There are 8 Ways Coworking Spaces Support Environmental Sustainability and Reduce Carbon Footprint
For many businesses and individuals, the environmental consequences of their activities are becoming a growing concern and coworking spaces are a greener alternative to the conventional office. Nairobi for example, it’s experiencing economic growth and urbanization therefore, there’s need for a flexible and sustainable workspace.
This will be achieved by implementing measures like this;
- Shared Resources Reduce Energy Usage
In an office setting, traditional offices set up as dedicated office lease all duplicate out utility components related to their operation – lighting, heating, cooling, etc. Coworking offered in a single facility allows for more consolidated operation of resources.
Benefits of Shared Resources:
- Energy Usage: By housing multiple businesses in the same location, coworking can reduce the usage of utilities related to lighting, heating and air conditioning. This is particularly the case when coworking has been setup in larger spaces utilizing energy efficient components, especially through private offices and meeting or conference rooms. The energy used by individual businesses has been grouped into energy efficient heating and air conditioning cycles to reduce overall usage of energy in a shared coworking space.
- Waste Reduction: Shared office supplies, especially in Kitchen and office areas: When individuals share resources like printers, scanners etc. waste is typically reduced for the same population, rather than an individual office. This shared consumption reduces overall costs for individual tenants. Given that in Nairobi electricity costs are a leading cost for startup or business space, and coworking is an eco-friendly and efficient approach towards setting up workspace, the benefits are more advantages toward sustainability practices.
- Green Building Assessments and Sustainable Architecture
Many contemporary coworking spaces are deliberately designed while considering sustainability. The spaces take advantage of natural light to save on electricity consumption from artificial lighting. this benefit goes beyond greener environments and becomes part of a healthier workspace.
Sustainable Materials – Using “green materials” for construction and furnishings promotes reducing the carbon footprint of building. In locations like Nairobi, where urban growth is rapidly developing and increasing populations, coworking spaces developed from sustainable architecture provide a means for reducing the overall environmental impact of the city.
- Promotion of Remote and Hybrid Work Models
One of the greatest environmental advantages promotes remote and hybrid work models. For traditional office situations, the person often travels back and forth to the office and increases carbon emissions from daily commuting. Coworking spaces promote flexibility when working, which naturally reduces employees from commuting long distances every day.
- Efficient Use of Private Offices and Meeting and Conference Rooms
Coworking spaces provide portion solutions when doing private work and meetings. Private offices and Meeting and conference rooms are managed on an as-needed basis, rather than wasting space and resources like traditional office space approaches in which large meeting rooms or private offices sit vacant while they invest money in the office whole day
- Fostering Paperless Practices
in an era characterized by the sweeping effects of digital evolution across sectors, coworking spaces are taking the lead by embracing paperless practices throughout their operation. By encouraging tenants to rely on cloud storage and digital communication, coworking spaces also lessen the utilization of paper, printers, and other office supplies that can contribute to deforestation and waste.
Advantages of Paperless Practices:
- Digital Meeting Tools: Rather than print out handouts or documents for meetings, coworking spaces typically offer digital tools/displays such as screens, projectors, and video conferencing systems in their Meeting and conference rooms.
- Cloud-based Services: Throughout the work day, many coworking spaces offer access to cloud-based software/services and cloud storage capacity, which makes it easy for teams to collaborate in a digital format, which contributes to a less paper-heavy work environment. By encouraging tenants to embrace paperless practices, coworking spaces support less waste and sustainable business practices.
- Waste and Recycling Programs
Coworking spaces are known for developing extensive waste and recycling programs. By providing for on-site recycling and encouraging tenants to reduce a wasteful lifestyle, coworking spaces reduce the impact and harm caused by the waste produced from their daily operations.
Examples of Well-rounded Programs:
- Recycling Stations: Most coworking spaces will have bins for recycling paper, plastic, and other materials, while making it easy for users to dispose of waste responsibly.
- Composting: Some coworking spaces incorporate composting for organic waste, which further helps reduce the amount of food waste decomposing in landfills and emitting methane, they play a very important role in promoting recycling and waste reduction initiatives that include buy-in from tenants while supporting the city-wide initiatives.
- Sustainable Event Space
For Eco-Friendly Gatherings Coworking spaces are a go-to for networking events, corporate gatherings, workshops – you name it. Offering an eco-friendly coworking Event space means these events can be even more sustainable as part of established sustainability practices in coworking spaces, limiting the environmental impact of your event.
Green Event Practices:
- Eco-Friendly Catering: In an effort to be eco-friendly, some coworking spaces have partnered with local vendors to provide catering options with locally sourced, organic items to reduce the carbon footprint associated with transporting food from afar.
- Use of Reusable Materials: Some coworking [event spaces] forgo using disposable items such as cups and plates (think plastic) altogether, and instead offer reusable or compostable items to eliminate single-use products from the event.
The idea of hosting an event in a Coworking space is increasingly convenient but also a great consideration when trying to invite participants to support sustainability initiatives.
- Community Engagement with Sustainability Initiatives
One of the hallmarks of coworking spaces is the development of community – it’s kind of what the culture is all about. Many coworking spaces are proactively engaging their members in sustainability efforts to develop a culture of environmental awareness.
