World 2.0 - Emerging Work Strategies Changing the Workplace

How to cope in today's changed marketplace? What kinds of choices may company executives make in today's harsh economic climate to help lower business costs? Can green and sustainability principles be of help for companies seeking to regenerate themselves? Steelcase's Workplace Futures Group headquartered in Grand Rapids just recently produced a fascinating Deep Dive 360 for June, How Emerging Work Strategies are Changing the Workplace: Telecommuting was just the beginning.

Here's are two lists from the Study. They summarize data gained from a joint Steelcase and CoreNet Global 2009 Sate of the Industry Report, March 31, 2009. So the data is fairly fresh and perhaps helpful. It certainly identifies the kinds of choices and behaviors organizations have made in the last year or so as the economy melted down. However, many are short sighted stop gap measures, and do not offer healthy sustainable long-term choices.

HOW COMPANIES ARE CUTTING PROPERTY COSTS

1. Redesign office space to increase density


2. Deferment of capital projects / Expansion plans


3. Implement telework programs


4. Accelerate projects that reduce ongoing expenses


5. Restructure leases


6. Shift work to lower cost locations


7. Move to lower cost facilities


8. Cancel capital projects / expansion plans


9. Reduce / Defer maintenance


10. Sale of owned properties


11. Exercise early termination options in leases
    

ALTERNATIVE WORK STRATEGIES IN USE, RANKED BY POPULARITY OF USE.

1. Telework or telecommuting in which an employee works from home, substituting telecommunications for the commute to work.


2. Mobile work, a work style in which a person consistently uses multiple spaces, both inside and out of the office, to accomplish his/her work.


3. Hotelling temporary workspaces assigned through a reservation system; typically used by mobile workers but also used by any worker not near his/her assigned workstation.


4. Home office used as an alternative location to the primary office. Employees may work from home on a set schedule or on an as-needed basis.


5. Satellite offices which are smaller spaces located in areas closer to employee’s homes for greater convenience.

Does any of this help you and your company? Are you and your team exploring other strategies which are working for you? What are they? Largely absent are longer term Green Workplace Strategies and a Triple Bottom Lined approaches putting People, Planet and Profits into the overall space strategy equation.

World 2.0 - Regenerating Our Way Out of the Crisis

Face it. The world changed last September with the dramatic fall of the world economy. Many of us lost jobs and/ or homes and livelihoods in the worst cases, or went on reduced salary, experienced furloughs or other creative attempts at financial triage to keep organizations afloat. It hasn’t been much fun and it isn’t over yet. The building industry and the architecture profession have been hit very hard due to the drying up of traditional credit and financial markets to fund project construction. Clients reconsidered or shelved projects, or put them on long-term hold determined to wait out the current crisis. The ripple effect on our business has been telling and heart breaking. I’ve heard unconfirmed reports at least 30% of architects are out of work in the greater Boston area for example. Closer to home many firms in Vermont have downsized significantly, radically transforming themselves to respond to the economic crisis and continue in business. But there is an upside to this challenging present, it’s believing in the power of regeneration.

Recently a friend of mine, Danny Sagan, a designer with his firm Terra Firm and Associate Professor at Norwich University in Northfield, VT, said, (and I’m paraphrasing) “Finally the gravy days are over where people can make money out of thin. We have returned to a place Americans are good at; dealing with adversity and challenging times. Business people in the near future will earn success the old fashioned way, through hard work, street smarts and perseverance.” I could not agree more. The competition for what work is available is intense with at least triple the usual amount of interested firms actively seeking projects. In order to win work firms must stand out. What does this mean then? Does one give up and close up shop in the face of such adversity? Or rather, rise to the occasion, be innovative and inventive in redefining your message and business offer?

Let’s seek the innovative path. If you can’t meet and surpass the clients requirements and establish yourself as a leader with a clear message and value, it will be very hard to keep the doors open. We must work smarter than ever before. Why not ask Nature what she would do? I think she would say think about the concept of regeneration. Biologically speaking regeneration is the restoration of new growth by an organism or organs, tissues etc. lost, removed or injured. To regenerate means to re-create, reconstitute, or make over, especially in a better form or condition. This idea of rebirth, albeit in an improved form, points to a future with promise and optimism.

