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DB Interiors Have Some Great Ideas on How to Make Your Office More Sustainable

Wednesday 24 June 2020, 1:26PM

By Beckie Wright

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As we come out the other side of the COVID-19 lockdown and subsequent levels, which kept us away from our office, this may be a good time to take a look at the sustainability of your workplace. Coming back into the office is also the ideal time to take a good look around you, and take some time to make your workspace more environmentally friendly, starting with recycling and reusing, or better still you may want to lobby the company power provider to boost its green electricity generation. 

Research has looked at the impacts of refurbishing office buildings to make them extremely energy efficient, known as ‘deep energy retrofit’, and also calculated the effect of adding solar panels to roofs. The modelling estimated the country’s office buildings would emit slightly more than six million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the next three decades if premises were left un-refurbished and coal generators were left running.  

New Zealand currently gets 85 per cent of electricity from renewable sources, and the best outcome for the climate is a combination of strategies, boosting renewable grid electricity and the refit of all office buildings using sustainable sourcing and disposal policies.  

Other straight forward tasks could start with setting up recycling bins around the office, with dedicated bins for glass, paper and plastics if your building collects these separately. Ink cartridges can be collected by recycling companies, while electronic waste such as old monitors, printers, computers, and cables can be dropped off at your nearest Tech Collectors for recycling. If your coffee machine uses pods, you should recycle your capsules to avoid adding to the landfill toll. 

You should also look for ways to reuse items, such as replacing disposable kitchen items with crockery and steel cutlery or promoting the use of reusable mugs for the morning coffee run. You can also encourage employees to collect paper that’s only been printed on one side and use it as a notebook. 

These ideas are all easy enough to arrange, and before you know it, you will have a much more sustainable working space, and DB Interiors are there to assist you. From the smallest office to a multi-floor operation, they focus on both usability and style, creating spaces which are practical, functional and stylish. 

When planning your next office space, they will take into account the demands of your business, and the resulting designs will maximise the efficiency of your space and make it easy for your team to move around and collaborate. 

DB Interiors’ vision is to maximise your return on investment by careful spatial design, and realising a vibrant and healthy office fit-out that will boost your staff’s productivity and lift the culture in your work environment, so for more information on interior design companies, interior fit-outs and collaborative seating design please go to http://dbinteriors.co.nz.