. What
about the impact of a healthy work environment on employees’ belief that their
employer really cares about their well-being? One study of 2000 office workers, com-
missioned in 2006 by the architecture firm Gensler, revealed that nearly half of all
respondents would be embarrassed to show their offices to clients or prospective
employees. What does this say about morale and their feeling that employer really
cares about their well-being?
Demographics is destiny: Owing to an aging Baby Boomer labor force, by 2014
there will be fewer people in the 35 to 44-year-old age group than in 2005, typically
the leadership group in most organizations: managers, executives, experienced
employees, and senior technical people, typically at the peak of their career. Getting
and keeping them will tax the ingenuity and resources of most companies; green build-
ings can demonstrate that the company or organization and the key employees share
the same values. Working in a company that rents or owns green buildings gives
employees another reason to tell their friends and spouses why they are staying with
an organization.

PLATINUM PROJECT PROFILE
Genzyme Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Designed in the early 2000s by Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, Germany and
finished in 2004, the 12-story, 344,000-square-feet Genzyme Center serves as
office space for more than 900 Genzyme employees. Located in Cambridge’s
Kendall Square, the building is partially powered by renewable energy sources
and controlled by a $2.3 million integrated building automation system (BAS).
An open-air atrium serves a return air duct as well as light shaft and provides
natural light to 75 percent of the employee workspaces, which contributes to a
42 percent electricity cost reduction. Fully automated, roof-mounted heliostats
(mirrors) track the sun’s movement and shine light into the atrium. Fixed mirrors,
hanging prismatic mobiles, reflective panels, and a reflective light wall all work
together through an automated computerized system to reflect and diffuse natu-
ral light throughout the building. Water-free urinals, dual-flush toilets, automatic
faucets, low-flow fixtures, and stormwater-supplemented cooling tower water
supply collectively reduce water use by 32 percent. Ninety percent of the wood
is FSC certified.*

*Evelyn Lee, “Green Building: Genzyme Center LEEDs the Way”, Inhabitat, February 6, 2007 [online],
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/02/06/genzyme-center/, accessed April 2008. Building Green [online],
http://www.buildinggreen.com/hpb/overview.cfm?projectId=274, accessed April 2008.