January 12, 2024

Landscaping is undergoing its own tech revolution

by Phil Lucas • Company news, Environment

We are living through a revolution in automation in landscaping. It is amazing to see how robots equipped with advanced sensors and imaging technologies are now redefining precision in landscaping design and implementation. Drones, for instance, provide an aerial perspective, enabling designers to visualise and plan landscapes with unprecedented accuracy. These tools help optimise the placement of plants, pathways, and other elements, ensuring that every inch of the landscape is utilised efficiently. More →

January 11, 2024

Workspace Design Show reveals all-encompassing speaker programme

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Events

The speaker programme at Workspace Design Show (27-28 February 2024, Business Design Centre, London) has been an integral part since the event’s inception in 2021 and this year is no exception with over 120 speakers featuring across four key elements of discourse. The Workspace Design Talks programme, which will take place in a dedicated space, the Design Talks Lounge (bottom), designed by global design and architecture firm Gensler, will feature inspiring sessions from leading industry professionals over the event’s two days. More →

January 9, 2024

Gossiping at work really is bad for your career

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Gossiping at work can have serious negative impacts on your career, according to new research by Durham University Business School and NEOMA Business School. Not only are gossipers frowned upon by other work colleagues, they also become socially excluded in the company, and can experience negative career-related impacts as a consequence of their storytelling. More →

January 8, 2024

Interface helps designers go minimal with new LVT collection, Northern Grain

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, Flooring

Interface has launched its latest Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT), Northern Grain. This latest collection from Interface is clean and uncomplicated, designed to brighten spaces across a range of applications, including corporate office, education, and hospitality. With pale shades and clean neutrals, Northern Grain invites and enhances natural light with airy off-white, beige, and cream woods while also setting a quieter foundation with its deeper soft browns and greys, supporting the ‘relaxed minimalism’ trend seen across interior design this year. More →

January 8, 2024

Focus should shift to reducing energy demand, WEF report suggests

by Neil Franklin • Environment, Facilities management, News

A set of business actions aimed at reducing the intensity of energy demand could unlock annual savings of at least $2 trillion for the global economy if measures are taken by the end of this decade. This would boost growth, save companies cash and deliver competitive advantage while also reducing emissions. These are the findings of the World Economic Forum’s Transforming Energy Demand initiative – and a new report – launched in collaboration with PwC and supported by over 120 global CEOs who are members of the International Business Council (IBC), a group representing 3 percent of global energy use. More →

January 5, 2024

Employers can be advocates for workplace eye wellness: four winning strategies

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Proper management of employee health and wellness is an important facet to consider when striving for success in the workplace. Properly supporting employee health helps them perform better, encourages productivity, prevents losses from absences, enhances job satisfaction, and improves overall morale. Employers can promote employee wellness in different ways, but one area you should consider prioritising is eye care in the workplace. More →

January 5, 2024

Amazon employee claims he was told you’ve still got a job, but not a role

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Last year Amazon made headlines for making 27,000 people redundant as part of a long-term cost-cutting exercise. One of the consequences was a fall in the firm’s share price. Now an employee has claimed in a blog post that the firm is handling its downsizing in more creative ways. Justin Garrison claims in the post that has been told he no longer has a role with Amazon Web Services, but that he will still be paid while he makes the finding of a new job his number one priority. More →

January 4, 2024

Number of self-employed falls, except for over-50s

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Tens of thousands more over 50s are now running their own businesses despite an overall decline in self-employment since 2020, new analysis of workforce statistics shows. The analysis, published by IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed), found that the number of self-employed business owners aged 50 and over surged to 1.1 million in 2023 – 89,000 more than in 2020 – despite the total solo self-employed population falling by 154,000 in the same period. More →

January 4, 2024

Overwhelming majority of businesses say waste management is important to minimise climate change

by Neil Franklin • Environment, Facilities management, News

A new poll from waste management company Biffa suggests that over four-fifths (85 percent) of UK businesses believe that recycling and waste management are essential in minimising the effects of climate change. Moreover, almost 9 in 10 (88 percent) see waste management as central to being a sustainable business. The survey of over 1000 UK business decision-makers, conducted by YouGov, explored attitudes towards sustainability and the circular economy. The results showcase the clear importance placed on waste management in the battle to combat climate change. More →

January 3, 2024

One wish for 2024. A more sophisticated approach to the workplace and hybrid working

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

We know, and have for a long time, that the workplace is in a state of near constant flux. The meteor strike of lockdown was an accelerant, not a deviation. It also laid bare -yet again – the faulty assumption that there is some sort of general evolution towards an idealised version of the office or conversely the universal adoption of remote or hybrid working, whatever it is. That is why we see so many people routinely willing to suspend their critical facilities to make extravagant and even absurd predictions about the office of the future or even the death of the office.

January 2, 2024

We are not blank slates and we don’t adapt to change in predictable ways

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

An idea that has never really gone away, but which seems to be enjoying a new lease of life is the tabula rasa. The conception of people as a blank slate is something that has crept back into mainstream political and social thought for a variety of reasons. Arguably, it is also behind many of the most misleading notions about work and workplace design, perhaps most importantly that a change to some single element or characteristic of a working environment will lead to a specific outcome in the behaviour of people. More →

December 31, 2023

Stanley Green, protein wisdom and the perils of sitting down ⁰

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

Each day for 25 years, between 1968 and 1993, a man called Stanley Green would rise early, enjoy a spartan breakfast of porridge and an egg, pack up a lunch of apples and vegetables, strap them along with a placard and some pamphlets to a bike and cycle the 12 miles to Oxford Street from his home in Northolt. There he would share his ideas for improving the physical and psychological wellbeing of the country, based primarily on the idea that the consumption of too much protein led to the moral turpitude he had first encountered in the Navy during the War and which had then infected the whole country. More →