Search Results for: environmental

September 3, 2016

Electrosensitivity and the question of whether WiFi may be making us ill ⁰

by Mike James • Comment, Technology, Wellbeing

Electrosensitivity is a particularly 21st century disease. Also known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) or Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance (IEI), it is a condition that is said to arise as a result of exposure to the low-level electromagnetic fields that now surround us, such as those that emanate from mobile and wireless technology, power lines and fluorescent and low-energy lighting. According to the Wireless Protection Organisation, symptoms of electrosensitivity can be far reaching, affecting us physically, cognitively and emotionally. Specific signs and symptoms may include: fatigue, faintness and sleep problems; headache, eye pain and visual disturbances, earache, tinnitus, toothache; skin irritation, tingling and burning; chest pain and irregular heart beat; aches, pains and numbness in joints, bones and muscles in arms and legs; lack of concentration, memory loss; and tress and irritability and depression

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September 2, 2016

Younger people less keen on recycling at work, especially coffee cups ⁰

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

The younger generation have a reputation for being pretty keen on addressing environmental issues, but new data alleges they’re not as open to changing their behaviours. There’s actually a clear generational gap when it comes to attitudes towards recycling at work and it’s the older generation who make more effort, a new survey suggests. It claims that younger people are around 16 percent less likely to recycle at work with just 64 percent of people aged 18-24 prepared to adhere to their employers’ recycling policies. One particular cause of concern is the fact that 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away each year, leading the Liberal Democrats to recently call for action to be taken to address the fact that only one in 400 cups are recycled. The survey, which was carried out by commercial waste recycling services provider Direct365, claims that 72 percent of people do actually recycle items at work overall.

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August 30, 2016

Only 7 percent of workers say they’re most productive working in an office ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Fewer interruptions from colleagues, fewer distractions make home the preferred place for maximum productivity, claims a new study from recruitment consultancy FlexJobs. The survey of more than 3,000 respondents interested in work flexibility claims that only 7 percent of workers say the office and traditional work hours form the best time and place for optimum productivity. More than half (51 percent) of people reported that their home is their preferred place to work. Eight percent said they would choose a coffee shop, coworking space, library, or other place besides the office and another eight percent would choose the office but only outside regular hours. 26 percent go to the office during regular hours to complete important work only because it’s not an option to go elsewhere. According to the survey, around two-thirds (65 percent) of workers think they would be more productive working from home than working in a traditional workplace.

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August 19, 2016

Over a third of office workers complain about poor air quality ¹

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Almost 70 percent of office workers believe poor air quality in their place of work is having a negative effect on their day-to-day productivity and wellbeing, claims a survey commissioned by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA); and a third of workers are concerned that poor air quality could be having a negative effect on their health. Opening windows is the most commonly used form of ventilation with 60 percent of workers saying it is the first thing they do if they need fresh air. However, although this is seen as a natural response, opening windows runs the risk of further polluting the working environment by letting in outdoor toxins, the survey claims. Given that we spend 90 percent of our time indoors and on average, 212 days a year at work, BESA has called on firms, managers and employees to ensure proper, effective, well maintained ventilation systems are operating in all offices across the UK.

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August 17, 2016

Do people really matter when we design workplaces? ⁰

by Steve Maslin • Comment, Events, Facilities management, Workplace design

Some may think this is a daft question. They’ll argue that of course people matter when we design workplaces. Granted, there are those for whom the human experience of the built environment is really important. They demonstrate this it in their attitudes and actions. However, based on some of the attitudes and actions I have observed over the years, I would suggest that the belief that people really matter when some designers design workplaces for them is quite frankly all too often skin deep. How do we know this? And if we accept that it is true, it then begs the secondary question of why this should be the case. Is it entirely our fault? What might we do to address the issues? In part, we know that people haven’t really mattered enough in design because of mistakes of the past. Meanwhile, society is facing many pressing challenges, ranging from health to housing, work to economy and climate change to resource depletion.

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July 20, 2016

We need to keep a more open mind about open plan office design

by Maciej Markowski • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

Most people will be aware that there has been an historic and enduring debate about whether open plan offices are a good or a bad thing. Past articles whether in the Guardian, Dezeen or across the pond in the Washington Post would typically suggest that they diminish productivity and foster a number of other workplace ills. However introducing open plan design principles into your office is almost certainly a good idea. You really just need to make sure that you provide your employees with a choice of settings that allows them to work somewhere that suits the task in hand whether it’s space for concentration or privacy for confidential conversations in order to make it work. It’s a complex and contentious issue so it’s worth asking where open plan works and where it really doesn’t. If you ask many employees working in open plan offices what is bothering them, they’ll probably tell you two things: that they cannot focus and they have no privacy.

