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Sustainable Office Design - Unlocking Performance & Productivity

By Beatrice K Otto

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WATER

REDUCE THE USE & LOOP THE LOOP

The manufacturing processes used by DesignTex are so clean that the water effluent is safe to drink. The story goes that the water inspectors, finding the water cleaner coming out than going in, wondered if their instruments were faulty.

The basic principles of sustainable water use are conservation and recycling, which leads into grey-water (water than can be used for non-drinking purposes such as watering gardens or flushing toilets) and rainwater use.

Conservation

Pureprint is a waterless and alcohol-free process which produces 12.3% waste compared to 17.5% in conventional printing. In addition to being a much cleaner process, it offers sharper reproduction, increased ink densities, and brighter, clearer and more consistent colours.

Conservation can be direct and indirect. Indirectly, you could have your brochures printed using a waterless process such as Pureprint, or install Interface carpets that have changed their pattern printing processes to reduce water use in manufacture.

Or you could take the direct conservation approach and install low flush toilets and waterless urinals, such as in the Genzyme offices in Haverhill. Urine is 96% water, and yet we use great quantities of water to flush it away.

  • Waterless urinals using various sealants and water repellent coatings offer a waterless, odourless alternative, also saving costs in installation, piping and maintenance.
  • Dual flush and ultra low flush toilets - conventional toilets use about 23 litres of water per flush, whereas ultra low flush toilets use six.
  • Reduced flow taps and sensors that switch the tap on only in the presence of hands, so avoiding the huge wastage of taps left running or dripping.
In refurbishing the Armstrong World Industries headquarters in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, water use was targeted as part of a (successful) bid to win LEED Platinum rating. Through the installation of water sensors, waterless urinals and dual-flush toilets, as well as uncovering waste and malfunctions in the humidification process, the building's annual use of potable water was halved from 800,000 to 420,000 gallons per year.

Recycling

The Ernst & Young headquarters in Amsterdam is big on rainwater harvesting. 65% of rain falling on the site is collected in a storage system, and much of it is used to fill a pond at the entrance to the office.

Water can be recycled, such as using the grey-water from hand-washing to flush toilets or water the garden. Rainwater can be harvested through porous paving or gently sloping surfaces that allow run-off to be collected - the refurbishment of the BP building in St.James's Square installed a rainwater harvesting system. It can then be used to water gardens or flush toilets, or for cooling systems.

Fun with Factoids

  • Only 2.5% of water is fresh, of which 68% is trapped in glaciers and ice packs. 30% is in groundwater, and 0.3% is in freshwater lakes and rivers.
  • The Environment Agency says rainwater harvesting could replace 55% of treated water in domestic use and 85% in commerce and industry.
  • Toilet flushing can use 30-40% of water in non-industrial buildings.

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