How To Green Your Office
By Ryan So, 09 Apr 15:21
This article is written for Rofo.com by Laura Billings, Principal of Sage Green Development, a green building development and consulting firm. Please contact Laura at laura@sagegreendevelopment.com with any questions.
Does this sound like you?
You're a small business owner, you are moving your office to a new location or thinking of renovating your existing space, and although you're interested in greening your business and office, you think "I'm too small to have any clout with my landlord, it's too expensive, and anyway, as a small business, I don't have that much impact."
If so, guess again…
According to an article in Greenbiz.com (http://greenbiz.com/new/printer.cfm?NewsID=55600), small businesses account for 99.9% of the 26.8 million businesses in the country, employ half of the private sector and use half of the electricity and natural gas consumed by the commercial and industrial sectors. The choices you make about your office location and fit-out DO matter, and what's more, it can be very rewarding to move into your new space knowing you did what you could to reduce the environmental footprint of your company.
So, you're asking, how do I do it?
There are a number of ways to approach a green office construction or renovation project, depending on your priorities and resources available. For example,
How to Green my Small Office Space:
1) First things first. Set your intention to green your office space from the beginning, and communicate this to your landlord, architect and contractor. Although it is still possible to add green elements to a space mid-course, the number of options narrow, and cost increases and time delays can occur once the design or construction are already under way. Your architect will ask you for "additional services" fees when he or she has to revise drawings and your contractor will present you with "Change Order Requests (CORs) to re-do work in the field.
2) Location, Location, Location. One of the greenest choices you can make when selecting a new office space is its location, primarily its proximity to public transportation. A recent study by Environmental Building News found that the average commute to and from office buildings use more energy on a per square foot basis than the operations of that office building by as much as 30% for an average building and as much as 140% more for new, energy efficient buildings. Selecting an office location where employees can arrive by BART, bus, bike or foot is a critical component to reducing your company's carbon footprint. If a location near public transportation is not possible, help employees organize carpools or group together with other small businesses to sponsor shuttles, carpools, etc. After minimizing commute miles as much as possible, check out www.green-e.org to purchase renewable energy credits (
Things you might need
10) Water efficiency – water efficiency options within your own space will be very limited if you are not installing your own bathroom. However, don't let this stop you! If you educate your landlord and property manager, they may be receptive to switching out water-hog fixtures in common area restrooms and landscape irrigation. Solutions include:a. Toilets, showers and faucets:
i. Low-flow fixtures on all sinks (maximum 1.25 gpm) and showers, (maximum 2.0 gpm).
ii. Waterless urinals – some municipalities require buildings to be piped for regular urinals, but you can still hang a waterless urinal fixture, and it will only use the "outflow" pipes. If you cannot use waterless urinals, then suggest low-flow urinals that use 1/8 gallon per flush.
iii. Use pressure assisted 1.0 GPF toilets or Dual Flush 1.0/1.6 GPF toilets with maximum MaP rating of 600 grams.
b. Landscaping – you may not be able to control the landscaping at the building, but you can certainly make suggestions:
i. Encourage your property manager to select native plants that require low to no water and pesticides.
ii. Install low flow (drip, bubblers or low-flow sprinklers) and weather-based irrigation systems
iii. Design irrigation systems to work with future or existing municipal greywater programs.
How-to Extra Advice
As you can see, there are many ways that you can "green" your office space and reduce your carbon footprint.This article was taken from Rofo.com, (http://www.rofo.com), a new website that helps small businesses find commercial real estate.
Tags: Green, Commercial Real Esate, office, environmental
Comments (1)
Posted by Wyatt Galt, 07 Jan 18:00
What about computer monitors? I just read someplace that during the Superbowl, 40% of the power used in Southern CA is for televisions. Can this be true? What are green televisions or is there such a thing?