How much of your business’s budget would it take to buy a new environment?
For the whole planet, it would be expensive. But you could make your office a little greener without spending too much — and get a bonus in better productivity.
Simon Knight, director of buildings and communities for Climate Change Central (C3), says research shows that offices and other buildings built with sustainable practices are more productive.
Sometimes the payoff can be in months, rather than years.
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| Dave Olecko, Business Edge |
| Allan Amey, president and CEO of Climate Change Central, is framed between two chairs made from recycled materials in his Beltline office boardroom. Research shows offices built with sustainable practices are more productive — and that "greening up" office space can also save money. |
“When you look at staff salaries, that’s instant payoff,” says T.R. Duncan, the interior design consultant who worked on the C3 office in Calgary.
Knight points out that the Calgary office, at 10th Avenue and 8th Street S.W., is a one-off project because the Edmonton headquarters was already built when Climate Change Central got it.
“We thought we should be walking the talk. We wanted to show people that you could have an environmentally friendly office and you would want to work there,” he says.
Climate Change Central is a public-private partnership of business, government and the environmental community that works on solutions for greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental concerns.
Duncan says the office shows that there are resources in Alberta to make a greener workplace.
“This isn’t the apex. It’s not back to the base building,” she says. “It’s what can be done in a very fiscally responsible way.”
The wooden vestibule on the entrance of the Beltline office has only 20 per cent of the embodied energy of the usual aluminum, she adds.
Embodied energy is the total energy used in all the materials and processes to make something.
The office lighting plan uses light-coloured paint for reflectivity and the blinds take advantage of natural light.
Knight says the lights save about $250 a year, or 21 tonnes of carbon dioxide — and that’s for an office of less than 5,000 sq. ft. The computers are also energy-efficient.
Manufacturing processes were checked when the office was fitted out and equipped, says Duncan. That included not buying from countries with low environmental standards.
“You can always get a cheaper price point, but there’s a reason,” she says. Knight says buying new supplies involves asking companies for their environmental and social policies when purchasing.
The final touch in most offices is the art. In this case, says Duncan, it came from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts collection.
A home builder’s partnership with a high school has paid off for students with a share of the proceeds from a house they helped design.
Shane Homes Ltd. last week presented $15,000 to Ernest Manning Senior High School.
Social studies teacher teacher Janice Bamford, the partnership co-ordinator for Manning, said the money goes mostly to the school programs involved in the project. Scholarships also benefit.
Drafting students designed the Griffin Manor II to the builder’s neighbourhood and family-type specifications. The first Griffin Manor design — named for the school’s mascot — was sold in 1999.
Shane Homes sales and marketing co-ordinator Scott Blakeman said the students designed the house from February to May last year. Company designers then sat down with them to make the plan marketable. Shane acquired the permits over the summer and construction started last fall.
The house sold shortly after it was marketed this spring, but in the meantime, construction classes had benefited from site tours.
The money is secondary, says Blakeman. The important thing was working with the education system and showing students what they could accomplish.
Building permits were up in both residential and non-residential sectors in May, city hall reports.
Permits issued in May were worth $226.3 million, up 10 per cent from $206 million in May 2000. The city received 1,691 applications, up 100 from a year earlier.
Residential permits were worth six per cent more, up to $116.8 million in May 2001 from $109.9 million. Non-residential permits rose 14 per cent to $109.5 million from $96.1 million.
Total permits this year are down eight per cent, to $813.1 million from $886.5 million in 2000.
The city notes that building permits measure the construction industry’s intentions, not actual starts.
