Best practice planning

Designing and building - using sustainable materials, making environmentally conscious choices and employing energy saving technologies is now a requirement of office design. Plan your project carefully to maximise space, daylight and the availability of fresh air.

A properly designed workplace requires less building infrastructure, which takes up less space, produces less heat, and consumes less power than traditional workplaces—while supporting employees more effectively.

Environmental best practice focuses on design to enhance worker productivity and satisfaction while reducing demand on the environment. Traditionally assigned office space is redundant about 65% of the time.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• How many enclosed offices / spaces do you really need?
• How many people do you have at each site?
• Is hot desking an option?
• Which departments need to be in close proximity to one another?
• Where should you position storage space?
• Can information be stored electronically?
• Where should you locate your data centre and specific process plant? (If you locate as much of this together in a dedicated area, then you can use fresh untreated air to ventilate the space. This prevents heated or cooled air being drawn from occupied spaces).
• Furniture specification – is it making the best use of your space?
• Where are the existing services? (efficient planning around these saves cost and the environment)