Search Results for: sustain

How tech giant EMC standardised the design and management of its office portfolio

How tech giant EMC standardised the design and management of its office portfolio 0

by • Case studies, Facilities management, Features, Workplace design

workplace-insight-imagesThis summer’s headlines have been full of discord, a cacophony of angry voices either directed at continental Europe, or at the Brexiters who voted for Britain to leave the European Union. But EMC, a global leader in information technology-as-a-service which has recently been acquired by Dell, is a leading light of European integration through its One Team approach to workplace management and design across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Over the past three years, the EMC Global Real Estate and Facilities Team (GREF), which supports more than 12,000 people in around 130 office locations across 50 countries in EMEA, has transformed from a group operating independently, to a fully-aligned team which provides a uniform and standardised approach to workplace delivery and management to enable greater business success.

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Corporate real estate sector continues to make progress in energy consumption, carbon emissions and water use

Corporate real estate sector continues to make progress in energy consumption, carbon emissions and water use 0

by • Environment, News, Property

marina_bayThe world’s leading corporate real estate owners and managers are making significant progress in reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions and water usage in their buildings, according to a new report from the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Greenprint Center for Building Performance. The Greenprint Performance Report, which measures and tracks the performance of more than 5,400 properties owned by Greenprint’s members, demonstrates a 3.4 percent reduction in energy consumption, a 3.9 percent reduction in carbon emissions and a 4.8 percent reduction in water use between 2014 and 2015. According to the study, since Greenprint started recording building performance in 2009, the energy consumed by members’ properties tracked by Greenprint has dropped 13.7 percent. Carbon emissions from those properties have decreased 16.5 percent; and water usage has dropped by 10.6 percent. The reductions occurred even as building occupancy rose, suggesting that greater space usage does not necessarily cause a decline in building performance.

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Herman Miller launches new Aeron Chair

Herman Miller launches new Aeron Chair 0

by • Company news, Workplace design

hm_aeron_detail_armOffice furniture giant Herman Miller has today unveiled a new Aeron chair. The Aeron is now the world’s bestselling chair of all time, but when it was first launched in 1994, it was unlike any chair the world had ever seen. Instead of a padded seat and back, designers Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick did away with foam and fabric to create a ‘machine for sitting’. Although Herman Miller later confessed that they had misgivings that the chair’s radical design would lead to its rejection in the market, instead Aeron quickly became the most recognisable performance chair in history, with over 7 million sold in 134 countries and a staple in popular culture. Herman Miller’s new Aeron retains the distinctive silhouette of the iconic chair, but every component of the design has been updated to raise the bar for performance seating, according to the firm. With the input of original co-designer Don Chadwick, and a team of scientists, engineers, materials specialists, and researchers who worked on the project for over two years, Herman Miller claims to have enhanced the chair by combining the latest insights in anthropometrics and ergonomics with two decades of advancement in materials, manufacturing, and technology.

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World education programme aims to help 34,000 young people worldwide

World education programme aims to help 34,000 young people worldwide 0

by • Company news

Global trade enabler DP World is rolling out its Global Education Programme internationally following an English language pilot in seven countries with an aim to deliver over 100 sessions in seven additional languages by the end of 2016. Volunteers from 17 DP World locations in the UAE, India, Pakistan, Senegal, the UK, Argentina and the Philippines delivering the programme have received positive feedback from students and teachers. Over 90% of teachers in the pilot countries said that the course provided their pupils with something new their school could not have provided and 85% said they would be likely to recommend DP World as an employer to pupils. The Global Education Programme aims to engage 34,000 children between the ages of 8-14 by 2020 with DP World volunteers delivering it from across its network of 77 operating marine and inland terminals in 40 countries.

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Creating the workforce of the future; the Barclays perspective

Creating the workforce of the future; the Barclays perspective 0

by • Company news, Workplace

barclays-eagle-logo

Apprenticeships are growing faster than ever in the UK.  This is fantastic to see.  Within our organisations we are making giant strides to re-carve and re-define talent whilst investing in the workforce of the future.  The topic of Apprenticeships remains top of the government agenda and top of the employability agenda and great things are starting to happen.  Yet, how much of the evolution of apprenticeships is understood by those who are seeking opportunities?  Has society evolved in such a way that would-be potential candidates are ‘switched-on’ to the fact that Apprenticeships is both a viable and powerful means to securing a long, sustainable, and credible career? What are we doing to define Apprenticeships to our audiences outside of our own organisations?  How are we marketing opportunities in a way that will ‘connect’ with our audience that will inspire them and others to invest in us?

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Mix of core and flexible workspaces will shape real estate by 2030

Mix of core and flexible workspaces will shape real estate by 2030 0

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Future of CRE

Thanks to the combination of a changing workforce and greater connectivity, up to 30 percent of corporate real estate portfolios will incorporate flexible workspaces by 2030, with offices more likely to be built around core hubs and comprising fewer locations. Along with this the Internet of Things and smart buildings will create new ways of managing productivity, sustainability and the user experience. These are some of the key findings of JLL’s new report series ‘Workspace, reworked: ride the wave of tech driven change’; two reports exploring the impact of technology, data and digital disruption on work spaces and real estate investment strategies. The series focuses on the office sector over the next 15 years, looking at how occupiers, developers and investors will need to view real estate differently and adapt in order to enhance investment returns and create work spaces that are fit for purpose in a rapidly changing, highly-connected world.

