For more than a decade now, the media has been flooded with the news of environmental imbalance caused by overpopulation, exploited resources, pollution, and global warming, taking a toll on the macro and micro climate, the biodiversity, and the earth’s natural terrain. But did it affect us enough to make a shift in our lifestyle? No.
For every rising degree of temperature each year, we had extra lakhs of units of air conditioners added to the market. We beat the red alerts by consuming more aerated drinks made in factories, sitting in an air-conditioned room, and leaving our crop farms to burn in the scorching heat. More environmental and social damage to fight the damage we have created. And of course, the vicious cycle compounds the effect each year.
But, high time for that ignorance too! India is now officially the most populated country on Earth. With only 2.4% of the total World’s land, India houses 18% of its population. The Indian sacred town, Joshimath sank 5.4 cm in the duration of merely 12 days. Chennai and Mumbai along with 10 more coastal cities are facing rising sea levels. Nothing can be a bigger alarm than this.
But how do you contribute your little part in attempting to be sustainable? Sharing the resources mindfully. Sharing your workspaces and all other facilities that you require there can be a great point to start. Because they allow for shared resources and more effective use of space, coworking spaces can potentially be more ecologically sustainable than typical office buildings.
Financial sustainability, of course, is one of the most compelling personal reasons to embrace this system; but, coworking and shared office spaces adhere to a broader definition of sustainability. Managed offices can potentially tackle challenges ranging from the future of employment to the future of environmental sensitivity and sustainability. Without a doubt, it is an overall larger step in harmonizing peaceful co-existence. Let’s look at how an office on rent helps achieves this.
1. Less Concrete
Quite literally, sharing the workspace means less concrete being added to the surface of the Earth. While concrete is a material that is durable, long-lasting, and seemingly less maintenance material for building our buildings, it is one material that is unbelievably harmful to the environment. Cement manufacturing alone emits over 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 per year, accounting for approximately 8% of the world’s total. However, the environmental effect of concrete extends beyond the massive amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere during cement manufacture.
The growing usage of concrete is also depleting our finite supply of usable sand (desert sand being too smooth and rounded, cannot be used in concrete). Furthermore, concrete consumes about 10% of the world’s industrial water supply. It also exacerbates silicosis and many other respiratory illnesses. Air dust from stocks and mixers generates up to 10% of the particulate matter which chokes Delhi. In 2015, Researchers discovered that the recorded air pollution index at all 19 largest construction sites in Delhi, surpassed permissible limits by at least three times. Not only that, concrete is difficult to decompose and stays on the Earth’s surface for years.
2. Shared Resources
Because of their natural sharing-oriented nature, coworking spaces have enormous potential to help environmental sustainability. At its core, they advocate for the sharing of all resources, including space, and materials, and hence reducing waste. Coworking spaces house multiple businesses of all scales under one roof which would have been operating from separate spaces otherwise, consuming more space, land, and a seemingly small amount of all the facilities required to run those businesses.
While the land seems like the only big issue here, one should not overlook how the number of resources and plastics increases with a higher number of air conditioners and office supplies like coffee machines, printing machines, and other seemingly small things. Sharing these resources can be a considerable step towards environmental sustainability when this practice is adopted by a large number of businesses across cities and nations.
3. Accessibility
Our cities are expanding at a lightning speed, the population growing at an alarming rate, and the number of vehicles owned by these growing families rising at an even higher rate. White pollution has been an issue forever now, another problem rising across the cities is the traffic and the increased emission of harmful gases due to longer waiting times and the crawling vehicles on the jam-packed roads. Top coworking spaces are strategically located in prime city centers, eliminating the problem of long commutes to workplaces.
Shared commute can be super easy on your pockets besides being easy on the environment. At a coworking space, you can socialize with people other than the ones working with your company. Make friends with the people who use the same route as yours to get to the office, and see how many problems it can solve for you besides a blossoming friendship.
4. Energy and Water Consumption Consumption
It is difficult for a small business operating from smaller office spaces located in plazas to have control over the energy consumption and the recycling of the water that is consumed in the overall premise, resulting in an inefficient and wasteful consumption of the resources. The coworking spaces are built with huge space and funding with great thought to the design and optimum utilization of resources. While small businesses might not have control to run on solar power or might not be able to afford it, Coworking spaces have both – the power of affordance and control to run on renewable sources of energy.
These coworking spaces can also afford to be equipped with water reuse systems. Another problem is that small businesses might otherwise face is access to daylight. Poor architecture and planning system results in a lot of offices being devoid of daylight and running on artificial light all day long. Coworking spaces are designed to bring in ample daylight that aims to be easy on the eyes and mind and cut down on energy consumption. The open and expansive architecture allows for improved light transmission, making the coworking area bright with minimum artificial lighting. These are some of the most important aspects to think about while discussing environmental sustainability.
5. Biophilic design
Though the biophilic design is the trend these days, it ought to become a norm in a near future. While it is calming and soothing psychologically, it is also environmentally beneficial. The open and semi-open common areas and courtyards when filled with plants and trees, create a beautiful ambiance for work and play while improving the quality of air by filtering out toxins and releasing oxygen.
For living structures and habitats, the sustainability component of biophilic design is critical. Integrating green areas, water features, numerous plants, and natural materials has several advantages, including minimizing the carbon footprint and moderating building temperature.
Final Thought
Coworking spaces are the need for more than they have been acknowledged to be. Gone are the days when having your workspace was known to be a status symbol. The needs of the times are changing. We need to run along. And not only that but today businesses also run differently. Freedom of work location is the current luxury. Coworking spaces can immensely benefit mindful living and coexistence that progresses towards environmental sustainability.
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