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Sustainable Office Design - Unlocking Performance & Productivity
By Beatrice K Otto
MATERIALS
IT'S A MATERIAL WORLD
TalkTalk wanted to have their new head office for 830 people fitted out to BREEAM standards. They used more sustainable materials, such as FSC and PEFC certified wood products, and reduced waste to landfill by 92%, in addition to installing a sub-metering programme that monitored water, gas and electricity usage. The office won a BREEAM 'Excellent' rating.
DEFRA's approach to refurbishment covers some of the key elements of sourcing materials or products. Similarly, the refurbishment of BP's offices in St. James's Square managed to recycle 85% of its construction waste. Ask about:
- Life cycle - has it been designed to be robust, easily maintained or repaired, do its components use renewable, recycled (or recyclable) materials?
- Energy - what is its energy consumption in manufacturing, transport and use?
- Emissions - what is its greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint? Does the supplier mitigate their GHG emissions? Does it give off harmful emissions?
- Water - how much water was used in manufacturing?
- Toxicity - is it safe?
- Weight - could you use a lighter material or one with less volume, reducing transport impacts ?
Ask suppliers some of these questions - even if they can't give perfect answers, just asking the questions will help create a demand and increase awareness of the issues.
When refitting the office of UK publishers Egmont, Morgan Lovell used bookcases instead of walls and partitions, creating a flexible space, and reducing materials in the construction and in any future refits. They also installed carpets made of recycled materials with non-PVC backing so they can be recycled once they wear out. Paints were chosen with low VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and the kitchen flooring was made of Forbo, using more natural materials.
When Talbot Underwriters moved the business to one of London's landmark buildings, they went for a BREEAM "very good" rating. As the first tenant under a new landlord, they set a standard for others to follow. The 42,000 square foot refit included recycled glass worktops, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber throughout, and A-rated finishes, even for the floors. It also included built in recycling stations to reduce waste, and to cut energy use (and bills), smart metering.
Interface aims to be one of the world's most sustainable companies, e.g.:
- Reclamation - ReEntry™ programme reclaims old carpets, diverting 85 million pounds of materials from landfill in 10 years. The company mines these discards for their raw materials, such as their GlasBac®RE, a backing made from reclaimed and recycled carpet backing.
- Air quality - water based adhesives with very low volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions
- Renewables - increasing use of renewable energy for manufacturing, and the use of corn or starch based polymers, so called biopolymers or bioplastics
- Waste - a goal of zero waste
Fun with Factoids
- Bamboo grows in 4-5 years - it is stronger than steel, can have 8m overhangs in buildings, and stores 40 times more carbon than pine.
- Schmidt-Bleek estimates that, on average, industrial products carry an ecological rucksack (the invisible impacts of their production) of about 30 times their own weight.
- Construction produces 19% of the UK's total annual waste (about 90 million tonnes) and 21% of hazardous waste.
- 30 million tonnes of that waste is off-cuts; 9.4 million is temporary works such as site hoardings and formwork; 2.9 million tonnes is simply due to damage.
- Manufacture and distribution of construction materials accounts for about 10% of the UK's CO2 emissions.
NEXT FURNITURE
Next steps
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