Ways to Green your CoWorking Hub

Co-working spaces are greener than the traditional office, but we can go further.

Our Co-Working Series this week will teach you how to co-work with a difference.

Fighting climate change & environmental degradation is one of the biggest challenge of our generation, if not the biggest. People are becoming aware of and finding new solutions to reduce their impacts. In fact, one of these solutions is the creation of co-working hubs!

Co-working is an eco-friendly way to work.  The foundations of coworking are innovation, collaboration, and sharing spaces & other resources within the community. It also involves problem solving and creativity. It makes co-working spaces not only cost and energy efficient but it provides people with multi-use spaces where they can share and engage.

However, we still have a long way to go. Our environment situation is definitely not the greatest, which can be quite challenging for people to find motivation. Co-working helps, but we can go even greener. The smallest changes and actions in our routine can make a major difference for the planet. Here we selected 7 easy tips on how to maximize your sustainability impact:

Green Community

Most of the co-working hubs host professional and casual events and special days. So why not makes them “green events”? Co-working hubs can host eco-friendly events and fun activities. A green team within the co-working community is a good idea to raise awareness, motivate people and build up network.

Reduce Wastage

An effective eco-friendly move is to ban any plastic cutlery or cups in your hub. Opt for using reusable cups, mugs, and cutlery and also reuse containers and packagings. It makes a huge difference in helping reduce wastage. Encourage the hub workers to lunch in the kitchen area. It encourages them to go for reusable containers and strengthen your co-working community!

Eat Green

As we spoke in the last topic, encouraging workers to new ways of eating can be a green idea. Why not going vegetarian or vegan a few days a week? A simple meatless lunch is key for an eco-friendly environment. The meat industry is one of the most polluting in the world.  It makes over 2,4000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat. While only 25 gallons of water to grow 1 pound of wheat.

Recycling

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reusing and recycling old materials helps lower gas emissions. Certify to dispose of appropriate containers for recycling and encourage the community to the habit.

Paper Less

We know that recycling is great but the best way to deal with paper is: no paper. Co-working spaces are work environments so no paper at all can be impossible. However, we live in a tech and digital world today. So try to preference the electronic forms of communicating and filling and avoid unnecessary printing.

Get a Plant

If allowed, you can contribute to a greener environment by bringing a desk plant. Plants improve air quality and it is proven to increase productivity and happiness.

Green Commuting

Working in hubs with accessible locations can ease up the gas emissions but you can do even better. Coworkers can improve carbon emissions by walking, cycling, carpooling, public transport and working from home.  It improves your health too. That’s Smart Working! 🙂

Co-working spaces have an incredible potential to support sustainability and environmental changes.  By valuing greener co-working hubs and inserting those little habits in our routine, we are going further.

You can find your perfect eco-friendly hub in our list in Abodoo.com or if you’d like to share your co-working green initiatives and list it with us, contact Valentina!