Working

The document which currently summarises best practice in the UK is the British Council for Offices 2009 Guide to Specification, to which Keppie was a key contributor particularly on Sustainability and Architecture. Keppie designed the first Public Private Partnership project in the world that achieved an Excellent BREEAM environmental rating. Great Glen House, the headquarters for Scottish Natural Heritage, obtained the highest ever BREEAM rating and was voted the UK Workplace of the Year.

These projects predominantly rely on passive measures rather than expensive energy generation methods, as they have to respond to normal commercial cost restrictions. Businesses today have a better understanding of the benefits of staff retention and greater productivity and new benchmarks have been set in terms of design quality and specification. This has resulted in more innovative workplaces making a positive contribution to the built environment. Design is about the spaces in between buildings as well as the buildings themselves.