Green Architecture Profits Software Leader

Since 1992, VeriFone Inc., a leading global provider of secure electronic payment systems based in Redwood City, California, has made healthy workplaces a top priority, earning financial rewards in the process.

The company's environmental planner proposed spending nearly $900,000 extra on an 80,000 square-foot facility in Costa Mesa, California that would provide annual savings of $110,000 on energy costs. The estimated payback period was 4.5 years. But additional savings followed, making environmentally sound construction even more profitable, and in a shorter time frame.

New York's Croxton Collaborative, a specialist in healthy buildings, was brought in for the architectural design. Company president Randolph Croxton believes healthy buildings not only ward off illnesses caused by indoor pollutants; he believes they actually promote their inhabitants' well-being and productivity.

Environmental Enemies Everywhere

As VeriFone co-founder William Pape wrote recently for Inc. magazine, Croxton saw enemies everywhere: from glues and paints to carpets treated with pesticides, mildewcides and fungicides, and chairs that emit toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde.

Emphasizing natural materials over synthetics, Scott Churchill, an architect with the Palm Group in Larkspur, California, said most companies will recoup their investments in healthy work environments within a year. In his experience, he said making a building environmentally friendly carries a one-time cost of $10 per square foot.

With a fully-loaded cost of $250 to $300 per square foot (total employee cost divided by the square footage per employee), the return for VeriFone has been excellent. Croxton and Churchill say Verifone's Costa Mesa employees have been 5% to 7% more productive than their counterparts in traditional environments.

ROI Exceeds 100%

The gain in worker productivity conservatively translates into a return on investment of $12.50 per square foot per year, more than enough to cover the one-time investment cost.

In addition, VeriFone realized a 75% reduction in annual electric costs. Environmental changes and additions included: smart fluorescent fixtures; sensors that turn off lights in empty rooms; computer-controlled heating and cooling; 60% more insulation than is required by code; and skylight glass that reflects external heat and retains internal heat as needed.

Pape wrote that VeriFone's "Building non-toxically is almost always cheaper than waiting for an employee to complain and then spending $10,000 to $15,000 to test the building and even more to fix the problem." Just two or three such inspections will cost as much as doing things right the first time.

"It's also a nice way to show employees that you care, which can only help nurture loyalty and improve retention," Pape added.

VeriFone has more than 30 facilities located in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific. Based on its success, the company has adopted its Costa Mesa design at many of its other locations.