WASHINGTON, DC — At the fifth annual National Summit on Building Performance, held here last month, the traditional ways of planning and using workplaces were called into question.

Mattias Bergman, manager of Work Telepresence at Sun Microsystems, said, “This workplace is not a place — it’s a whole network of places. We’ve got to allow our people to work — with their colleagues, their customers or alone — where and when they need to. Their work needs to dictate (the specific location).”

Today’s information-driven workplaces are ideal for the effective use of energy and natural resources. However, panelists from Brunel University, Natural Logic, and Interface Inc. noted that companies have to want to develop environmentally friendly workspaces.

Bill Reed, vice president of integrative design at the planning firm of Natural Logic, said, “The leap is to understand that it’s not about efficiency. It’s about reaching way beyond that to the point where we’re actually beginning to co-create with nature, to be a partner with nature, and understand its effectiveness.”

The summit was sponsored by Johnson Controls, the American Institute of Architects, the International Facility Management Association, and NACORE International.