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Making your office more sustainable sounds like a major undertaking but you can start with some small steps such as reusing office supplies and avoiding the use of markers as they contain solvents. The (office) furniture and interior design market also offers more and more ways to make workspaces more sustainable. However, we do notice that our clients see it as a major step to follow this through. This blog offers 5 ‘simple’ tips that can already make a huge difference.
Try to buy products made by local manufacturers and designers whenever possible. Getting your items that are made close to home reduces your carbon footprint and is more sustainable. We are glad to see that our clients increasingly often consciously opt for a sustainable interior with sustainably produced products. Cooloo, Planq and Vepa are just some of the great companies that provide sustainable office furniture.
Buying second-hand products is a great sustainable alternative. Especially when these products were made by a sustainable brand as you will be contributing to a better world in more than one way. Apart from platforms like Marktplaats or Ebay, there are less well-known companies involved in the demand for second-hand products. One great example is Oogstkaart, which has a platform that offers waste and residual materials. Another wonderful initiative is Inside/Inside – a collective launched by several architects and furniture suppliers who can calculate the ecological footprint of the use of certain materials. Sprank follows such novel initiatives closely.
Did you know that furniture can also be rented or leased? Maybe you need additional furniture for a specific event, or you need the flexibility to change the layout or interior of your office. This is a highly sustainable option as, at some point, the furniture moves from one user to the next.
Apart from the fact that LED has a much longer lifespan, it is also much safer than regular lighting. LED lights are over 90 per cent more economical than the standard light bulb so the low energy consumption reduces CO2 emissions. Besides that, regular energy-saving lamps emit quite a lot of radiation and this can lead to certain health risks. That is why our fourth tip comes down to exchanging your regular light bulbs or energy-saving lights with LED lighting.
If you want to follow every interior design trend, you’ll be changing your interior every three months. Not a very sustainable thing to do. But what if you do want to follow trends and you want to contribute to a more sustainable world? How can these two “contradictions” be combined? If you no longer like the look of your furniture, pimping your furniture could be a great option. Give that cupboard a lick of paint, spray the lamps in a different colour, change the legs under your desk and, voilà, you have a whole new office space. Make sure that you choose your paint responsibly. Sustainable brands of paint are Fairf or RAW Paints.
We are curious to know how sustainable your office currently is. Let us know in the responses! Would you like to get some personalised tips? Then please get in touch.
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