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How to make your office refurbishment sustainable
By James Bleakman
In this guide to sustainable refurbishment, James Bleakman breaks down the process of making your office green into 8 simple steps.
Simply sustainable
With the new year, come new resolutions. If 2008 is the year that your company has pledged to reduce its impact on the environment, you’ve probably been tasked the job of refurbishing or relocating your offices and making them a little more ‘green’. But what are the things you need to consider before embarking on your sustainable journey?
1. Ensure buy-in
Even the most state-of-the-art eco fit out can fail if the buy-in of staff hasn’t been ensured. Without the commitment and enthusiasm of the people who’ll be using the office on a day-to-day basis, many of the features that make a truly sustainable office just don’t happen. You can enforce certain procedural practices, for instance with auto-shutdown of PCs and monitors at night, but it’s better for everyone if the move to sustainability feels like a choice, not an imposition.
2. Green design is beautiful
Eco office design doesn’t mean brown paint and sisal flooring. It means stylish and modern furnishings and furniture that have been manufactured with a consideration of how their being affects the Earth. It means light and airy spaces where people want to work. Build sustainability into the design of your new space from the very start, and it won’t cost you much more than a ‘standard’ office. You could also ask your office design and fit out partner to supply literature on all of the sustainable products they’ve specified – they should be happy to do this, and it enables you to show to others the extent of your environmental commitment.
3. Think natural
A major feature of the sustainable office is the amount of natural light available. This doesn’t necessarily require a relocation to somewhere with floor-to-ceiling windows to achieve (if you’re lucky enough to have them already, though, then make best use of them). Look at your floor plan – if the removal of a wall means that natural light will be able to spread deeper into the office, consider it. You can use glazing to partition space, and maintain a sense of privacy if necessary, whilst still allowing light to penetrate. This should be something a good designer will look into.
4. Make an investment
An office fit out is the perfect opportunity to replace worn-out, inefficient air conditioning and heating systems. Consider replacing them with energy-efficient alternatives – the initial investment may be higher, but ongoing costs are likely to be lower. And some equipment can be eligible for Enhanced Capital Allowances, another financial incentive for going sustainable.
You can also think about the equipment that usually gets overlooked: fridges, kettles, microwaves, printers and other devices left plugged in all day draining electricity. Make the investment in energy-efficient products at the start, and reap the rewards in terms of lower electricity bills. And if possible, reduce the number of devices over all through intelligent space planning – one company managed to cut their 30 printers down to five!
5. Eco-energy
Replacing the equipment that uses electricity is just one part of the process. Consider switching to a green energy supplier – this is something you can do at any time, before, during or after the fit out, but it is a good way of ensuring that the energy you do use doesn’t cost the planet. It also makes a good story for staff and stakeholders.
6. Get rated
It does require some consideration early on in the process, but getting an evaluation against an environmental rating system, such as Breeam® or LEED®, has the benefit that its criteria can help you to specify what to include in, and what to leave out of, your office fit out. There are now rating criteria for both new offices and office refurbishments, the latter taking into account the challenges involved in the fit out of established workplaces. So they are achievable, even with a fairly simple build. And even if you aren’t interested in ratings, their criteria can still be a good guide as to what makes a sustainable space.
7. During refurbishment
During the construction phase, there are many decisions you can make that will considerably reduce the overall environmental impact of the new office. For instance, monitoring utilities against set targets will mean less wastage of water, gas and electricity on site. Other standards you may want to measure against are how much waste from site is recycled, how much local labour is used (commuter miles equal CO2 emissions after all), and how much CO2 is emitted by delivery vehicles. You can also ensure that all timber used on site is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, so you know it’s been sourced sustainably.
Separate waste, into hazardous, recyclable and non-recyclable – new technology means that previously un-recyclable products, such as plasterboard, can now be reprocessed and reused. And remember to keep a paper trail, a legal requirement in some instances but also a good indicator of the effort you’ve been to.
8. Be neutral
‘Offsetting’ has become a bit of a buzz word recently, but offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions caused by your fit out, and your new office once it’s up-and-running, can be seen as the final step in the sustainable office transformation. The sustainable fit out is built around the concept of minimising CO2 emissions through saving energy and reducing waste, but no project is carbon neutral without a little help from carbon offsets. You will need to make certain measurements during the fit out, for instance energy usage and waste disposal, so it’s worth committing to towards the start of your project.
The above is a guide to the sorts of things you can do to make your office more environmentally friendly. However, it’s not a case of all or nothing – you can decide the level of commitment you want to make, whether it’s to the fullest extent or just the preference of choosing sustainable products.
Key points
- Ensure the buy-in of the people who use the space
- Eco design can be stylish and modern
- Maximise natural light for a office where people want to work
- Invest in energy-efficient equipment, and reap the benefits by saving money on bills
- Consider changing to a green electricity supplier
- Use environmental rating systems to your advantage
- Construction is a key opportunity to make green choices
- Offset the carbon emissions of your office as the final step in the process
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