Case study: Woodcreek future of work

Moving on to North America, Shell has been in the US for more than 100 years, leading the sector in energy, petrochemicals and refined products. Located in Houston, TX, the Woodcreek complex is considered its flagship with over 3,000,000 SF including multiples office buildings, amenities buildings and several multi-story garages. The success of this campus lies beyond the physical location; it is all about the people.

For this reason, Woodcreek was selected for the Future of Work pilot project, with the objective to showcase a more collaborative workspace with bench-style seating and a mix of open, informal meeting spaces. After all, the end game is about how teams work and collaborate, and how people use their resources and technology to deliver value.

The first work package was awarded in 2021 and delivered during Q2 2022. The scope included upgrading 26 meeting rooms across the campus and transforming them into Teams rooms, upgrading the functionality of meeting rooms to facilitate a more collaborative meeting space.

In 2022, phase 2 of the project was tendered, and the scope included additional 11 meeting rooms with similar objectives. To investigate the impact of inflation, the project team chose the AV equipment component, which was replicated in both phases in terms of scope and specifications.

The result of this comparison and the impact of inflation was clear; a 15 percent increase in the cost of AV equipment in less than 12 months.

This brings to the fore a key gap in the form of forward-looking budgets on construction projects and downplaying or discounting the effect of inflation. The impact from headline macro-economic inflation will be felt more on major, multi-year projects which are especially susceptible to cost increases in building materials, IT equipment, labour wages and machinery hire rates.