How do you behave in your serviced offices?
Are you a David Brent, prancing around in slightly-too-tight trousers with the facial expression of someone in desperate need of indigestion tablets? Do you see the photocopier less as a device for copying documents and more a tool for capturing body parts in silhouette? Do you stroll aimlessly around your serviced offices, waiting for 5 o’clock, safe in the knowledge that as long as you clasp a few random pieces of A4, no-one will question what you are actually doing?
Trying to analyse the above examples would be fun, but probably beyond the remit of a serviced offices blog article such as this.
Instead, let’s focus more on people’s behaviour with regards to minimising a building’s carbon footprint. This was the issue examined in April, when a Low Carbon Commercial Real Estate discussion group was convened.
It was attended by a number of representatives concerned with encouraging sustainability within buildings up and down the country. Craig Sparrow, Head of UK Green Business at construction company Skanska, was one of those. He remarked that, to motivate staff to monitor energy consumption, an element of fun was required, such as having competitions between different floors for the most energy efficient office.
Tom Marshall of commercial property and business consultants Drivers Jonas Deloitte echoed the call for fun, adding that environmental activities also need to be accessible and incentivised.
Appointing individuals within serviced offices to champion energy efficiency was another idea, encouraging collective responsibility rather than placing the onus on a building manager.
‘Behavioural change’ was a term commonly employed in the discussion group. Suggested methods to accelerate this change included providing detailed information on energy usage and wastage to those who occupy serviced offices and visually demonstrating a green commitment, e.g. installing solar panels.
The behaviour regarding David Brent types, photocopiers and random pieces of A4 will hopefully be addressed at a different discussion group entirely…
