LEEDing the Way to an Environmentally Friendly Workplace

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You always make sure to turn off the lights before you leave a room. You’ve cut your shower time down by four minutes in order to save water. Maybe you’ve even attached solar panels to your house or drive a hybrid car. And all of these actions are crucial to reducing our carbon footprint and making sure our grandkids can still see polar bears. But if you’re like most Americans, you spend 40 hours a week in an office that might not be transmitting these same values.

So it’s important to understand how offices, schools, hospitality or healthcare environments can be just as environmentally conscious as the rest of us. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design organization (LEED) is a worldwide green certification program with the goal of helping buildings become more environmentally responsible.

The process is simple: capture LEED points by implementing environmentally friendly resources and in return save money and maybe even feel a little better knowing you’re a good Samaritan. Luckily, PURE has a few tricks for capturing LEED points and earning that platinum (80 points!) certification. In return, you’ll cut down on your operating costs by an average of nine percent within the first year and qualify for certain government tax credits.

Lighting

LED lights require less electricity, last longer than their fluorescent counterparts and emit more light on a dollar for dollar basis. As an added bonus, if you opt for LED lamps versus overhead lights more often, you’ll capture more points in exchange for using less electricity and mercury in your space. Teknion offers a wide range of LED lamps that serve as both task lights and ambient lights, while also maintaining a sleek and modern design. The Zones Arc Floor Lamp will transform a gloomy room into a sunny oasis and give an impression of overhead lighting all within a lamp. The complementary Sanna Lightbar task light will avoid the dreaded cave effect of lighting down a desk because of its unique shape.

Walls

Architectural walls put drywall to shame in every aspect of design and efficiency. Teknion’s glass wall systems utilize more environmentally friendly material than drywall, and they are also reusable, making them more cost efficient to both you and the environment. Rather than tearing down and trashing an unwanted piece of drywall, architectural walls can be dismantled and reinstalled in any space to create a more quiet and private work environment. With an option to fit the aesthetic of any office, from colored glass, steel surfaces, or a curved shape, there’s no reason not to ditch the drywall and opt for architectural walls.

Furniture

Utilizing environmentally friendly furniture doesn’t mean you need to sit on bamboo straw or uncomfortable wooden benches. Kimball has nearly 50 seating lines that all conform to furniture emission standards and are Indoor Air Quality Certified. This means that the materials and production of these chairs have low Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. VOCs sound just about as bad as they are, I mean they are literally named “volatile compounds.” These VOCs can come from fuel emission from vehicles, heaters, or other coal and gas emitting processes - including the factory producing the metal chair you’re sitting in. You will literally breathe easier and cleaner if you opt for Kimball’s certified seating options. Plus those LEED points are an added bonus.

Teknion’s Sidewise line of wooden work surfaces and storage received a Greenguard Gold Certification for being made from nearly 100% recycled materials. This unique workspace is designed for the in-between of an open seating room and a private office. It’s a multi-purpose function design of desk and vertical storage, meaning you get the most bang for your buck out of the space (and the LEED points).

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