Designing Sustainable Offices: Make Your Office More Eco-Friendly — Wellness Design Consultants
Making green improvements to an office design has a beneficial impact not only for energy costs but also on employee wellness and productivity. Sustainable office space is more comfortable to work in, has better air quality, uses less energy, and reduces the carbon footprint compared to offices that have not made green office improvements.
There are many ways to upgrade to a green office and help make it a more sustainable office space. This guide is a selected list of tips on how to make a sustainable office space or how to make your office more eco friendly. The ideas are easy to implement and they will make a considerable difference over time, optimizing an office for success.
Is sustainable same as eco-friendly? - Terminology problem.
What’s the difference between green, sustainable and eco-Friendly?
Being environmentally friendly office simply means having a lifestyle that is better for ecosystems and the environment. Environmentally friendly office is also known as eco friendly office space, nature-friendly, and green, but ecologically approved doesn’t necessarily mean sustainable. Choosing office furniture made from eco friendly materials is a key aspect of creating an environmentally friendly office.
Equally as confusing can be the adjectives that are used to describe these terms, such as green, ethical, fair trade, clean, organic, non-toxic, conscious… The careless practice of using these terms lightly and synonymously, has created a bit of confusion.
Green office vs. eco-friendly vs. sustainable office space
The meaning of the word “green office” has long outgrown the colour. It's now frequently used in a colloquial manner of speaking and applies to almost everything related to benefiting the environment, from architecture to coworking spaces.
Eco-friendly isn't quite so broad. It means that something doesn't harm the planet, while sustainability at the office sets the focus on the future.
Sustainable office space is the most precisely defined term and represents the wide scope of issues and activities that compromise the ability of future generations. This means that the environment, economy and social lives are benefiting, while not using too many resources or causing pollution.
Compared to ‘”green office” an eco friendly office sustainability has much higher standards. Sustainability at the office includes eco-friendly activities and green products, but green doesn't necessarily mean sustainable.
For instance, products made from renewable resources are considered green, yet if a life-cycle analysis shows that it requires a lot of energy to manufacture or ship, and if there isn't a proper way to dispose of the product - then it's not considered sustainable.
Conscious vs. Thoughtful
Term conscious refers to consumer awareness and high standards regarding health and the environment. It can sometimes include spirituality and wellness too. The conscious consumer knows how to read labels and will spend extra money on a product that is organic, sustainable, or animal-friendly.
The definition of thoughtful means consideration of other people's needs and being well-informed on a topic before making a buy. Being truly thoughtful is embracing a new lifestyle, where less is more - embracing slow fashion, buying less and getting rid of excessive items in your home.
How to make an eco friendly office space?
How to be more environmentally friendly at work?
Making green office improvements to a coworking space has a beneficial impact not only on energy costs, but also on employee wellness and productivity. Reducing energy consumption through energy-efficient appliances and sustainable materials can lead to lower energy costs and improved employee wellness. Energy efficient spaces are more comfortable to work in, have better air quality and use less energy. Some of our five sustainable office space ideas will help optimize an office.
1. For an eco friendly office space consider material efficiency
Material efficiency is crucial to any green building, including a green office. This means selecting materials that are sustainable, for both exterior and interior, with a lower level of VOCs, or that are made from a high percentage of recycled content. Choosing sustainable office furniture made from responsibly sourced materials can contribute to material efficiency. This can be as simple as selecting efficient materials whenever it’s time to replace current ones.
For example, when the exterior begins to show signs of wear, switch to a greener material like wood and include other upgrades such as insulating beneath the cladding to improve the building’s energy efficiency at the same time.
2. Increase insulation for an eco friendly office space
Harvard University found that workers in a green office were more than twice as productive as those in conventional offices. In part, this was due to the increase in natural lighting within the office building.
Natural light in an environmentally friendly office has a positive effect on people and their health, can lead to a positive impact on energy usage, as it allows you to reduce the artificial lighting throughout the building. Incorporating energy efficient lighting can further reduce energy usage and enhance the benefits of natural light.
Increasing natural light can be done by introducing more windows or skylights into the design of an sustainable office space, but also opens the possibility for office plans that can keep areas from being shut off from natural light sources.
