A few for consideration. Unlikely that they will/can be implemented but demonstrates a thought process.

Abolish overtime working – Prevents the need to heat and light a building for just 1 person working late.
Closure of the office at set times of the year (ie during christmas) – No more of this 1 person coming in to work because hes used all his holiday up. – this could be extended to assigning defined holiday periods when all staff take Anual leave – not disimilar to a 'factory shut down'.

"Forget about all the other stuff, just work from home more. Job done."

Probably not. The extra demand for home heating outweighs the saving on commuting, unless you're driving a reasonable distance.

Probably not. The extra demand for home heating outweighs the saving on commuting, unless you're driving a reasonable distance.

Depends if there's already someone else at home or not, in my case there's already 2 other family members here all day

"Get real. It is unenforcable and rightly so, 19degC is insufficient for most people in winter"

So it's sufficient in the summer?

I have my home thermostat set to 19 degrees, and it's perfectly adequate. Put a jumper on and MTFU.

Anyway, as I'm sure you're aware, the legislation does not prevent office temperature from rising above 19 degrees.

To be a littl emore constructive, I would suggest buying you're electricity from a green (renewable) tariff. Look at the control of your heating (timers, optimisers, deadbands etc as well as the set points). 21degC is usually ample for IT suites. Do not allow heating on weekends for the odd joe who works. Recycle obviously and look at composting food waste if you have a cafeteria. Put signs up for staff to turn off lights (this actually works!). Record your energy usage weekly from the meters and aim to reduce it every year, you cannot quantify what you do not measure.
Personally, I'm comfortable at 20degC which is cold in comparison to most people. I have absolutely no requirement to "MTFU" thank you.

"Depends if there's already someone else at home or not, in my case there's already 2 other family members here all day "

I appreciate that it depends on individual circumstances, but in most cases there's going to be an extra home heating requirement. My house is unoccupied from 9-6pm every weekday, so uses no heating at all in that period.

What about TRVs? You're only working in 1 room, so why heat the whole house? Why have the heating on at all? Just MTFU and get in your sleeping bag.

Probably not. The extra demand for home heating outweighs the saving on commuting, unless you're driving a reasonable distance.

Nope. Our heating comes on for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the evening. I don't use heating at all in the day.

We don't maintain permanent offices either, just serviced offices that are used as and when we need them.

I can't imagine why any information based enterprise would need permanent offices.

Motion sensors for the lights in toilets, server rooms etc. That way the lights will come on/go of when needed. Eliminating the chance of leaving lights on.

Not really viable in the main office though!

Personally I wear one of these at all times:

Saves a fortune on heating bills 🙂

Don't employ old(er) people. I have a guy in the office who it would seem is incapable of reading from a screen so he prints off everything. Drives me nuts.

Architect being eco? Join AECB. Listen and Learn.

Looking into ways to make our office more 'sustainable' so currently working on a green policy.

Recycling paper, photocopying in booklet form, cycling to work, car sharing……..all seem obvious inclusions but do you have any others

OP above. After reading it again I don't really understand how some responses were so 'off the mark'. Generally most of the STW'ers got the question 'tips on how to' make staff and they're use of office a little more enviromentally friendy.

But I did not expect some of the responses at all!! And I thought this was a chat forum where other friendly forum users would happily give out advice as they see fit for the question, and also some banter along the way (Cheers GrahamS).

As for the Eco Warriors of the forum and those a others who are so highly strung that they mis-read the question……!!!! lighten up, just a little bit pls.

C_P – I appreciate your second response but again back to my OP and suggestions quoted which were Recycling paper/printing in booklet form/cycling to work/car sharing. I thought this might give everyone an idea of where the question was going. Obviously not. At no point did I mention Heating (we have M+E consultants for this) insulation, sourcing local materials, use of timber, enviromental impact and all other aspects associated to a Sustainable Report for an individual project. Which are not subjects for bike chat forum. Chill.

And your point about greenwashing I would say has had an impact on every business (not just Architecture).

Must pay more attention on the wording of my 'posts' in future.

With being architects, you'll need some fairly hefty graphics processing power, however, there may be some thin-client solutions available? this could cut down the cost of your computing bill?

heating? hard floors and UFH – a more comfortable environment and generally a little more cost effective to run

energy suppliers that are green (already mentioned)

BMS solutions, control your lighting, heating – integrate it, tie it in to the alarm system to 'shut down' when the alarm is set.

I went to see a chap a while ago who's property was built from polystyrene building blocks, tied together internally with rebar and then backfilled with concrete, he advised that the heating costs of the property would be so low (it had 50mm kingspan as well) that the CO2 used in the concrete would be offset by absolute minimal heating costs – which was done with ground source heat pump and heat exchangers.

Good luck with doing your bit 😉

jt 😉

I went to see a chap a while ago who's property was built from polystyrene building blocks, tied together internally with rebar and then backfilled with concrete, he advised that the heating costs of the property would be so low (it had 50mm kingspan as well) that the CO2 used in the concrete would be offset by absolute minimal heating costs – which was done with ground source heat pump and heat exchangers.

Hmm, someone's been suckered then….

Being a HVAC designer, low carbon consultant and registered Offices BREEAM assessor I'd say if you are in an existing building you've left the sustainability thing a little late.

Sustainability is about energy efficiency in your services (primarily minimising the requirements by the use of natural light, ventilation, etc, regardless of its generation) and sustainability of materials. You need to read up on the CIBSE Guide to Energy Efficiency and and The Green Guide to Specification.

Oh and UFH and offices with computers are not a good mix (especially in a well insulated building) as the internal heat gains (compounded with any solar) will lead to excessive overheating during the mid season due to the high thermal mass IMHO.

