Search Results for: sustain

June 23, 2015

A gallery of the workplace winners of this year’s RIBA Awards

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Workplace design

The full list of regional winners of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Awards for 2015 has been finalised. The list of 37 winners will now go on to compete for the Stirling Prize in October. This year’s list is dominated by London projects, as is often the case, but also by homes whereas last year they were dominated by large scale projects, especially The Shard. We’ve rounded up a gallery of the major workplace projects in the list for England and Wales with some notes extracted from RIBA’s own commentaries (so don’t blame us). Each entry is hyperlinked for you to discover more about the project. Unfortunately, the regional winners for Scotland and Northern Ireland are not well served by their respective websites, which is a particular shame given the success Scotland in particular has in terms of the number and apparent quality of its winning projects.

June 19, 2015

RICS case studies focus on business impact of strategic facilities management

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace

Six case studies, which outline how businesses can make the most of strategic facilities management to enhance their performance are being launched today (19 June), at the NEC in Birmingham. Developed by International Workplace for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the latest set of case studies in the series, provides examples of best practice as outlined in RICS’ Strategic Facilities Management (FM) Guidance Note. The case studies, which can be downloaded from RICS’ website, cover a range of strategic FM issues including procurement, innovation, technology, sustainability, talent management and health and safety. Key themes include a professional understanding of the impact of FM to a company’s reputation, brand and performance, engagement with staff and the supply chain, the importance of measuring impact and outcomes and communication.

June 15, 2015

‘Tree office’ coworking space opens in an East London Square

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace design

A new kind of workplace has been opened in London…an office built around a tree. The pop-up office designed as a coworking space is based in Hoxton Square in the first initiative from the Park Hack project, led by Groundwork London and Hackney Council, set up to test new innovative models that sustain and enhance public open spaces. It is designed to operate as a working office and will be available to hire over the next seven months for businesses, creative workers and community groups. It is equipped with a power supply and WiFi and has the capability to also host small meetings or intimate events. Those who hire the space will be directly supporting the local environment, with income generated being reinvested into Hackney’s parks and green spaces. TREExOFFICE is also featured in the London Festival of Architecture that is taking place this month.

June 11, 2015

Government urged by top organisations to combat climate change

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

In an open letter to the Financial Times, 80 UK businesses, including Willmott Dixon, Cisco, E.on, Kinnarps, UK-GBC and BT have joined with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) to call on the government to take action to combat climate change. It calls on the administration to; seek a strong global deal in Paris in December which limits temperature rises to below 2°C; set an ambitious 5th carbon budget to drive forward UK emissions reductions (covering period 2028-32) and establish a long-term framework for investment in the low-carbon economy. WWF-UK Chief Executive David Nussbaum said: “British business is ready to step up. From construction and energy to retail, the best British enterprises know that green growth is the future. They take on board that it’s no longer credible to base a sustainable economy on fossil fuels, so the Government should put us on track for a low-carbon world.”

June 8, 2015

FIRA announces winners of competition to design the workplace of the future

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, News, Products, Technology, Workplace design

The judges of a design competition which challenged undergraduates to share their ideas for a workplace of the future have announced the three winners. The ‘FUTURE@WORK’ competition was run by the Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA) and sponsored by contract furniture firm Morgan. Winners of first, second and third prize were chosen from four shortlisted entries. The designs were subject to a public vote which took place at Morgan’s showroom throughout Clerkenwell Design Week and on FIRA’s website. The winner of the first prize and the public vote is Familiar Systems, a piece of technology which aims to replace the computer screen. The device was designed by Jack Darby and Andy Lyell, is based on drone technology and incorporates a projector and a pivoted support known as a gimble which allows the user to work in a variety of locations and configurations.

June 2, 2015

Workers should spend half of each day working while standing, claims report

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

A new study published yesterday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine claims that office workers spend far too much time sitting, are suffering from a range of conditions and illnesses as a result and so should be encouraged to spend up to half of each working while standing. The report, The sedentary office: a growing case for change towards better health and productivity, was commissioned by Public Health England and claims that our present sedentary working lives can lead directly to conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Mirroring the findings of other studies, the report also claims that we cannot fully mitigate these effects with exercise outside of work and need to address our working habits each day instead. The report argues that there is a “strong case” for changing the designs of offices and workstations, for example, by offering standing desks.

