Sustainability performance of the workspace: an analysis of the Best For The World 2021 companies

Since the United Nations have articulated the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development (SD), companies have paid more attention to assessing corporate engagement against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In practice, these goals push companies to measure their sustainability performance using Environmental, Social, and Governance scores (ESGs). ESGs evaluate environmental, social, and economic responsibility strategies of companies. Although these indicators look at many different aspects of a company’s sustainable performance, the workspace is not included as a criterion of evaluation, which is a significant limitation as the Architecture Engineering Construction and Operation industry (AECO) has an important role in reducing the environmental impact of organisations. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate how companies evaluate the sustainability performance of workspaces. After reviewing the scientific literature about the application of ESGs in the space dimension, the study analyses a sample of companies (the top 5% of all B Corporates, categorised by company size in 2021) that have been evaluated the “Best For The World 2021” in terms of SD. B Lab awards those companies that meet certain standards of transparency, accountability, sustainability, and performance looking at five major Impact Areas, namely Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers. Results show that B Corporation identified a link between environmental impact of buildings and the companies’ sustainability performance. However, the Assessment of B Corporate doesn’t perform a deep analysis and doesn’t force certified companies to define sustainable strategies to minimise the environmental impact of their building portfolios.