Glass walls or a lack of partitions can help maximizing natural light within the green office interiors. Changing the layout of working areas to position them closer to natural light sources can also help.
Begin with insulating below the exterior cladding or look into materials that include insulation, such as insulated concrete blocks. Add interior insulation inside walls and beneath the roof, then seal gaps surrounding windows and doors. Doing so can increase the energy efficiency of the building by as much as 40 percent.
3. Water usage and efficiency in environmentally friendly office
Office workers are going through a lot of water consumption on a daily basis, so if you haven’t made changes to your water efficiency within the building, that means also that electricity usage is also maximized, not only water, which increases the environmental impact of the office.
Consider a dual plumbing system that will allow you to recycle greywater for toilet use. Investing in low-water use toilets and faucets can save thousands of gallons of water over the year.
4. Rethink unused space to make a sustainable office space
Many offices and office buildings have space that is either underutilized or not used at all. These areas are still being heated, cooled and provided with electricity - in one word - they are raising energy costs and taking away the energy efficiency of the office and building. Integrating renewable energy sources can further enhance the energy efficiency of the office.
Two of the most common methods of dealing with these spaces include:
Reconfigure the office layout to use every inch of space, benefiting at the same time of increasing flow through, ventilation and light.
Shut off unused spaces by closing vents and disconnecting power sources that are being drained.
5. Insert greenery for a green and eco-friendly office
Greener office buildings are not only more cost-effective, but they also have long-reaching employee benefits - from higher productivity levels to fewer sick days. Employees working in a green office are much more efficient as well, allowing for green improvements to pay for themselves over time.
Incorporating greenery into office design demonstrates a commitment to a sustainable future, positively impacting the corporate image.
How to make an office more sustainable and efficient?
The typical office provides lots of opportunities for going green. Embracing natural light, paperless meetings, and working from home can help your company save both money and energy.
The important thing to remember is that integrating sustainable practices can both raise awareness and accomplish more. That includes starting or enabling a more successful recycling program, and informing of purchasing decisions on energy-efficient appliances and green cleaning supplies.
Educating staff through informational lunch-and-learn sessions with local departments of water and power or waste authority is yet another form of increasing awareness and sustainability at the office.
Create monthly green challenges in your green office
Monthly team challenges can be a fun way of combining competition and going green. For example, you can challenge the office to go a month with no plastic, and reward those who stick with it by offering small prizes, such as gift cards or healthy snacks.
Upgrading to LED lighting can be a part of monthly green challenges to reduce energy consumption.
Bring a desk plant.
If you’re able, bring in a desk plan to improve indoor air quality and bring some nature into the office environment. Plants produce oxygen, offset chemicals released into the air by furniture and make a cleaner, happier space for your people to work in.
Everything-off-at-night rule for an energy efficient office
Turn off electronics, lighting, and heat every evening upon leaving the office as a great way of saving power and money. In fact, your equipment must be switched off at the main plug, and, If someone forgets to do that - they have to donate some money in your Green Jar.
Opt for better office products and embrace renewable energy
There may not be room in your budget to buy exclusively sustainable products, but you can focus on certain areas that have a huge overall impact, such as more efficient electronics.
Purchased greener electronics will ultimately avoid the disposal of 124 metric tons of hazardous waste. Also, green power sources, including solar and wind energy, are more accessible today, with options of installation on the rooftop and large-scale wind farms.
Go paperless for a futuristic green office
It's as easy as keeping digital files on on your computers and mobile devices, not file cabinets.
Get in the habit of reviewing digital documents on-screen, rather than printing them out. By completely moving to digital, we could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 1.45 million metric tons - the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road for an entire year.
Mother nature gave us everything we could ever need to sustain our health, help our mental and physical wellbeing, and improve concentration whenever we acknowledge the need for it.
The solution of embracing green office design has become increasingly popular over the last few years, proven to boost productivity improve mood and enhance concentration while delivering an interior design that is environmentally sustainable.
biophilic design we use a technique and principles that respectfully harness the restorative, energizing properties of Mother Nature and implement them for physical and mental health benefits of our clients.
For more on ergonomic furniture in a healthy office interior see our blog post here