June 1, 2015

Trade bodies seek to boost inclusivity and diversity with new initiatives

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property

Three major trade associations in the built environment sector have announced initiatives to increase the inclusivity and diversity of their respective professions. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has launched its new Inclusive Employer Quality Mark, which is designed to help firms ‘gain a competitive advantage and a diverse workforce’. Meanwhile, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) claims it has strengthened its chartered practice criteria to incorporate requirements related to equality, diversity and inclusion. From 2016, chartered practices are required to have an equality, diversity and inclusion policy. In the US, delegates at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) agreed at congress to introduce a resolution known as Equity in Architecture, that calls for measures to increase representation of what are deemed underrepresented groups ‘to move the profession forward’.

May 27, 2015

Smart buildings, smart cities and the promise of infinite data

by Paul Doherty • Cities, Comment, Facilities management, Technology

The rapid urbanization of our world and the weaving of existing and new buildings into the urban fabric of Smart City initiatives are some of the great challenges facing our global industry today. Along with the vast amount of definitions and marketing campaigns surrounding the phrase “Smart Cities” comes the challenge of understanding why the movement is important to the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Facility Management (AEC/FM) industry and how industry stakeholders can profit from, or at the very least, not get run over by the tsunami called Smart Cities. The emergence of Smart Cities as the conduit for ideas, thoughts, policies and strategies for the world’s urban environments is an important milestone for our industry, and it comes at a time of rapid innovation, convergence and redefinitions.

May 15, 2015

Employers embracing more collaborative hands-on learning cultures

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace

There is a growing trend for employers to create collaborative hands-on learning cultures, with internal knowledge-sharing initiatives such as job shadowing and social learning increasingly commonplace. In the latest snapshot of the annual survey of L&D professionals by the CIPD, coaching by line managers or peers was the method of learning most likely to grow in use in organisations over the next two years, according to almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents. Over half (53%) expect to see the use of in-house development programmes increase, and on-the-job training (48%) and internal knowledge sharing events (46%) are also expected to become prevalent. The findings imply a growing focus on efforts to foster a learning culture with many organisations using technology to support learning and development.

May 11, 2015

Does declining productivity spell the end for IT and property directors?

by John Blackwell • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Technology, Work&Place

When it comes to increasing organisational output, which in turn directly relates to real wage growth and higher living standards, the only determinant is productivity, measured in terms of output per hour worked. This is at the heart of all businesses and is essential for growth. The basic facts on productivity are clear. For over a decade, productivity has been painfully weak across all the major economies. The UK has performed particularly badly, with productivity having declined by 3.7 percent since 2008. A recent OECD report went as far as saying: “weak labour productivity since 2004 has been holding back real wages and well-being. The sustainability of economic expansion and further progress in living standards rest on boosting productivity growth, which is a key challenge for the coming years”.

May 7, 2015

Understanding and overcoming the objections to sit stand workstations

by Marc Bird • Comment, Furniture, Wellbeing, Workplace design

In Sweden, sit-stand working is so commonplace that our Nordic colleagues are perplexed by how slow the UK has been to catch up. The expectation of varying working positions throughout the day is so widespread across Scandinavia that over 80 percent of Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian office workers already use sit stand workstations, and offering employees a height adjustable work station is now mandatory in Denmark. Despite sit-stand working still being in its infancy in the UK, with only 2 percent of knowledge workers having access to height adjustable workstations, there is plenty of compelling evidence, and a groundswell of expert opinion, to suggest that the UK office is going to have to get off its backside pretty soon.

April 30, 2015

Many UK SMEs are falling short on green credentials, claims report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News

Many British small and medium sized businesses are putting their competitiveness and reputation at risk because they are not doing enough to improve their environmental credentials, according to a new report from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. The findings show that one in five (19 percent) of the firms surveyed for the study accept they are not doing enough to take on environmentally responsible practices and that although a quarter (25 percent) of SMEs say green issues are a top three priority for the year, the vast majority (71 percent) admit they do not understand the positive impact environmental responsibility can bring. The report also highlights the mismatch in perceptions of environmental issues between those who have successfully implemented green policies and those yet to do so.