Why Sustainability Is All Our Jobs Now

Guest post by Ann Beavis, Crown Workspace

Protecting the planet and supporting society are rapidly becoming a business’ licence to operate.  If your company is not yet thinking about, talking about and doing something about carbon, water, biodiversity, air pollution, inclusivity, wellbeing, gender equality (to name just a few areas that come under the umbrella), it soon will be.  But you’re not a sustainability professional so what does this have to do with you?

No business can expect to be environmentally or socially responsible just by employing an in-house and/or external team of sustainability experts.  In much the same way, no business can expect to be financially responsible just by employing a team of accountants, or ensure a safe environment just by employing health and safety consultants.  Yes, someone needs to have the technical knowledge and take overall responsibility for targets, metrics, reporting and coordination but sustainability requires everyone to take ownership, to innovate in their area of the business, and apply a sustainability lens to every decision.

Currently there are benefits for those who innovate and lead – whether individuals giving themselves career advantages or businesses giving themselves competitive advantages.  But before long, this will be business as usual.  Ignoring this agenda will become hugely disadvantageous and ultimately businesses who do so will face an existential challenge.  This isn’t just my opinion – legislation, public procurement requirements, societal expectations, aspirations of younger employees, investor demands and many other pressures will ensure this is the case.

Most of us want to do more to protect our planet and communities but don’t know what to do or how to go about it – so this is a positive thing right?  Whatever your role, sustainability and sustainable workplaces, are going to be part of it, and your employer should provide the direction and skills to enable you to do so, whether you’re a workplace consultant, facilities manager, designer, architect, or supplier of materials, products or services to the workplace.

You will be asked to optimise workspaces that maximise wellbeing as well as productivity, carry out low carbon fit-outs that facilitate reuse, design and build circular offices, promote biodiversity in grounds and other outside spaces, provide socially responsible services and eco-friendly products, and much more – if you aren’t already.  Your career, and your business’ licence to operate, will rely on you being able to respond coherently and authentically to these demands.

In the words of polar explorer turned environmentalist Robert Swan, ‘The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it’.  Sustainability is all our jobs now and we need to learn how to operate in this new paradigm.  Join me at Workplace Trends this October and find out how to overcome the practical challenges in delivering sustainable workplaces.

Photo by Danist Soh on Unsplash 

Reclaiming Privacy in a Transparent World: Making Dens at Work

This innovative research, which will be presented at our upcoming Workplace Trends Research Summit on 19 April 2023, is based on a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) study of the Bristol Business School building – a flagship, largely open plan, space that aims to attract students, facilitate links with businesses and foster a collaborative space for staff to work together. The strategic aim of the building was that it should be ‘generative’ and was designed to link with the strategic vision: a building to support a community that is professionally engaged, vocationally relevant, internationally connected and academically strong.

Both core funders of this POE research project, ISG plc (construction) and Stride Treglown (architects) identified a need to undertake an original POE of the building in order to explore the user experience and use of the new space using a creative and innovative approach. Whilst more traditional POE approaches focus predominantly on the technical and functional performance of a building, they rarely gather detailed, subjective, in-depth data based on the user experience of the building. This POE research project fills this gap.

The project provides a nuanced, personal, emotional and sensory exploration of a flagship building, using modern visual methods: through the use of Instagram and participant-led photography.

The findings in this presentation emerge from an in-depth, user-centred, qualitative, sensory post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of a flagship building – Bristol Business School. The aim of the research was to investigate how the ethos of the building has impacted on user experiences of working, studying, and visiting it. Architecturally, the building provides considerable open, shared space not formally designated for particular activities. Walls and partitions are largely glass, with space arranged around a full height atrium, and central staircase affording expansive views through the building and the activities going on within it. This led us to question: How does a transparent, collaborative, flexible and open building affect working and studying practices? What influence does it have on users’ and is the building operating as predicted? (for example, has it been differently understood and/or experienced by users?). Traditional POE instruments do not gather this kind of information and so a secondary aim of the research was to experiment with visual and qualitative methodologies as effective vehicles for POE: What can we learn from this research that can help us develop and design buildings in the future? Only about 10% of our findings replicate areas covered by traditional POE, suggesting there is great utility in employing more qualitative approaches to POE guides.

Using innovative visual methods including Instagram, participant-led and participant-directed photography, alongside image-led discussion groups, data was collected over a full year cycle with over 250 participants contributing to the study; 30% staff, 60% students and 10% visitors. Building users were asked to submit photographs and captions of their spatial experiences in the building that addressed two simple questions:

  • How are you using the building?
  • How do you feel about the building?

The majority of users submitted their photographs and captions to the project team individually. Over 740 photographs were received in total.

In this presentation, I will be exploring how visual methods can tell us more about users’ lived experiences of a largely open plan workplace and will focus on findings from this research that centre, specifically, around visibility and transparency. Key findings highlight how open and expansive views afforded by glass are sometimes welcomed, but there is a need to balance visibility against individuals’ privacy when designing buildings of this kind. There are unintended effects of making work visible, and psychological and cultural implications arise from having bodies on display.

