A new report from the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) finds that green retail environments can enhance the customer experience and drive greater profits.

Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Retail: The Impact of Green Buildings on People and Profit, has found that green retail can can impact staff, customers and business performance.

“The days of ‘grey box retailers’ are numbered,” says WorldGBC Chief Executive Officer, Terri Wills. “This report is about empowering retailers to look within their own properties to understand and monetise how better, more sustainable physical environments can drive profit, and in doing so, ultimately strengthen the business case for greener, healthier buildings,” Ms Wills says.

This report should serve as a reminder for any decision-makers in the retail sector – including the design industry – who may be wondering whether designing sustainable and green physical environments is necessary.

Emerging evidence, outlined in the WorldGBC’s report, includes:

1 // Research by the International Council of Shopping Centres, which suggests that lifestyle centres – connected sets of uncovered stores with pedestrianised walkways that incorporate nature – perform better than conventional malls, with increased numbers of stores visited and higher numbers of repeat visits.

2 // American retailer Walmart’s findings that daylit areas of stores deliver higher sales per square metre than those areas artificially lit.

3 // Research suggesting that customers are likely to buy more merchandise in stores with natural surroundings; customers rate spaces with greenery as friendlier, say they would stay longer and visit more frequently, and would be willing to pay a higher price for the same product.

“Sustainability isn’t a fad or a fashion,” says Romilly Madew, Chief Executive Officer of the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and WorldGBC board member. “As the business case continues to build, retailers who embrace the opportunities for healthier, greener buildings will reap the rewards.”

Download Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Retail: The Impact of Green Buildings on People and Profit.

Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA)
gbca.org.au