It is now considered that the third most desirable quality for prospective office occupiers - after the price of rent and internet connectivity - is a building's health and well-being provision. An important part of this is that the built environment supports sustainable transport options such as cycling; but how can building developers and owners assess how effectively they are doing so?
One means of ensuring that assets are bike-friendly is accreditation such as the CyclingScore system, which rates premises from silver to platinum according to their suitability. With landlords and developers beginning to recognise the business case for best-in-class facilities and services for occupiers, CyclingScore is often asked 'How do we build a platinum-rated building?'
A number of factors contribute to the rating. For instance, infrastructure comprises 60 per cent of the overall scoring process and considers access, surfaces, wayfinding, routes, showers, lockers and other amenities for cyclists. Cycle parking products and ratios make up a third of the infrastructure component given their importance in planning a new development.
CyclingScore benchmarks against both the floor area of a building and the expected maximum occupancy figure; this calculation is vital, as benchmarking based on area alone can often skew outcomes, because different types of businesses across different sectors will almost certainly have different cycling cultures. The lowest score is expected to be in finance, whereas media, advertising and government organisations can anticipate two to three times more cyclists in their workplaces.