Switch off . . . for good!
How desk-booking has become the most effective way to reduce carbon footprint.
Radiators, air conditioning units, fans, lights, computers, telephones, shredders, laminators, printers, scanners, photocopiers - an endless list of appliances that have converted offices into the biggest energy guzzlers and polluters in the country.
Some companies insist on a strict no car policy to reduce C02 emissions, others focus their attentions on waste reduction by keeping paperless offices and recycling, but most organisations will at least try to ensure that computer equipment is switched off over-night to cut back on wasted energy.
An organisation can reduce its energy consumption by up to 10 per cent by switching off appliances overnight, but why stop there?
Evolving technology has provided us with the luxury of remote access to emails and servers, allowing many companies to embrace the era of flexi-working. If previous technologies chained us to our desks, the likes of WiFi, VoIP, VPM and laptops have set us free. But having implemented flexi-working policies, many companies still insist on providing their predominantly offsite employee workforce with permanent desk spaces in their buildings, resulting in empty desks and low occupancy levels.
Empty offices are bad for the environment. Ventilating, heating and powering unused desks see us needlessly fritter away energy and increase our carbon footprint. Buildings Research Establishment figures show that the heating, lighting, ventilating and air-conditioning of office buildings accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the UK's 153 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. Furthermore, with office utilisation at around 40 per cent, our offices are potentially responsible for 52.5 million tonnes of excessive CO2.
There is also a business case for avoiding low occupancy. It is not only debilitating for staff morale to work in a soulless workspace, but it is also not very cost-effective to maintain. For example, a company in the City of London with 500 employees assigned to 500 workstations where occupancy is at 40% on any working day is wasting over £3 million each year on under-utilised space through the cost of servicing the 60 per cent of the office that lies empty.
With the pressure of expensive under-utilised real-estate, a less than favourable economic outlook, and the impact of our office on the environment, more and more organisations are responding by implementing smart working practices, where employees can reserve a workstation as and when required.
Using the smart technology to allow desks and rooms to be booked in advance by the employee and then asking them to confirm that the required space is in use on the day, enables the space to be managed more efficiently.
Also providing confirmation that the booked resource has actually been used, means that real-time space utilisation reporting is possible and space planning can be managed much more accurately.
There have always been people who don't want to share a desk or check into a meeting room. Yet this attitude is changing as employers and employees understand the need to operate more sustainable offices. Today, doing work in a modern office is not about owning a particular desk or having dedicated meeting rooms for each department, but having guaranteed access to the right kind of facility for getting the work done.
Dan Jones, Head of Web Exploitation at MoD-ISS, in Corsham has 'used this technology to raise office utilisation, reduce our energy bill, reduce our carbon footprint and, in the process, make huge real estate savings whilst providing a more vibrant and exciting working environment for our staff.'
The advances in workspace management software can now bring order to smart working, allowing users to directly book the resources they need where they want them for when they want them and provide the central reporting and real time data on how the space and resources are being utilised.
The overall effect is clear, compelling, and highly productive.
The author
Paul Statham - MD, RNM Systems was introduced to the world of business at just 16 years of age, when his family formed electronic security and engineering company, Masco Security.