Sustainable workplace design: creating the future office

One of the key themes of current office design is inclusivity; creating a workspace that appeals to all and feels comfortable for everyone.

Working in a green office will be beneficial for both you and your employees. In today's world, productivity, wellbeing, and sustainability are influencing workplaces and business decisions, so it is crucial to understand the potential benefits of a green office for your company.

The sustainability of a building depends on its incorporation of energy-saving elements like smart lighting systems and HVAC technologies, to render the building as energy-efficient and low-emission as possible. The use of recycled and reused materials in a building’s design is also a contributing factor.

Humans are innately drawn to nature, and incorporating natural light, vegetation, and raw materials into an environment promotes wellbeing for those within the space. However, biophilia includes more than live plant walls and indoor trees. It also includes sound, airflow, and circadian rhythms. We designed not just the arrangement, but the internal atmosphere of the workplace.

The uniqueness of the natural environment lies in its freedom and harmony, which then influence our mental comfort.

What are the benefits of working in a green office?

In recent years, workplace design has made improvements in wellbeing and mental health, but now there is a greater demand for sustainable environments. According to Unily's 2020 Future of the Sustainable Workplace report, 65% of 2,000 office workers said they preferred to work for a company that had a strong environmental policy. Companies need to pay more attention to sustainable practices since sustainability now plays a role in talent attraction and retention.

According to research led by the University of Exeter, the introduction of plants to lean office environments increased productivity by 15%. In an interview with the Guardian, Dr. Chris Knight explained, "if you are working in a setting where you are psychologically engaged, you are happier and you work better." Increased productivity is also linked to exposure to natural light.

Improve the air quality in your office by choosing low volatile organic compound (VOC) emitting materials like carpets, adhesives, and paints. Some accreditation programs specify that VOCs can be harmful over time as part of their grading criteria. Having a better understanding of these types of materials will benefit your working environment.

• Low carbon transport infrastructure
• Wherever possible, specify local materials and products
• Reuse of existing furniture and equipment aided the reduction of waste and the optimisation of cost.
• Ensure that as many materials and products specified throughout have an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) – helping us to understand the environmental consequences and potential impacts of the products throughout their entire lifecycle.

Our integrated team of architects, interior designers, and space planners will design your space under the guidance of our Workplace Consultant so it will be a place where people want to be and achieve their best.

Our actions must be sustainable rather than just afterthoughts. We can achieve a healthier world by putting awareness into simple product and process changes.

A well-designed interior is a way to express identity, function, and aesthetics by creating spaces where people want to be.

Our aim:

• We aim to design spaces that go beyond the standard of net-zero carbon, including the specification of ultra-low energy appliances, using regenerative design principles
• Changing the lighting controllability to be automatically controlled by daylight and occupancy
• Incorporate life cycle costing, whole-life carbon modelling, and post-occupancy evaluation into our basic scope of work, to reduce both embodied and operational resource use.
• Request third-party certification or similar proof of provenance and impact on the environment for each product.
• Changing client’s infrastructure to using laptops as they are 80% more energy efficient to desktops
• To maximize productivity of an activity, it is necessary to provide employees with different work settings in the workplace, whether you need a space for heads-down work or a larger space for team collaboration.