In order to unpack these findings, I will draw on research that examines the ‘glass cages and glass palaces’ of work (Gabriel, 2005), where open plan buildings such as these are so representative of present-day workplaces. The wider design narrative here is that openness and glass facades and huge atria speak of collaboration and togetherness and celebrating all that we do by putting it on display. Indeed, in the post-covid era, spaces for collaboration in the office are now considered by many a ‘must have’.  Yet, the findings in this research suggest a different experience for users, where continuous visibility and transparency can evoke feelings of exposure and insecurity.

So, what is the response to this unforgiving gaze and continuous exposure? What do people do in response to these open spaces? Here, our data highlights how users feel, but what happens next? Interestingly in our data, we see subtle forms of resistance in the face of all this. Our findings point towards matters concerning power, privacy, and personalisation, and specifically how users of the building seek refuge in corners, nooks, and crannies, and how these rather unorthodox hiding places take on a den-like quality, providing important sites for learning, reflection, and seclusion.

I explore this idea of seeking refuge and hiding places using previous research on privacy at work (Shortt, 2015), as well as Sobel’s work on den-making behaviour (2020), as a way of understanding users’ response to continuous exposure in open plan and the ongoing intimate relations that organisations insist on encouraging though their narratives of collaboration and transparency. This is presented through three key themes; secrecy, placemaking, and security, and questions – is den-making part of contemporary workplace spatial practice? and what does this mean for creating inclusive workplaces for the future?


Dr Harriet Shortt
Associate Professor in Organisation Studies, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England and
Head of Visual Engagement, Bibo Studios

Harriet is an academic, researcher, and workplace consultant in the field of spatial change and user experience. She has 17 years’ experience in researching and working with organisations exploring space, place, and the material world of work. She has expertise in qualitative research methods including visual, arts-based approaches to understanding user experiences of placemaking. She is often invited to comment on spatial change and working practices in the media and her research has been published in international journals and won awards for research excellence.

Harriet is passionate about user experiences of buildings, places, and facilities and believes that successful placemaking encompasses an awareness of cultural shifts, diverse needs, innovative communications, and a sympathetic understanding of people and their everyday lives.

Early bird rates for the Workplace Trends Research Summit on 19 April 2023 are currently available for a limited time only. For full information on the event click here, or to go direct to our booking page click here.

New Partnership With Audiem

Workplace Trends is delighted to announce a new partnership with workplace experience analytics platform Audiem.

Audiem joins our list of current sponsors, EMCOR UK, MillerKnoll, Saint-Gobain Ecophon and Workplace Unlimited.

Directors Ian Ellison and Chris Moriarty also host the Workplace Geeks Podcast, which has come on board as a media partner. They join our existing media partners including FMJ, the Journal of Biophilic Design, Workplace Insight, and Work&Place.

Co-founder Chris Moriarty said, “We’re delighted to be supporting this event, one that we have enjoyed over the years as part of the workplace community. Workplace Trends’ appeal to diverse workplace professionals fits perfectly with our aim to share holistic workplace knowledge and increase industry capabilities. We look forward to an insightful partnership with the team at Workplace Trends.”


With thanks to all our sponsors – 


 

5 Tech Giants Showing Confidence in the Office Space Market

You’ll have a difficult job browsing content platforms nowadays without coming across articles focusing on – or at least alluding in some way to – the working from home revolution. A whole host of companies, including Twitter, have announced that they will allow staff to continue WFH permanently if they wish, following its success throughout lockdown.

However, an increasing number of employees and employers alike are coming to the realisation that WFH isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Cramped and uncomfortable working conditions, distracting housemates and noisy neighbours, the rising cost of utilities; these are just a few of the things that make WFH an unviable long-term solution for many workers. It’s also an unsustainable option for businesses that thrive on innovation and creative thinking.

Here are five successful tech brands that still see the value in offices and plan to embrace them in one form or another for the foreseeable future.

1. Netflix

Among the companies looking to increase their office footprint is Netflix. According to a Bloomberg report, the technology and production company is going to triple its office space in London and move into a new UK HQ.

Reportedly, the business is set to move into a new 87,000 sq ft commercial property on Berners Street in the West End, which is situated just off Oxford Street near Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road Underground Station.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to the U.K., we are excited to expand our operations in London,” a Netflix spokesperson told Bloomberg. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in September, Co-Chief Executive Reed Hastings said that not being able to meet with coworkers face-to-face is a ‘pure negative’.

2. Google

Also in September 2020, The Times reported that Google has decided to lease an additional 70,000 sq ft of workspace beside its new $1.2 billion headquarters in King’s Cross, London.

The tech giant will also be extending the lease on its 160,000 sq ft office space in the Central Saint Giles building located near Tottenham Court Road for a further ten years. The lease was due to expire in 2021.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview at the TIME100 Honorees’ Visions for the Future event:

“We firmly believe that in-person, being together, having a sense of community is super important when you have to solve hard problems and create something new so we don’t see that changing. But we do think we need to create more flexibility and more hybrid models.”

