Building A Greener Future: How Business Premises Can Reduce Carbon Footprint
By Tanya Grady, head of partnerships at Enterprise City
The pressure is on for organisations of all sizes to take proactive steps to reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact. Climate change is a major political – and public – concern. In January, Sainsburys announced plans to become net zero in terms of its carbon footprint by 2040, with an investment of £1 billion over the next 20 years. More recently, Sky made the same commitment, with a deadline of 2030.
Office buildings and commercial premises can be major contributors to businesses’ carbon footprints. Overheating and cooling, leaving lighting or equipment on when not in use, and simply designing spaces in resource-hungry ways can all have a detrimental impact.
How, then, can businesses best design and manage their workplaces in order to reduce their environmental impact? Here are some key ideas.
Space optimisation
Let’s start simply. Inefficient use of space might not seem like it has a direct environmental impact – it’s more of a financial issue, surely? But in fact, if space is used poorly, the organisation in question is likely to move into additional space when it doesn’t truly need to – with all of the associated energy consumption that this entails. So, start from first principles. Optimise space allocation throughout your premises, and don’t be afraid to undertake wholesale reorganisation – you might be surprised at how much space you can free up.
Space optimisation doesn’t mean simply cramming as many desks into an area as you can; it means using a combination of techniques to strike the delicate balance between a workplace which is pleasant and productive to work in, and a workplace which is using space inefficiently. Yes, choosing slightly smaller desks might be part of the picture – but so too could be placing breakout and meeting areas in different positions, paying careful attention to thoroughfares and underused space, and seating different teams or departments together – which of course can bring new productivity benefits also.
Energy efficiency
Energy consumption, on the other hand, is clearly directly related to organisations’ carbon footprints – and in large business premises, it can be substantial. Heating and air conditioning, lighting, and electricity to run enterprise IT are all areas in which organisations can hardly compromise – or can they?
A simple starting point is to choose greener energy suppliers – those which use renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, or which participate in offsetting programmes. Larger premises can even seek to generate some of their own renewable energy, with solar panels or wind turbines installed on the roof. This may not seem like something which smaller organisations have any control over, but by working together with neighbouring businesses in the same building to put pressure on the owner or developer, they can have a substantial impact.
Getting more sophisticated still, smart heating and lighting systems, which make use of Internet of Things (IoT) technology to proactively manage energy consumption according to how the building is being used, can dramatically cut down on energy wastage. These are not merely the preserve of brand-new buildings; just like smart meters and thermostats in domestic buildings, they are straightforward to install in existing premises.
Thoughtful technology
However, enterprise IT typically uses up for more energy than heating, air conditioning and lighting, with server rooms in particular being very energy-hungry. It is worth underlining, however, that as much as 60% of the electricity they consume tends to go on infrastructure such as air conditioning, rather than the IT itself.
Once again, an intelligent use of space can be the answer. As the above underlines, simply arranging your server room around separate hot and cold air containment systems can have a substantial impact. If it’s good enough for Google…
For many businesses, it may be possible to reduce or even eliminate an on-premise server room altogether. Cloud computing models mean that all of an organisation’s key applications and data can now be stored remotely, with no need to manage a hot and crowded server room at all.
Another aspect of enterprise technology which is worth bearing in mind is collaboration and videoconferencing tools which can cut down on the need for business travel. Jumping on an aeroplane is hardly a green choice, but for a key new business or partnership meeting, it might seem like there is no other option. Yet the technology for running virtual meetings has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, and it is increasingly possible to mimic a face-to-face experience with meeting delegates all over the world.
Building design
For organisations which have the freedom to design their own premises from scratch, the possibilities for introducing environmentally-friendly initiatives throughout are enormous. For example, when the Co-operative Group moved into new headquarters in Manchester, the building was designed with a host of innovative green features, including a ‘double skin façade’ which keeps the building warmer in winter and ventilates it in the summer.
Once again, such innovations might seem out of reach for smaller businesses or those in existing premises, but by grouping together and engaging with the building owner or developer, there can be surprising possibilities. Even actions like installing better insulation can have a substantial effect on overall carbon footprint.
And of course, when businesses come to choose new premises as part of an office move or expansion, placing environmental efficiency high on the agenda should be a no-brainer. Having conversations with owners, developers and management companies early in the process, and impressing on them the importance of a responsible approach to carbon footprint and resource efficiency, can really help to drive change throughout the industry.
Climate change is a challenge which organisations from across multiple sectors need to work together to tackle. When it comes to workplace design and management practices, this can mean working intelligently with energy suppliers, technology vendors, architects, engineers and interior designers – and it can mean small businesses grouping together to work with their building managers. This truly is an area where collectively we can make a difference.