Looking into Charles Darwin’s theories on evolution and the idea of successful adaptation of some species at the expense of others who diminish into extinction offers a stark message. Survival and success directly relates to the ability to adapt and respond to changing and often puzzling environments. What would nature do in our place? What are the adaptive actions you can take with your business? Why not examine in our case the architects’ traditional roles and activities on one hand and compare that to a pressing short list of societal needs and demands. Does our traditional way of doing things mesh with the new realities before us. What’s out of balance? What are we missing? Find areas needing restoration of balance to the system and you are on to societal need to focus upon for your services offer.

I identify four keys areas; water, energy, atmosphere and increasing organizational effectiveness in this changed world, which are out of balance. The first three are well-documented diminishing natural resources and the last deals with organizational behaviors and interactions. I believe as an architect I can work together with our customers and team member on the first three easily. The fourth is linked to the others but is at the heart of organizational success. The smart design must be able to help their customers create buildings which radically conserve and take care of water, energy and air resources. They must also be able to create designs which naturally allow organizations be the most effective at the work they need to do and nurture employees and key stakeholders along the way. This doesn’t mean using formulaic design approaches but reaching into the well of innovation together. By using integrated and regenerative design approaches to develop unlikely yet effective solutions, the architect and designer can strengthen their value offer. By looking deeply together at the nature of the work at hand, needs of workers and the workplace through this regenerative green lens, valuable design solutions can be developed while also conserving resources such as water, energy and our atmosphere for future generations.

Greening Fast Food Resturants

GREEN FAST FOOD!

Sometimes reading and thinking about one subject leads into more articles and helpful information. Ecostructure a leading magazine on ecologically oriented design and sustainability has an article about trends in greening fast food restaurants around the nation. It was written by KJ Fields, titled a New Order: Fast Food Restaurants offer a range of sustainable features. It covers a trend among national fast food chain operations to move to greening the stores and operations. It's a beginning perhaps of a sea-change I hope. Imagine the energy savings and reduction of green house gases and positive effect on consumers if more retailers followed suit.

There are USGBC programs such as LEED for Retail which might also be of interest for others. See the links above.

Chipolte Gurnee Store Awarded LEED Platinum

Chipolte Mexican Grill based out of Denver just received LEED Platinum Certification under the USGBC"s LEED for Retail Pilot Program announced on Chain Leader, a press release publishing site focusing on Restaurant industry. Here it's bringing into focus the movement towards Greening the retail / hospitality sector. See the link to the article is below after the text. When I lived in Denver in the late 90's, I often visited their restaurants which were always really funky, interestingly detailed spaces. They used lots of corrugated metal, natural finished wood and stained concrete floors, simple lighting and cheerful graphics. There was an emphasis on handmade and craft oriented design build process on those original stores. I haven't seen new ones in a while. Look for future posts on the store design where I will dig a little deeper.

Apparently they've gone a big more modern and glassy in the current stores with the photo above from the Gurnee, Ill store. I'm not so sure of the viability of all that glass, it must take lots of air conditioning to cool and heating unless it's all triple insulated glazing units. Which I will check on.

http://www.chainleader.com/article/CA6669931.html?industryid=47554

Net Zero Putney School Fieldhouse Well Under Construction

Construction of the Putney School Athletic Fieldhouse in Putney, Vermont is well underway this summer. Collaboratively designed by Maclay Architects and their consultant design team for the Putney School, built by Dew Construction, it's slated to be finished early fall. It also offers a continual learning laboratory in southern Vermont for zero energy buildings in the harsh northern new England climate, just a couple of hours south of the almost sub-artic climate of nearby Quebec, Canada. An essential learning tool for all to tap into is the Fieldhouse Blog available on the Putney School's website. Currently there is a post about cellulose insulation and it's installation as well as other posts detailing different aspects of construction over the last year or so. Students and faculty contribute to the blog which offers a view into the environmentally focused efforts of the school signaling it's leadership position in that area among other similar private schools in the northeast.

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I've been involved in the design of the school facility led internally by Bill Maclay and Bill Gallup in our office over the last year and it's been a pleasure watching it's progress knowing how important this building is as a positive model for the young high schoolers soon to attend the school next school year and for years to come. It's amazing seeing the leadership of the school board, teachers, staff and students produce such an exciting result with our collaborative design and construction team. You can also learn more about the Putney School from our website and the current projects link. My hope is this building is but the beginning for of an energetic movement in the construction of similar net zero K-12 school buildings. Check back towards the end of summer and early fall and I'll be sure to have another post then.

