April 22, 2016 marks the 46th celebration of Earth Day. What started as a rally back in 1970 has become today one of the biggest and most powerful global movements.
Eco-friendliness has gone from being a practice to almost a life style. Those that support the movement (a fair amount of citizens of the world) keep growing in number — and companies and businesses of all shapes and sizes have had to adapt to this mindshift.
Clothing brands began using non-toxic and recyclable materials, coffeeshops adopted recyclable cups, some restaurants ditched plastic, green (electrical) cars became a thing, LED lights took over the lighting world, and in our industry Center operators started to adopt environmentally friendly practices.
Today we want to celebrate Earth Day and give a shout out to some of the flexible workspace operators that celebrate our Mother Nature everyday of the year.
BE Offices
They have an in-house project team that’s dedicated to ensuring that all of BE Offices locations use green processes and that they are energy efficient. The team is also responsible for monitoring BE Offices’ green and energy KPIs based on recycling performance, as well as waste and energy consumption.
Cowork Waldo
Located in Kansas City, CEO Melissa Saubers decided to replace all of Cowork Waldo’s fluorescent light bulbs with LED lights.
The Office Group
In their 26 locations across the UK, they’ve implemented green roofs, rainwater harvesting, solar panels, and natural ventilation. Additionally, they use smart sensors to turn lights on and off and they also count LED lighting. They go even further than just being eco-friendly; they’ve partnered with Global Generation to educate children and students about environment and business.
Grind
The New York and Chicago based coworking operator that partnered with Verizon late last year uses LED lights, has repurposed floors, and uses low flow faucets.
Sterling Offices
Their newest Center is located at the top of the GOLD DGNB certified Serdika building. The building and their workspace features sun protection, a double-skin facade, and a ventilation system with temperature regulation. Sterling has also adopted a paperless system, they feature a green-wall and energy efficient appliances, as well as a environmentally friendly water filtration system.
IZA Business Centers
The largest flexible workspace operator in Mexico has implemented solar panels in one of its locations in Monterrey and the rest of their buildings and locations have the LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification. Through these efforts they’ve been able to reduce energy and waste production and have also promoted an eco-friendly attitude in their spaces.
The above are only a few of the various operators out there that are constantly finding ways in which to help out the environment. But let’s not forget that our industry as a whole is eco-friendly. Like we recently discussed in an article about urbanism, all types of shared workspaces help the environment by allowing individuals and companies to share resources, leading to less overall waste and energy production, as well as water consumption.
Happy Earth Day!
