To be a sustainable office

To be a sustainable urban city means that it should consider all activities to be sustainable in urban areas. Because there are many companies located in urban cities, especially in CBD, it is essential to make it become more sustainable.

The first related thing to office in our brain must be the paper. And paper is one of the products frequently used in office. The total paper consumption per year in office is about 330 million tons in the world. And it still sharply increased in recent years.

Another section is printer. The ink used in printer will cause a serious environment problem. If the waste ink is thrown into nature, it will be harm for environment and human health. Moreover, computer, copy machine and desk lamps will generate large amount of ecological footprint.

To solve these problems and reduce ecological footprint in office, there are several methods can be used. For computer and monitor, putting computers and monitor in the mode of energy saving. And turn off when leaving office. According to the report, it can save 172 kWh a year per computer. It equals about save $250. For the printer and desk lamps, turn off in the night can reduce 100kWh/machine per year. Although it is a small number, it will have significant impact on environment if everyone does it. For the part of paper, this has huge contribution to footprint. We need to pay more attention about it. Firstly, the office manager should encourage employees use e-file instead of paper print. If something has to be printed out, it is better to print in two sides of paper. Only these two points can reduce about 30% of total paper consumption annually. In addition, the furniture in office also should be sustainable. The material of furniture used should be easily to recycle and reuse.

To sum up, to be a sustainable office is not a easy thing. But if everyone do his own effort to improve it, the office will be better. And it will be a significant part of a sustainable city. 

Reference:
1. Dermisi, S. (2009), Effect of LEED ratings and levels on office property assessed and market values. Journal of Sustainable Real Estate , 1(1): 23-47. 
2. Eichholtz, P., Kok, N. and Quigley, J. (2010a), Doing well by doing good: green office buildings. American Economic Review, 100: 2494-2511.