(image adapted from Putney's Field house Blog)

Federal R&D Agenda for Net Zero Green Buildings

I was reading this report recently about the Federal R&D Agenda for Net Zero High Performance Green Buildings published in a variety of online sources in October of 2008. It identifies an achievable forward looking vision for federal buildings over the next generation. It comprehensively surveys the existing landscape of current High Performance Building initiatives throughout Federal Government and private sectors. What's notable is this was done before the current Obama Administration had been elected and likely represents a year or more cross agency collaboration and reflection. Hopefully this report will be updated and re-examined over the next year or so.

With net-zero buildings, buildings which produce equal or greater energy than they use within a given year, there lies hope for significant energy use reduction and potential for positively impacting greenhouse gas emissions. The report corroborates the largest potential for change is in increasing energy efficiency especially of existing buildings through retrofits and renovations rather than new construction.

This agenda in spirit hopefully will continue to drive innovation both in the public and private sectors, including higher education throughout the next 5-10 years and beyond. It identifies major R&D initiatives with various branches of government connected to the building and construction process. It also shares major implementation strategies which are also underway.

Supermarket buildings and green design_Minnestoa Cub Foods Store Receives LEED Gold

Today I was overjoyed to read about a Cub Foods Store in Minnesota to recieve LEED for New Commercial Construction - Gold level certification. This means this could be a model supermarket building of energy efficiency, effective daylighting and hopefully a great place to shop. Apparently there are only two others like this in the country. There are roughly 47,000 supermarkets including smaller independant ones around the country(from 2006 federal data). Given the high number and visibility of supermarkets around the country there is a great business oppourtunity I feel to convert existing market buildings or designing and building new ones to higher standards. Based on data from the USGBC and other sources where other building types have shown positive performance in regards to higher employee productivity, reduced energy costs, worker satisfaction, reduced absenteeism and similar factors, there is a strong case for going "green".

Here's why: I think most significantly, grocery stores and their owners have a longer time-horizon, often remaining on the same site for generations. Focusing on ways to reduce costs and ensure greater predictability in energy costs should be a priority for smart, forward looking financial and facility executives where they have more than a few stores in a region to operate. As well, it's likely, the largest cost for them is staff costs such as salaries, benefits etc. With the longer time horizon and need to control staff and facility costs, going green is extremely beneficial. Last summer's spike in food prices driven by high rises of energy costs should be a wake up call. For stores to be competitive in a unpredictable energy future, steady stating their energy costs as much as possible will only help them be more successuful than their competition.

Given there's only three stores like this in the nation, it's a fairly small number to study the effects. However, it's a great oppourtunity to make a difference and positively change the world for generations to come. In a couple of years hopefully Cub Foods or others can study the impact of this green store on their bottom line as well as their corporate brand. I wish them the best in their efforts to change their behavior. And perhaps others may follow in their footsteps...

(image from the web)

Energize the Interior Design process - Collaging and Scrapbooking

Recently a friend asked if I had any advice on ways to start their residential interior design process to assist in working with their architect. I suggested he and his wife find letter size file folders, labeled to match key spaces such as kitchen, master-bedroom, dining room, living, bathroom, study, kids bedrooms and play areas. Then over the next two-weeks or so comb through favorite magazines, websites and books and find inspiring images identifying furniture, equipment, paint colors, lighting fixtures, rugs and carpet and other key items. After doing so write a short summary overview of key qualities, moods and priorities. This is assuming you already have a program for all of your spaces selected.

Do this to define the mood of each room or space. As an extra step which I recommend, especially for those who like to make collages or scrapbook, is to make letter size collages by for each space with key furniture, paint color chips, upholstery swatches, flooring and lighting ideas with handwritten text stating why and how these items describe a mood which resonates with you. You can also skip this step yourself but have a conversation with your architect with the folders and maybe arrange items together in a collage / brainstorming session. You or your architect could then take pictures or scan the collages and put them into binder for review and use during development of more detailed design. You can also review the collages, adding to them over time as you build your understanding of the mood and quality of the spaces.

By taking this information collection step you really help clarify for yourself what you’d like your interior of your home to be, what kind of story you want to tell which expresses your unique family identity to the outside world and create a comfortable home. Your architect or designer might take your rough ideas, scrapbook thoughts and create an overall series of presentation boards, further refining your initial suggestions with their own feedback and imagery. Do this to enjoy the design process and feel connected to it and also set clear expectations and design ideas to follow so there a less surprises later. When you’re done, you can recycle the loose folders with all of their contents, holding on to the collages as records of the design process and decisions for future reference.

This process can also be adapted in a similar way to designing residential exterior and site design, just add more folders and begin earlier in the process. It actually is really helpful to do this even at the beginning stages at a more concept level.