🙄

🙄 +1

😮 x 2…

OK…..MAYBE sustainable is not the correct wording (obviously as the question is still lost in translation)

Lets re-phrase it – Any common sense ideas to stop wasting resources or unnecessary land fill dumping. Does that sound more 'correct!'

Again I think I'm going to have to answer my own question, just so that you get the idea of the 'tips' I'm after.

Filling out online application forms (no paper)
Not printing every e-mail for the file – use laptop
Web-site facility to download PDF's for client/contractor use (no paper/no postage)
Use second-class mail for letters where applicable.
Recycle teabags/paper. Disposing of old electrical equipement correctly.
Walk to work/Cycle to work/Car share.
Turning the heating down.
Use of motion activated lighting.

Do the STW massive have any other 'simple' suggestions to add?

And breathe………………………………………………………

From an energy point of view use benching marking to ensure you are not over lighting (you should be <15 W/m2). Switch lights off when there is sufficient daylight or not occupied. Dont switch on those tungstens that are just display… A 'proper' lighting control system dont come cheap you know!
Ensure you don't have the heating on and the windows open (or worse AC on) at the same time.
Electronic e-mail filing?
And dont change your designs 5 times a day so people dont have to print out new drawings/send e-mails/etc as a result…

No offence but half the above seems more about saving money. Not printing drawings only pushes it on to other consultants/contractors no?

make buildings that last, age well, use renewable materials if and when possible. reckon that'll do far more than cycling to work, but do that also if you can.

Darkness-is-Golden……if in saving the environment the firm saves money so be it. Everyones a winner. Is that not the point of common sense too?

Construction drawings are always issued. Not trying to off-load costs as you mentioned. But design drawings/minor alts for approval etc…..you get the point.

The Building is window-less with heating/air con progammeable and on a timer. Building is rented. Heating etc on a contract with local technicians who check and adjust etc. This will not and can not change.

Lighting is open plan office specific. Again this will not change. No tungstens.

I feel this post is now …..exhausted and in the end completely pointless.

you're all talking dry bulb temperatures.

20 in summer isnt really 20 in winter in terms of feel.

need to do a load of mean predictive vote BS, and you will end up concluding that there is always someone who isnt happy with the temperature in your office. maybe a sustainable office policy would be to silence the whiners and glue the dial to 19?

In our office we bagged up rubbish/recycling and counted the bags out. gives you a good measure of how much waste you are making, thus you have a figure to reduce and can feel good about yourselves, rather than just 'lets reduce waste'

also why not get a pulse meter to measure electrical consumption and have it on display in reception. tis all about getiing people involved IMO so put it on display and make some charts!

Somebody has been studying fanger 😀

vital?!

trying to emulate the tash for november/charity.

<nods sagely>

ahhhh the quietly disgruntled life of an HVAC design engineer.

"Nope. Our heating comes on for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the evening. I don't use heating at all in the day.

We don't maintain permanent offices either, just serviced offices that are used as and when we need them.

I can't imagine why any information based enterprise would need permanent offices. "

As I've already said, the impact of homeworking depends on individual circumstances. But on average, it isn't a green solution.

20 in summer isnt really 20 in winter in terms of feel.

Can you (or backhander) explain what this "feel" thing is all about in simple terms to a non-HVAC layman? 😕

Is it a psychology thing? (i.e. when it's miserable outside we want to feel warmer than normal indoors).

Or is it just a problem with measurement? (i.e. only one thermometer/thermistor used for large area so need to take account of colder bits near windows and doors)

There's a whole series of lectures for this graham.
Thermal comfort is affected by a number of factors; mean surface temp, wet bulb temp, dry bulb temp, RH, air velocity, clothing, metabolic rate etc etc.
These change according to the season and the temperature of a building has to adjust accordingly. Having said that very few buildings have adequate zoning of heating.
There was a prof called Fanger whos work provides the basis of most modern beliefs of comfort. Interesting stuff if you like that kind of thing

Thermal comfort is affected by a number of factors; mean surface temp, wet bulb temp, dry bulb temp, RH, air velocity, clothing, metabolic rate etc etc.

Right.

tracknicko: Can you (or backhander) explain what this "feel" thing is all about in simple terms to a non-HVAC layman? 😉

key things (IMO) as picked up above are mean surface temp, dry bulb, and wet bulb.

generally the moisture content in the air in the summer is higher, leading to a warmer 'feel' / and conversly lower in winter, leaving a colder/drier feel. this is the basics of wet bulb/Relative humidity i guess.

surface temp is about the radiant effect of your walls etc. think of the whole building as a radiator. in the summer its on warm and radiates warmth at you, on the summer its on cold and consequently radiates 'coolth' (if there is such a thing – i HATE the word coolth)

easy? maybe?

Cheers Tracknico, you've explained it better than me.
I also **** HATE the word "coolth"

as a brief disclamer – i quit the world of HVAC in april. so anything that i say may have 6 months of inaccuracy built in 😉

Thanks both. 😀

When I read this thread it prompted me to email the team to stop wasting paper / energy / mostly money by needless printing. I came in from a meeting yesterday and somebody had printed the email off and left it in the printer tray!

crouch_potato's comments are alarmingly accurate.

MTT BA.Hons BArch RIBA JSA ❗

radiates 'coolth'

From my recollection of the laws of thermodynamics I thought heat flowed from a hot surface to a cold one, no, so how can you radiate backwards?

Also satisfying >85% counts as a result. You always get whiners. Usually the ones in short sleeve shirts…

tracknicko – what do you think has happened in the last 6 months thats rocked the HVAC world?