Search Results for: environmental

Creating a productive workplace for people is all about context

Creating a productive workplace for people is all about context

by • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

commercial property innovationThe quest for a proper understanding of the links between the places we work, the things with which we fill them and our wellbeing and productivity has been ongoing for a very long time. It predates our current thinking on productive workplace design and the facilities management discipline as we now know it by decades and has its roots in the design of early landmark offices such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin building and research such as that carried out at the Hawthorne Works in Chicago in the late 1920s. Yet the constantly evolving nature of work means that we are forever tantalised by an idea that we can never fully grasp and makes established ideas seem like revelations.

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BRE announces plans for £10m innovation hub building

BRE announces plans for £10m innovation hub building

by • Architecture, Environment, News

UK based building research body BRE has announced plans for a new research centre building at its campus in Hertfordshire. The new Open Innovation Hub will be built on the current site of a redundant and soon to be demolished 1960’s office block, known as Building 4, at the organisation’s Garston base. BRE says the new building, designed by architects AHMM will create a national and international centre for research and innovation in emerging sectors such as digital, connected and smart built environment. The four-floor 35,000 sq ft building will offer high-quality incubation and SME acceleration space to facilitate collaboration between the research base, large firms and knowledge-intensive SMEs. BRE aims to see the £10m build project achieve a BREEAM outstanding environmental accreditation. Once finished it will create 150 jobs and BRE also hopes to attract as many as 25 new firms to its Enterprise Zone.

London pledge to make all new buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030

London pledge to make all new buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030

by • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

London pledges to make all new buildings zero carbon by 2030London has joined 18 other cities around the world, including Paris, New York and Tokyo, in a landmark commitment to make all new buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030. Regulations and planning policy will also target existing buildings to make them net-zero carbon by 2050. Net zero carbon buildings are buildings which reduce all energy use as far as technically possible, with remaining demand met through renewables. The commitment has been orchestrated by C40 cities, a global group of major cities committed to delivering on the most ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement at the local level. As city authorities do not have direct control over all the buildings in their area, the commitment includes a pledge to work together with the private sector as well as state and regional governments to drive the transformation. This pledge from cities is part of the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment for businesses, cities, states and regions.

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People working in fully open plan spaces are generally fitter and less stressed

People working in fully open plan spaces are generally fitter and less stressed

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The open plan debate grinds on, and the latest grist to its mill is a study from researchers led by Esther Sternberg of the University of Arizona which suggests that it is those people who work in open plan spaces that are fitter and happier than their associate employee contemporaries in cubicles and private offices. The study, published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, used wearable sensors to study 231 US workers in four government office buildings. It’s worth noting that this is five times as many workers and twice as many offices as the much publicised recent study that we were told by various media outlets and commentators was the ‘final word’ on the subject.

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Flexibility, daylight and a well-designed office are amongst most desirable workplace features

Flexibility, daylight and a well-designed office are amongst most desirable workplace features

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Capital One has published the results of its latest survey of US full-time professionals for their thoughts on workplace design and the working environment as it relates to their productivity, innovation and collaboration with colleagues. According to the resulting 2018 Work Environment Survey of 3,500 office based respondents in urban centres across the US, many value flexibility and workplace design, particularly when evaluating whether to stay at their current job or consider a new employment opportunity. Employees also place a great deal of focus on technology, design elements such as lighting and agile workspaces, and personal wellbeing.

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Driverless vehicles will be on our roads within three years, claim industry experts

Driverless vehicles will be on our roads within three years, claim industry experts

by • AI, News, Technology

Car companies, ride-hailing services and car industry technology suppliers each have their own prediction for when driverless cars will be ready to take to highways and city streets. Consultancy BDO has carried out a meta-analysis of a range of predictions and forecasts and concludes that autonomous vehicles will arrive in early 2021. There are some differences though, according to thh authors. Averaging out the predictions, car companies think that driverless technology will be ready around 2 am on June 11th, 2021. Ride-hailing services and technology suppliers are a bit more optimistic. They predict that autonomous car technology will be ready by midnight, March 14th, 2020.

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The future of the workplace emerges from the mists at Neocon

The future of the workplace emerges from the mists at Neocon

by • Features, Furniture, Workplace design

Chicago is one of the world’s great cities. Its dramatic lake and river setting, its magnificent architecture and its raw energy inspire the locals and businesses to achieve great things. People work and play very hard. Competition is fierce both in business as in the way the people relate to each other, and befits a city heavily influenced by waves of immigration down the ages. Apart from somewhat overly aggressive and noisy driving, if there is friction, you don’t sense it and it isn’t obvious. Most locals seem genuinely open and friendly, including to strangers, and happy to get on with their lives without troubling others. Perhaps they’re all being buoyed up by the great street music which is everywhere.

