ESG: Shared Office

While the working remote trend is still going strong, many of us are going back to the office and some of us never left. The office working environment gives us an opportunity to explore ESG practices and stimulate ideas that may transfer to multifamily properties. Here are some suggestions for office ESG practices:

Shared offices/cubes:

A big change that we’ve seen/implemented (especially in the past 2 years) has been shared offices for personnel who are mostly working from home or traveling. At our offices, many personnel including Vice Presidents, Managers, and others do not have permanently assigned offices. They are often working from home, or temporarily officing at one of our properties. Fun fact: if all of our team members stopped working from home, and came back to our offices at the same time, there would not be sufficient seating for everyone!

Removal of single-use water bottles (except for office guests):

We include in our New Hire and Office Orientation training that Employees are encouraged to bring their own mugs/reusable water bottles. To encourage/reinforce this for our New Hires, we started including a Fairfield-branded vacuum water bottle in our New Hire swag package.

In-office recycling:

Each office, cube, conference room, copier/scanner room, and mail room is equipped with both trash and recycling receptacles. Simply having the containers available at-hand, provides a greater opportunity for busy professionals to recycle without turning it into an expedition to take the recyclable materials to another location. We also have a Battery Recycling Receptacle (just one for the building).

Sustainable purchasing requirements/guidelines:

Policies governing the purchase of environmentally-safe products on-site and at our Corporate Offices provides a framework to at least discuss/evaluate products that are less harmful to the environment and our teams. Utensils provided in our Corporate kitchens are now made from bio-degradable materials. We use wooden/bamboo coffee stirrers, instead of the plastic ones. We still provide recyclable single-use paper/plastic cups for those days when people leave their cups/bottles at home. We also purchase recycled paper for our copiers and printers, instead of “first run” paper.

Depending on whether you own or lease your office buildings, motion sensors/occupancy sensors in the common areas:

In California, this is more-or-less standard practice in retrofits, and is mandated by legislative requirements for New Construction in many Cities/States. If you lease your building, there may be limited direct benefit to the Landlord, especially if the electric is billed to the Tenant in a NNN Lease. However, if you own your building, Motion Sensors and Occupancy Sensors will result in direct and significant Operational Savings. These savings only get magnified as the cost of electricity continues to rise.

If you own your office building:

You have an opportunity to take efficiency one-step further with Rooftop Solar. Unlike a home, most offices use very little power after the sun goes down. Most of the power demands occur during the day while the sun is shining… and that’s when Solar Generation is the most beneficial to a building.

Internet/phone benefit for employees:

Though not technically in the office, as employees start working from home, consider providing a Phone/Internet stipend, since they are now using their personal internet/phones for business use. This could be accomplished as a simple transfer of expenses, as the bandwidth needs at the office are now diminished, with far fewer users IN the office.