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Green buildings improve occupant’s cognitive function and health

Green buildings improve occupant’s cognitive function and health 0

by • Environment, Facilities management, News, Workplace design

Green buildings and wellbeing

New evidence which supports the argument for the Well building concept as new research suggests that compared to people in high-performing buildings without a green certification, occupants of high-performing, certified green buildings had nearly a third (30 percent) fewer sick building symptoms, a 6.4 percent higher sleep quality score and a 26.4 percent higher cognitive function score. The new study from Harvard University and SUNY Upstate Medical University, supported by United Technologies suggests that there may be an even greater benefit to working in green certified buildings than originally thought. “The Impact of Working in a Green Certified Building on Cognitive Function and Health,” demonstrates the importance of green-certified buildings to the health of occupants – particularly for office workers whose health, productivity, decision-making, and sleep could greatly benefit.

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UK Government kicks off tender process for vast public sector property framework

UK Government kicks off tender process for vast public sector property framework 0

by • Flexible working, News, Property, Public Sector

3040748_projectposeidonbygensleraerialviewofhopThe UK Government will this week start the latest tendering process for the Estates Professional Services framework. Originally set up in 2008, the framework covers all central and local government property as the administration sets to rationalise and modernise the country’s entire public sector property estate and help to reduce the £8 billion annual spend. The terms of the framework were updated in an August 2016 briefing, laying out a series of case studies highlighting best practice as well as offering guidance t those firms who wish to bid for work across a range of product and service delivery models. The last set of contracts for services are due to expire in March 2017 and the Government remains committed to the inclusion of smaller providers. The framework covers a range of property-related services, including the reduction and divestment of parts of the estate, the renegotiation of leases, a reduction in running costs, support for the government’s sustainability agenda and the facilitation of flexible working and property sharing initiatives.

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Gallery: BCO awards UK’s best workplace to university in Norwich

Gallery: BCO awards UK’s best workplace to university in Norwich 0

by • Architecture, Case studies, News, Workplace design

enterprise-centre-interior-lobby-architype-darren-carter-morgan-sindall-1020x610Norwich’s The Enterprise Centre at the University of East Anglia has been named as the Best of the Best workplace at the British Council for Offices’ (BCO) annual National Awards in London. The office was also recognised as the Best Corporate Workplace in the UK, joining a list of six other award winners recognised for excellence in office space. The BCO’s National Awards programme recognises top quality office design and functionality and sets the standard for excellence across the office sector in the UK.  The University of East Anglia’s The Enterprise Centre was praised by judges for showcasing low carbon and sustainable design at its best. Judges commented that the workplace offered a wide range of highly flexible accommodation with incubation and collaborative spaces for new and developing businesses in a building equipped to deliver for the 21st century.

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Motherhood or livelihood? Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace

Motherhood or livelihood? Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace 0

by • Comment, Legal news, Wellbeing, Workplace

Maternity discrimination is rife

Recent research by the Commons Women and Equalities Committee suggests that around 54,000 expectant and new mothers have no choice but to leave work due to pregnancy discrimination or concerns over the safety of their children; and shockingly, this figure has doubled in the last decade alone.  Other research carried out by the Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills shows that despite 77 percent of working mothers reporting potentially discriminatory or negative experiences, only 28 percent raised the issue with their employer, and less than 1 percent pursued a claim through the tribunal system.  As a mother of two young children, this is a topic very close to my heart. I have worked in HR for over 18 years now, and advised on all manner of employee relations issues and know from personal experience that being pregnant and suffering discrimination or redundancy is not at all unusual.

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Apple HQ + Limits of workplace design + Workplace effectiveness

Apple HQ + Limits of workplace design + Workplace effectiveness 0

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

Insight_twitter_logo_2In this week’s Newsletter; Tim Oldman argues that businesses are failing to understand the basis of workplace effectiveness; Mark Eltringham looks at ways of using workplace design to influence the feelings and behaviour of others; and takes part in a podcast with Hari Kalymnios, author, trainer and Leadership Speaker at The Thought Gym. HSBC moves 300 staff into a coworking space in Hong Kong; Apple reveals it is to occupy the redeveloped Battersea Power Station and post-Brexit employment levels maintained by the growing gig economy. The global introduction of sustainable building regulations remains slow; the UK’s commercial property market remains robust in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union; and evidence that offering flexible working to Mums could boast the economy by billions. Download our new Briefing, produced in partnership with Boss Design on the link between culture and workplace strategy and design; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

Businesses failing to look at workplace effectiveness in the right way

Businesses failing to look at workplace effectiveness in the right way 0

by • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

workplace-effectivenessThis month, the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Carolyn Fairbairn, suggested that productivity growth across all parts of the UK economy should be the number one priority for business and government. And the CBI isn’t alone in emphasising the importance of honing in on and tackling the ongoing productivity problem. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) economic forecast summary, published earlier this summer, productivity has been exceptionally weak since 2007 and doesn’t show much sign of abating nearly ten years later. Labour productivity per employee has failed to markedly rise since the global downturn and the UK is still miles behind the G7 average – that’s according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) quarterly figures and CBI data. So, to echo Fairbairn, reviving British productivity is essential to sustain growth and living standards.

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