@Workspaces’ commitment to building sustainable coworking spaces

Let’s face it: The world is rapidly changing with summers boiling and winter freezing more than ever. Climate change is at our doorstep–and we all need to do our part past just declining plastic straws at restaurants.

It’s time we admit to ourselves that, without a healthy environment, there are no opportunities for companies to truly grow and thrive. Businesses don’t exist in a vacuum–they’ll be as affected as anyone or anything in the case of a climate emergency. So, to future-proof your business, you need to help sustain the world that allows you to run it.

As a business owner, you have the power and the position to determine how your organisation responds in its own way. You can make a stand and show that it’s possible to provide your products and services without taking more than you need and without compromising the environment. Doing your part in upkeep and sustainability shows you care about the world beyond your business, something customers are now unashamedly demanding.

Up to 81% of global consumers believe that companies should embrace and encourage corporate sustainability because they’re becoming more concerned about how many resources we’re all using. People want to prioritise the environment and reverse climate crises in order to safeguard future generations’ resources and opportunities for success and safety.

When you make conscious choices for your business, from your work environment to its overall strategy, you prime your organisation for growth.

What is a sustainable coworking environment?

Sustainable work aims to promote living and working conditions that encourage growth and help you work towards success.

Sustainable coworking environments consider more than just the businesses that come together. These offices understand that work isn’t independent of the real world and global crises–they acknowledge that there’s something much bigger at stake. Aiming to balance the priorities of the planet, people and profit is crucial to produce success and viability in the long-term.

Choosing coworking environments that are sustainably built helps encourage a positive company culture for your team by encouraging creativity and collaboration among staff members. Doing so ensures you maximise the resources you have and don’t cut corners when it comes to the world. Because coworking spaces are so flexible, they make the most of the space and infrastructure, bringing together different businesses in one office so that they don't have to lease big offices that use more resources than necessary.

Consumers are looking to practice sustainability on an individual level, and they want to see businesses that have the capability and position to help out in more impactful ways do the same. Personal responsibility can only go so far–so actions from bigger entities like businesses will only push the sustainability agenda forward, helping the planet to stay alive.

3 ways to create a more sustainable workplace

A sustainable workplace ensures that it doesn’t take more resources than it needs–this is what you want to achieve. As a business owner, you can follow these three strategies to integrate more environmentally-conscious practices into your business.

1. Share business support services

Business owners don’t always make the most of their leased traditional office spaces, which leads to taking up more space than they need and unnecessary power consumption with the prolonged use of individual office infrastructure and amenities.

However in coworking spaces, all the business support services that are a necessary part of running a business are taken care of. As one example, your business saves on the exorbitant costs of power you would incur in a traditional office.

By setting up an “instant office,” you embrace more eco-friendly practices and emphasise the sharing nature of a coworking space which lends itself to sustainability. Coworking spaces make energy efficiency a priority and, as a business owner, you can capitalise on this for the betterment of your carbon footprint.

2. Go paperless

Going digital eliminates the unnecessary (and even unsightly) towers of old reports or deliverables strewn about the office or crammed into drawers and filing cabinets. Businesses that rely heavily on printing documents endanger the environment as millions of trees are cut down to cover the need for paper.

When you go digital, you refrain from printing or photocopying too many documents at all.

Not only does going digital free up space, it’s a convenient way to store everything in one location for easy staff access. That makes finding documentation more streamlined and systematic. Digital storage is ultimately more efficient and helps protect trees which help circulate oxygen and keep the world (literally) green, making your workplace more sustainable.

3. Encourage green commute

Coworking spaces are often located in the suburbs or closer to where people live, making them easier to get to. So, commuting is easier and travel times are shorter, reducing carbon emissions, contributing to cleaner air and surroundings.

Operators of coworking spaces understand that busy areas and traffic only contribute to fatigue and burnout, so they want to place their offices where people can easily access them.

And, because the offices are often so close, your employees may even opt to carpool, cycle or even just walk to work. You can even incentivise them to find more eco-friendly means to get to the office to motivate them and even improve team engagement if it’s a group effort.

Providing flexible work arrangements also helps reduce each team member’s individual carbon footprint. When you adopt a hybrid work approach, your team can choose to stay home more often, eliminating the need to leave the house and use a car.

When the world expects you and your business to be more sustainable and environmentally conscious, you want to respond with genuine, intentional actions that reflect your stances on being eco-friendly. You don’t want to seem insincere in your efforts–people can tell when you’re only putting up a front and they typically don’t like that–so make sure that everyone is aligned and understands why you’re putting these practices into action.

Coworking spaces–like ours–have always been naturally more environmentally friendly than most traditional spaces because of how they’re already so sharing-oriented and are often located in areas that don’t require too much commuting or cars in general. Match that with our deliberate aim to be more sustainable and use less and conserve more and you’ve got a place where you can confidently say that you are committed to building a more sustainable workspace.

Taking care of the environment and finding ways to be more eco-friendly and conscious is a responsibility we should all take seriously.

If you want to learn how you can start taking your business into a more sustainable direction, give us a call and tour our facilities yourself.