Creating A Sustainable Office: 5 Tips For An Eco-Friendly Office Refresh

Business Insights
06/10/2021

The highly visible effects of climate change, the introduction of new legislation and rising interest from companies wanting to demonstrate a more responsible attitude towards sustainability are encouraging more of us to want to adapt to a ‘greener’ way of life. Indeed, most of us are now aiming to make better choices every day in order to protect the environment for future generations.


Sustainability has therefore, quite rightly, become a high priority within business. This is not just because businesses want to be seen to be operating ethically – is it becoming a determining factor by employees, clients and suppliers when selecting companies they’d like to work with.


So, if your company is thinking about updating, relocating, or just shaking up your office a little bit, sustainability should definitely be high on your priority list.


Chloe Sproston, Commercial and Creative Director from workplace consultants and office fit out specialists Blueprint Interiors has the following tips that businesses can consider during an office refurbishment or new fit-out.


1. ENCOURAGE NATURAL LIGHT

Depending on your office situation, location, and time of year, this tip may be more or less applicable. Encouraging more natural light into offices, means electricity usage can be cut down by reducing the need for interior lighting.


Not only is this beneficial for your carbon footprint and electricity bill, the increased Vitamin D can promote better health in your workforce. What’s more, natural light is the best friend of another major office mood-booster – plants!


2. TECH-ENABLE YOUR WORKPLACE

When you think of sustainability, technology might not be the first on this list. However, embracing workplace tech, may enable you to solve many corporate sustainability headaches.


First of all, by swapping paper for tablets, you can embrace paperless technology such as mobile document scanning/sharing, digital note-taking and e-signing software. Now you can progress your day-to-day work without printing a single sheet of paper.


Another way to embrace tech is by kitting out your meeting rooms. For example, installing a wide-angle, HD webcam and display screen into your meeting space will enable high-quality video calls and help to reduce unnecessary travel.


3. USE SUSTAINABLE OFFICE FURNITURE, AND USE FURNITURE SUSTAINABLY

Sustainable furniture has come on leaps and bounds in the past few years. More and more companies are developing sustainable lines, so it’s easier than ever before to choose eco-friendly furniture for your office. For example, we often use the ‘Think’ office chair from Steelcase, which can be seen in use during a tour of our offices called WorkLife Central. This furniture is made of up to 28% recycled content by weight and is 95% recyclable at end-of-life.


Even if your furniture isn’t necessarily sustainable, you can still make the most out of it by making sustainable choices. Around 1.2 million office desks and 1.8 million office chairs end up in UK landfills each year. Just because a desk, chair, or monitor is of no use to you anymore, that doesn’t mean it should be thrown away. Instead, why not donate your old equipment/furniture to charities or schools? Or even sell them on to give them a second life?


4. EMBRACE HYBRID WORKING

Being sustainable in your everyday working life is all well and good, but if you’re refreshing/remodelling your office every few years, it’s likely that you’re offsetting a large portion of your good efforts.


Whenever you go through a remodel or redesign, you’re probably throwing out screens, desks, partitions and furniture. The solution could be to create a ‘hybrid’ working environment to improve the longevity of your office space.


Hybrid workspaces are designed to take into account different styles of working. They provide a modular workspace that adapts and changes with the needs and wants of your workforce. Ensure that your team get everything they need from their workplace for the foreseeable future, and you may even prevent issues such as employee burnout.


5. ACHIEVE THE WELL BUILDING STANDARD®

The WELL building standard is a programme designed to help businesses create health-first office spaces for their employees.


The WELL Building Standard® is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and wellbeing. It is the first system of its kind to measure buildings (and everything in them!) on their ability to advance human health and wellness.


By achieving The WELL Building Standard®, your organisation can profit from various financial and performance benefits, from reduced staff turnover and sick leave to increased productivity. This not only improves your employees’ health, but also your company’s bottom line. It can also help you attract new customers and improve supply chain partnerships.


Blueprint Interiors were recently awarded the WELL Health-Safety Rating. We’re the first in our region, and the first in our sector to achieve this and we are now able to help clients through the process.


6. TALK TO A SUSTAINABLE OFFICE FIT-OUT COMPANY

There are lots of steps to get right when it comes to reducing your office’s carbon footprint. Of course, any effort is good in itself, but to create a truly sustainable, well-designed office space, it’s best to speak to the professionals.