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June 27, 2016

Best tall buildings in the world, regional awards winners announced ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Environment, News, Property

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has announced the winners of its annual Tall Building Awards for 2016. The Awards are, judged by a panel of experts, primarily drawn from the property and architecture sectors. The CTBUH claims its awards provide ‘a more comprehensive and sophisticated view of these important structures, while advocating for improvements in every aspect of performance, including those that have the greatest positive impact on the individuals who use these buildings and the cities they inhabit.’ The best tall buildings have been announced for each of four regions: Americas, Asia & Australasia, Europe and Middle East & Africa. While the winners in the Middle East and US were both residential projects, the winners in Asia and Europe were both primarily office based or mixed use projects; the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai and The White Walls mixed-use building in Nicosia, Cyprus.

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June 20, 2016

What happens when you take transparent office design to extremes ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

A rigid and unswerving adherence to a principle is rarely a good thing in the long run. This is perhaps doubly so when it comes to office design because the end result is often something that overlooks what offices are really for; namely giving human beings a place to go to be with one another. So, when you take a design dogma to extremes that ignore the human being that should be your core concern, you end up getting something like the office with no chairs, because ‘sitting is the new smoking’. Or you get the office made completely of glass because ‘transparency generates trust’. While it’s true that the Dutch firm MRVDV responsible for the refit of the building in Hong Kong has included some genuinely successful features, not least in the use of natural light and the environmental performance of the building, the interior itself is clearly the end product of meetings in which nobody felt comfortable telling everybody to knock it off.

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June 17, 2016

Women’s long hours working linked to alarming increases in serious illness ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, Wellbeing, Workplace

Women who put in long hours for the sake of their careers may pay a heavy price including life-threatening illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer. Work weeks that averaged 60 hours or more over three decades appear to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble and arthritis for women, according to new research from Ohio State University and published in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The risk begins to climb when women put in more than 40 hours and takes a decidedly bad turn above 50 hours, researchers found. Men with tough work schedules appeared to fare much better, found researchers who analysed data from interviews with almost 7,500 people who were part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. More scheduling flexibility and on-the-job health coaching, screening and support could go a long way toward reducing the chances employees become sick or die as a result of chronic conditions, according to the report.

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June 3, 2016

Uncertainty about the consequences of Brexit in construction sector ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News, Property

Uncertainty about the consequences of a possible UK vote to leave the EU is having an adverse effect on the country’s construction pipeline, according to the Markit/CPS survey of activity in the market. According to the study, new building orders declined during May for the first time in three years although at 51.2, the index remains above the neutral 50 threshold which indicates that the trend remains positive. The May study specifically asked respondents how their work had been affected by the Brexit vote with one third saying it had had a negative effect. Meanwhile, an April study from CBRE found that demand for office space in London had remained robust through the first quarter despite fears that uncertainty about the market and the wider economy related to the referendum would dampen demand. Meanwhile, a new survey from the IEMA claims that two-thirds of members believe environmental issues will be given lower priority if the UK leaves the EU.

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May 5, 2016

Facilities management is about great service, not trying to do everything

by Simon Heath • Comment, Facilities management

An article in The Guardian newspaper once sought to lift the veil on the extent to which Serco is entangled in the running of infrastructure in the UK and overseas. One of the questions posed was: Is there any limit to the fields they work in? Serco’s response was: “We operate in a range of markets and geographies, which means we are well placed to bring a wide range of experiences and knowledge to help customers with the challenges that they face.” Now, that’s the sort of phrase that will be familiar to anyone who has visited the website of a service provider or has written a bid in response to a tender for a contract. It is the way that providers wish to sell themselves. We can do more. We can do everything. We can do it anywhere. And if we can’t, we’ll get someone else to do it in one of our uniforms in the hope you won’t notice. We’ll save money. We’ll do it for less. We’ll do it with fewer people.

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April 26, 2016

New agreement to drive sustainable property development in Europe ⁰

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

The World Green Building Council (WGBC) – a network of national green building councils aimed at influencing the green building marketplace – has announced that its Europe Regional Network has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help drive sustainable property development with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD works to support the development of the private sector across Europe, the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia, and the provision of modern real estate infrastructure is essential to support economic expansion and diversification in these regions. The new agreement provides a framework to cooperate on a number of areas of sustainable building practices, including promoting best industry standards and practices for energy and resource efficiency, climate resilience and building sustainability; promoting innovative zero-waste design, green urban planning and low carbon emissions; engaging in policy dialogue; and mobilisation of financial resources.