WHY FLEXSPACE SCORES ON ESG TARGETS
Companies are increasingly looking for office space that contributes towards meeting their goals on sustainability. Here’s how flex can help…
Companies are increasingly looking for office space that contributes towards meeting their goals on sustainability. Here’s how flex can help…
COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, is a timely reminder of just how important efforts to counter global warming will be for businesses over the coming years. For many companies it will be the most visible aspect of a growing need to address ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues that are likely to impact every area of their decision making.
Key to this will be the kinds of workspaces companies provide access to and the embracing of hybrid working, which empowers employees to work from a combination of home, a central office and local flexspace.
Products and services that help firms meet their ESG targets are not only fulfilling demand but delivering what is “right” from an ethical perspective. If companies can demonstrate they are offering a workspace that will provide clients with tangible and measurable improvements in their ESG reporting, everyone will benefit – including the planet.
The World Economic Forum has created a set of common metrics for consistent reporting of ‘sustainable value creation’, which identifies some 22 different measures that companies can score themselves on, ranging from greenhouse gas emissions, community investment, and employees’ health and wellbeing to water consumption, impact on nature loss and levels of workplace training.
So what does this have to do with flexible workspace? For brokers, the answer is that flexspace can play a significant role in helping their clients – especially those that are largely office-based – to meet their ESG goals.
Footprint
Organisations that are adopting hybrid working have a smaller physical footprint because they need fewer desk spaces when only a proportion of their workforce is coming to the office every day. That’s significant because buildings account for 39% of CO2 emissions globally and, apart from the carbon embedded in constructing offices, they are large users of energy for both heating and air-conditioning.
So it’s also important to choose a landlord or a real estate partner that is committed to an ongoing improvement in the use of energy in their buildings. IWG has been achieving year-on-year energy and carbon reductions which are submitted to the Carbon Disclosure Programme, and in 2020, its gas and electricity costs per workstation were 33% lower than the baseline in 2016.
Travel to work
One of the main ways flexspace supports ESG targets is that it significantly reduces a company’s carbon footprint via a reduction in employees conducting long commutes to a central HQ on a daily basis. It’s also better for mental health – in fact, more than half of commuters say travelling to work increases their stress levels, with many reporting a reduction in sleep or physical activity as a result, according to the Health in a Hurry report by the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health.
Companies that use flexible workspace close to where their employees live as a component of the ‘hub-and-spoke’ model can greatly reduce the amount of their commuting time, contributing to goals on wellbeing and carbon reduction. Under the 15-Minute City urban development model being practised in Paris and elsewhere, the workplace – as well as shops, education and healthcare facilities – are never more than a 15-minute walk or cycle ride from home.
The diversity factor
And where flexspace is used in a hybrid working model, this can also contribute towards your clients achieving gender balance and diversity goals. It enables male and female workers to share caring roles more evenly and provides better opportunities for those such as single mothers to participate in the workforce.
While flexible workspace as a concept is conducive to supporting ESG goals, it’s the specific performance and features of individual buildings that can be the real game changer. Look out for those that are highly rated under schemes such as BREEAM and LEED. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design scheme is the US Green Building Council’s certification that is used around the world and has four levels, with Platinum at the top. BREEAM is a UK-based scheme with a similar model. Both reward buildings that use less energy in their construction and operation, reduce waste, conserve water and use sustainable materials.
IWG Spaces’ Tour & Taxis location in Brussels, for example, is set within the BREEAM Outstanding-rated Gare Maritime, which achieves carbon neutrality through geothermal and solar power. Rainwater is harvested to irrigate its ten on-site gardens. Oslo’s Spaces Tullinløkka, meanwhile, was created as an entirely emission-free construction project – using wholly recycled, rescued and upcycled materials. These are flexible office buildings with an unbending commitment to sustainability.
https://www.iwgplc.com/MediaCentre/Article/why-flexspace-scores-on-esg-targets