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We should not be quite so quick to demonise the open plan office

We should not be quite so quick to demonise the open plan office

by • Facilities management, Features, Furniture, Workplace design

There is a witch hunt on in the workplace. “Open plan” has become a dirty word and the national press are leading the mob in vilifying this so-called scourge. The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and Business Week have all reported that “we can’t get anything done in an open-plan office” as it affects our concentration, our performance and our health. These news items are all damning, but perhaps not as damming as the Wikipedia entry on open plan which states: “A systematic survey of research upon the effects of open plan offices found frequent negative effects in some traditional workplaces: high levels of noise, stress, conflict, high blood pressure and a high staff turnover… Most people prefer closed offices… there is a dearth of studies confirming positive impacts on productivity from open plan office designs”.

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A clearer more enforceable energy efficiency policy is needed for commercial buildings

A clearer more enforceable energy efficiency policy is needed for commercial buildings

by • Environment, Facilities management, Legal news, News

A clearer more enforceable energy efficiency policy is needed for commercial buildingsThere is a critical need for to simplify the regulatory framework designed to improve energy efficiency in commercial buildings finds a recent report from the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) Carbon Management & Sustainable Buildings Working Group. It also suggests that Brexit could act as a spur to rethink the right combination of policies to reform enforcement systems. The report, Improving non-domestic energy efficiency after Brexit, one of a series EIC is publishing setting out its members’ views on the impact of Brexit on environmental policy and how policy should evolve after the UK leaves the EU, covers the breadth of energy efficiency policy for non-domestic buildings. As part of its research, EIC surveyed England’s local authorities, who have responsibility for trading standards, finding that out of those that responded (122 out of 149), no local authorities have been issuing fines for failing to display Energy Performance Certificates or Display Energy Certificates.

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A 21st Century take on the idea of the time capsule that tells us something about the way we work

A 21st Century take on the idea of the time capsule that tells us something about the way we work

by • Comment

Last December, National Geographic published a story about the discovery of one of the oldest known time capsules. It was concealed by a chaplain of the Cathedral of Burgo de Osma in Spain, in the buttocks of a statue of Jesus Christ. Hidden inside were some documents that detailed life in Spain in the late 18th Century, along with some thoughts on the political and religious systems of the time. Historians have concluded that this was one of the very first time capsules, given that the creator clearly intended it to be discovered at some point in the distant future. This has been the standard approach to time capsules for hundreds of years; a chance to leave behind some artefacts or thoughts for a future generation to learn about the past.

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Use of tech in the evening linked to sleep disruption and a range of serious mood disorders

Use of tech in the evening linked to sleep disruption and a range of serious mood disorders

by • News, Technology, Wellbeing

People should not use their laptops and mobile phones in the evening if they want to avoid sleep disruption and a range of mood disorders, including depression, claims new research from the University of Glasgow. The largest study so far into the link between disrupted body clocks and mood disorders and wellbeing has been published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry. The research into the behaviour of 91,000 people shows that disrupted body clock rhythms are associated with increased susceptibility to depression, bipolar disorder, and adverse wellbeing. According to the study, disturbances to the body’s internal clock, characterised by increased activity during rest periods and/or inactivity during the day, are also associated with mood instability, more subjective loneliness, lower happiness and health satisfaction, and worse cognitive function.

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New framework aims to ensure facilities managers have the expertise to keep up with demand for services

New framework aims to ensure facilities managers have the expertise to keep up with demand for services

by • Facilities management, News

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the International Facility Management Association (IFMA)  have created a new framework which sets out to provide strategic best practice advice and outline how facilities managers can make the most of their expertise to keep-up with the growing demand for FM services. The Strategic Facility Management (FM) Framework authored by Dave Wilson, FRICS, IFMA Fellow for the IFMA-RICS collaboration – sets out a more ‘holistic approach’ to planning the provision of FM, with best practice advice on how to achieve maximum value from a workplace, including gaining environmental benefits, improving productivity, whilst also protecting employees and consumers. The framework also sets out some of the key aspects of how and where facility managers can play a bigger, more valuable role in the corporate real estate decision-making process, including property acquisition and disposal.

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