Creating Eco-friendly Business Interiors
Creating Eco-friendly Business Interiors
Your eco-friendly business efforts don’t need to start and end with recycling and renewable power. Smaller yet just as impactful changes to decor will help inspire your team, enhance your business’ reputation and create a healthier work environment.
Benefits of an eco-friendly commercial space
Eco-friendly business interiors are more than just a money saver. Studies show that including plants and foliage to a workspace can reduce stress and increase productivity in your team. Sustainable swaps that enhance air quality and bring in natural light can improve engagement. An eco-friendly work environment helps your business achieve its sustainability targets, reduce your carbon footprint, and provides a healthier and more comfortable office space.
Increase use of plants
Your company can take a literal approach to greenifying your business interiors by including plants. Biophilic office design is an easy way to make an eco-friendly change to your commercial decor, creating a more aesthetically-pleasing look to the space but also purifying the air naturally, reducing the need for electrical purifiers or toxic chemical fresheners. Plants absorb pollutants in the air and can also help cool the room, so decreasing the need for air conditioning too.
Use smart solar shading
Controlling sunlight and heat gain can be challenging, depending on the positioning of the building and the location it’s built in. But solar shading is the most efficient and eco-friendly way of controlling this without the need for lighting, air conditioning and similar powered appliances. Smart blinds and skylight awnings are an effective option to improve the thermal climate of your business interiors, reducing solar glare and managing light levels. This offers a more comfortable work space and also lowers energy consumption within the building.
Use reclaimed furniture
There is an abundant supply of furniture, products and devices that can be recycled, so why rely on new purchases every time? Shopping for used and second-hand items is an easy way to save money, reduce the demand for new materials and minimise packaging waste. Recycled materials can be used in a variety of ways to create an eco-friendlier office environment, from used chipboard for wall partitions to second-hand office furniture for desks and chairs. Preloved items can actually give your business decor more character and personality than simply buying off the shelf every time.
Choose green office supplies
Where buying preloved isn’t possible, choose your supplies carefully. There are eco-friendly alternatives for virtually every type of material now, from bamboo office desks and compostable coffee cups to hemp fabrics, which use materials that are readily available and regenerative. Sustainable materials are kinder to the planet, often easily recycled, and can be used as a stylish yet effective alternative to plastics.
Eco-friendly design is an effective way to improve employee wellbeing and productivity, cut energy costs and reduce the carbon footprint of both your building and business within it. Interior design’s contribution to achieving a greener business, is often overlooked but could make a big difference