Environment and sustainability
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Environmentally friendly buildings help you to sleep better and work more productively
A study from researchers at Harvard claims to establish a link between those standards for green buildings with an indoor environmental quality (IEQ) component and the wellbeing and productivity of employees. The study, The impact of working in a green certified building on cognitive function and health, has been published in the journal Building and Environment. […]
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Natural forms and biophilic design lend themselves particularly well to modern offices
Earlier this month, BRE launched The Biophilic Office project, a ‘groundbreaking’ office refurbishment in test conditions that will seek to provide quantified evidence on the benefits of biophilic design on health, wellbeing and productivity of office occupants. The project centres on a 650 sq. m. 1980s office building on the BRE campus in Watford, which will be refurbished […]
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When it comes to creating environmentally friendly offices, we need to exceed legislation
Greenwash is one of those terms that has gone from needing an explanation to common usage in the space of a few years. It’s a term that reflects a certain cynicism about the claims of vendors based on a few examples of bad practice. Sometimes this can be doubly unfair on sectors in which manufacturers […]
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How colour signifies what is happening in the economy
The announcement by Pantone that its Colour of the Year for 2017 was a bright green called simply ‘Greenery’ was met with the now traditional annual carping about the subjectivity of the whole thing. Whatever your opinion, there are two things we know for sure. The first is that Pantone puts a lot of time and effort […]
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Some positive thinking on facilities management and the environment
There is a theory that when companies talk about issues such as corporate social responsibility they are doing so because it helps them to achieve their business goals, including those relating to facilities management. This is the coldly rational thing to do according to people like free market guru Milton Friedman who argues that companies […]
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Weighing up the pros and cons of the BREEAM environmental standard
For some years now there has been a growing awareness of the need to improve the environmental performance of buildings. This is closely linked to both the Government’s own international commitments to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent over the next 35 years and the need of organisations to act ethically and cut costs while […]
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Environmentally friendly office design demands an in depth approach
When every office furniture manufacturer makes the same claims about their environmental policies, accreditations and use of materials, those credentials become irrelevant to decisions about which products to buy. The flipside of this is that including an ISO14001 accreditation or any other environmental standard as part of a brief may become a way of weeding […]
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Tech giants understand how important it is for people to work together
A couple of years ago, Yahoo got itself into a bit of PR storm when it announced to staff that it wanted them all to work under the same roof. But as the dust from this storm settled, what became apparent was that Yahoo’s actions were based on a tacit understanding that people work better […]
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Natural forms lend themselves particularly well to office interior elements
Earlier this year office furniture maker IPSOS surveyed hundreds of UK office workers on behalf of Steelcase to find out what they wanted from their office. One of the report’s key findings was the importance of organic forms. “One element which is conducive to wellbeing in the working environment is the beneficial effects of contact […]
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Greater choice of office flooring reflects sophisticated demands of occupiers
Buildings are judged in terms of their floorspace in more ways than you might think. When it comes to specifying office flooring, it’s not just a question of square metres, but also of identity, space definition, colour, finish and the environment. Like many aspects of the built environment, flooring manufacturers continue to innovate in terms […]
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