Could a flexible work strategy help your company achieve its sustainability goals?

Could a flexible work strategy help your company achieve its sustainability goals?

Flexible or hybrid working has many benefits. We take a look at how the model can help corporates meet their ESG commitments. 

Addressing sustainability concerns is now a prerequisite when it comes to attracting and retaining fresh talent in the workforce. In an August 2020 Reuters survey, 72% of multigenerational respondents reported that they were concerned about environmental ethics, while 83% of workers said their workplace was not doing enough to address climate change.

Mirroring that sensibility, research on workplace sustainability by Topline Film found nearly a quarter of UK office workers would turn down a job at an employer with a poor environmental record, while 73% would like to see their workplace improve its sustainability efforts. In a recent article for Financial Executives International, Ecommerce Platforms editor Rodney Laws called it ‘the issue for the corporate finance industry’. The good news is, the general trend for hybrid working – a combination of remote and office-based work – presents a real opportunity for corporates who embrace it, making visible headway towards their ESG (environmental, social and governance) commitments. Here’s why:

Cutting the commute

The huge drop in commuters during the pandemic has had a rapid and visible environmental impact: even during the early stages, there was a 17% decrease in daily global CO₂ emissions by early April 2020 compared to 2019.

But for many, the commute was already on its way out, with many large companies allowing their teams to work remotely, at least part of the time, in the years preceding Covid-19. Back in 2008, Sun Microsystems' Open Work Program allowed 24,000 employees to work from home, preventing 32,000 metric tons of CO₂ being released into the air. The environmental benefits of flexible work went further: it was calculated that office equipment energy consumption at a Sun office was twice that of home office energy consumption. But the starkest statistic elicited from the program was that the journey to the office accounted for 98% of each employee’s carbon footprint compared to less than 1.7% of total CO₂ emissions from office equipment.

In a similar sustainability drive in 2015, Xerox permitted 8,000 of its 27,000 employees to work remotely full-time. They drove 92 million fewer miles and saved 4.6 million gallons of fuel, thereby cutting CO₂ emissions by almost 41,000 metric tons annually.  

Now, in the Covid era, when asked in an #AirWeShare poll what bosses could do to help employees reduce their exposure to transport-related air pollution, 42% of workers cited flexible or remote working.

For those who do commute, companies will benefit from allowing shorter commutes to a local or suburban office nearer to where employees live. Using flexible workspaces for these satellite offices not only eradicates the car and train commute, but embraces health trends for walking or cycling to work – not just with safe bike storage, but with facilities so that cyclists can freshen up following their ride in. Regus Windsor, for example, is equipped with showers, as is Regus's Polna Corner in Warsaw. And at Spaces Rio Madrid, staff who don't have their own bike can simply book one of the 'Spaces bikes' at reception.

Cutting down on permanent space

Now remote working has been trialled and largely succeeded, the practice of retaining large, monolithic properties in major cities  – far from where employees live – seems out of date. What might have once seemed like a beacon of corporate stature now prompts boardroom discussions around the energy costs and carbon emissions of urban real estate, and how this squares with a company's brand message in an age of environmental enlightenment.

Driving forward the existing trend for remote working, the pandemic compelled established players such as Schroders and PwC, as well as tech giants such as Twitter, to operate with a geographically dispersed workforce. In its wake, even those companies who have not publicly announced a flexible work strategy have been reviewing their physical footprint and reassessing the need for large-scale, long-lease space.

This will likely result in a migration to regional workspaces from urban hubs, presenting a colossal opportunity for corporates to instigate meaningful change – with carbon-saving benefits – as businesses reboot office life in line with ESG ambitions.

A case in point is the recent deal signed by IWG and financial services firm Standard Chartered. Supporting its ESG drive and wider strategic business plans, Standard Chartered has now granted its 95,000 employees access to IWG's 3,500 flexspace offices around the world, giving them the option to work in more localised offices closer to home, as two-thirds of IWG offices are in suburbs and smaller towns.

By providing what Standards Chartered describes as ‘near home’ work locations to its employees, the company's Chief Financial Officer, Andy Halford, said that the deal would "provide suitable alternatives to working from home and from the office, enabling our employees to work closer to clients, colleagues and their teams, as well as reducing commute time, travel costs and our individual and collective carbon footprint.”

Flexspace is more efficient

As the design and architecture sectors become more environmentally conscious, office buildings themselves play a role in the quest for sustainability. The very nature of flexible workspaces makes them greener and lower waste than large permanent offices; companies only lease the space they need for the time that they need it, eradicating concerns around costly, unnecessary or wasteful office space sitting unused.

Flexible workspaces and coworking venues are also increasingly green in a design sense. Take Spaces Tullinløkka, a coworking space in downtown Oslo: what was once a defunct 1950s-era office block has been reworked as a blueprint for tomorrow's sustainable flexspace offices – retaining the underlying original structure, but augmented with an array of materials and furnishings recycled from the remnants of various local refurbished or demolished offices, a school, a care home and a public swimming pool.

Discarded benches, tiles, toilets and sinks that might otherwise have been destined for landfill have been reused or upcycled in Spaces Tullinløkka’s interior, while the pool's ceiling panels have a new lease of life as wall cladding. Recycled décor has reduced CO₂ emissions by up to 95% – the reuse of tiles alone has saved 34,000kg of CO₂, while the bricks salvaged could create a stack 1.2km high.

In anticipation of future tenants needing to reconfigure the interiors, the building has been designed with inbuilt flexibility so that power and communications infrastructure, air conditioning and support systems need not be disrupted if internal layouts are rejigged.

That provisioning for future customisation of the physical office configuration is key. As the need for social distancing in offices subsides, and as corporations recalibrate their geography and workspace needs, flexibility will be key to meeting those crucial ESG targets.

Find out how IWG’s corporate solutions can help your company adapt to the new world of work. 


BACK TO RECENT ARTICLES