3. Amazon

Over in the US, Amazon recently acquired the Taylor flagship building in Midtown Manhattan from WeWork for an estimated $1 billion. It will eventually be home to 2,000 employees – which means the tech giant will be increasing its current workforce of 4,000 by half.

This brings the number of Amazon offices in New York City to eight. Most are located in Midtown Manhattan, however the business recently started leasing workspace on the Brooklyn waterfront to house its Amazon Music team.

4. Apple

Apple established its inaugural office space in New York City ten years ago, and after leasing 220,000 sq ft in the 11 Penn Plaza building, it’s set to expand. According to a Business Insider report, the company is aiming to take on an additional 60,000 sq ft in the building.

That said, Apple is apparently negotiating with its landlords and ‘nothing concrete’ is in place yet, so they may not end up expanding. Either way, the discussions can be seen as a demonstration of confidence in the office space market in NYC.

5. Facebook

Facebook is tripling its local workforce in NYC and has recently leased office space in one of the city’s iconic buildings – a 107-year-old former main post office complex near Pennsylvania Station – to accommodate its growth.

This year, Facebook, along with Amazon and Google, have increased their teams by over 2,600 employees, collectively bringing the number of people they employ to 22,000. Together, the three tech juggernauts have also acquired 1.6 million sq ft of workspace since the start of 2020.

Is the future of work really going to be ‘hybrid’?

Free Office Finder believe that the future of work will be hybrid and that flexible workspace will play an increasingly critical role when it comes to accommodating this approach. Covid-19 is acting as a catalyst for trends that were already emerging; there was a strong appetite for a flexible working way before the pandemic hit and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

 

Post by Freelance Writer, Chanelle McGarry
Photo credit: bennymarty – stock.adobe.com

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Workplace Trends: The Changing Nature of Work, 18 October 2017
If you haven’t already registered, our super-early bird rate for our October Workplace Trends conference closes this week.
I’m delighted to report that all delegates will receive a complimentary copy of our keynote speaker’s book, “The Digital Renaissance of Work”, and author Paul Miller has kindly agreed to sign copies on the day.
You can see a list of who’s already registered to attend on our website. Hope to see you there too!
Best wishes,
Maggie

Workplace Trends Top Picks

We spend a lot of time at Workplace Trends watching tweets and posts about the workplace. Here are a few of our favourites from the last few days that we thought you might enjoy.


Til desk do us part: Will offices of the future have desks? Nigel Oseland muses this on on behalf of the WCO

Is the traditional office desk obsolete? The desk, the workstation, that slab of “wood” that the majority of office workers sit at is getting smaller. Gone are the days of the 1800 x 1800 mm corner core, and my 2 m wide and 1 m deep bench desk at an architect’s practice; the 1600 mm wide homogenous bench has become a 1400 mm and recently I worked with an NHS Trust where the standard workstation was a mere 1200 mm but the facilities team were actually rolling out 1 m “back to school” style desks…
Read More…


Office design must work for people of every age – and keep them well

With four generations in the workplace for the first time, it is now more important than ever that the physical office environment is able to accommodate different working styles,
Nicola Gillen, global practice lead of strategy at AECOM writes…
Read More…


The Science of the Workplace: Ten demonstrable truths about the workplace you may not know

If you missed Kerstin Sailer speaking at last October’s Workplace Trends Conference, her article for Workplace Insight covers some of what she spoke about.
The science of the workplace has gained a lot of interest over the last few years, highlighting recurring patterns of human behaviour as well as how organisational behaviour relates to office design. In theory, knowledge from this growing body of research could be used to inform design. In practice, this is rarely the case. A survey of 420 architects and designers highlighted a large gap between research and practice…
Read More…


It’s a fact: Live plants & natural light in an office space impact creativity.

Should a ‘work’ place be any different from the other spaces people inhabit? The relationship between individuals and their environment can be a crucial determinant of how they feel, perform and interact with others. So, designing spaces that inspire, energize and support the people who use them is a global imperative. People’s connection to nature – biophilia– is an emergent field that can help organisations meet that challenge. This unique study from Human Spaces explores the relationship between psychological well-being, work environments and employee expectations on a global scale for the first time…
Read or download the report…


Can we enhance student living environments to better respond to the needs of today’s students?

Thinking ahead to our next Learning Environments Conference, this recent research caught our eye. Gensler conducted a three-year study focused on student life on university campuses, and the role of the residence hall in fostering student success. In the first phase of the research, they examined the study habits of high school seniors using surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews to document their preferred methods of learning before attending university…
Read or download the report…


Workplace Trends Spring Summit: Wellbeing & Productivity

Don’t forget to book your early bird tickets for Workplace Trends: Wellbeing & Productivity on 22 March at Kings Place, London. Workplace Trends is the most intellectually stimulating, independent, pitch-free and sociable Workplace event of the year. Join 150+ workplace designers and occupiers to learn and discuss issues including Biomimicry & Biophilic Design, Designing for Creativity, Collaboration & Concentration, Using Building Data, Technology & Innovation, & The WELL Building Standard…
Read More…