The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently ranked U.S. cities based on the total number of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified buildings present in each city.

According to last month’s report, Chicago ranked first.  Among the buildings that helped boost Chicago to the top of list is Willis Tower, located at 233. S. Wacker Drive, which is home to our Chicago office.

Chicago currently has 223 LEED-certified buildings, far surpassing the next closest markets – Washington, D.C. and New York.  Each of those cities has 146 LEED-certified buildings.  Chicago can’t afford to get complacent.  Both Washington and New York are ramping up development.  Each city has more than 600 buildings in the construction pipeline that have registered for LEED certification.   Right now, Chicago has 516 construction projects underway.

So why does LEED certification and going green matter for prospective office tenants?  First, it can certainly strengthen a business’ corporate image as it demonstrates a commitment to a sustainable workplace with minimal impact on the environment.  Secondly, it also reduces operational costs for a tenant and provides employees with a safer work environment.

Does working in a LEED-certified building matter to you?  Let us know.

Federal employee travel and commuting account for the largest category of what the administration calls indirect sources of pollution.  The White House is encouraging workers to travel less for business and to use mass transit for their commutes.

Today, most businesses understand their responsibility to limit their impact on the environment and are leveraging available technology like video and audio conferencing as an alternative to business travel.

Among the many benefits of this technology are: a decrease in business travel expenses, a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and increased productivity.  Individuals can have face-to-face meetings with colleagues or clients anyone anywhere in the world allowing them to collaborate as effectively as if they were meeting in the same room.
 
Access to this technology is no longer a luxury but a necessity for businesses of all sizes. Companies find themselves managing a distributed workforce with limited budget for business travel. Videoconferencing eliminates geographic boundaries and is an easy way for businesses to be environmentally conscious.

Some simple items that can be recycled instead of thrown away in the garbage in any office include: printer paper, file folders, envelopes, junk mail, cardboard, newspapers and magazines.   There should also be a place that you can recycle aluminum beverage cans, tin food containers, glass bottles/containers, and plastics.  At Willis Tower, home to OfficeLinks’ Chicago office location, we recycle plastic labeled #1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7.  We encourage you to find out what plastics can be recycled at your location.

Please do your part by participating in your office’s recycling program – and encouraging your co-workers to as well!

And don’t stop there – consider the environment when printing emails and traveling to and from the office.  There any many small things we can do that, together, add up to helping our planet!

The challenge is, companies both large and small have grappled with the “business sense” of being “kind to the environment”.  We’ve discovered a way to be “Green” in a way that make sense for our business while also enabling our clients to do the same.     

The typical office space was designed years ago, before concern about the environment had emerged as a priority. So offices are usually not very “green” at all. Have you ever worked in a LEED-compliant office? Have you ever even seen one?

The reason they’re so scarce is the legacy of old and inefficient building and office design. Energy used to be relatively cheap and people thought nothing of wasting it at work, where there are no electric meters in sight. Desks, furnishings and carpets were chosen with little regard for all the waste involved in manufacturing them.

We faced a number of challenges along with way in terms of reconciling the recourse to invest in a LEED-compliant office but we ultimately feel very good about the environment we’ve created.  We’re proving that a healthy work/life environment isn’t just good for society as a whole. It also delivers vastly improved employee morale and better day-to-day productivity.  We’ll explain more about that in later posts.

If you’d like to read more about our take on the 21^st Century office – continue to check out our blog and visit www.OfficeLinks.com

 Leave a comment.

Did you know that 5.7% of New York City’s residential waste is textiles, yet they are 100% recyclable?  Since 2007, the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) has offered textile recycling drop-off sites at select Greenmarkets, including one at the Union Square Greenmarket just a short walk from the OfficeLinks Chelsea office location, redirecting hundreds of thousands of pounds of material from the landfill. 

Every Monday at the Union Square Greenmarket (due to construction, the site may move around the park, so you can just ask at the Market Manager’s tent if you have trouble finding it), from 8 am – 6 pm, you can recycle your unwanted textile materials, including clothing, shoes, linens, bedding, and towels.  They are then sold for reuse or to recycling markets that turn materials into wiping rags, fiber for car seats and insulation.  And, yes, your donation is tax deductible!  So, before or after work, or even on your lunch break, take the short 1/3 mile walk from the OfficeLinks Chelsea office location to the Union Square Greenmarket and turn your Manic Monday into a Material Monday and help “green” New York!  For more information, click here.

Willis Tower, which already meets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria, has plans that include: efficiency improvements to the building’s exterior envelope and windows, mechanical systems upgrades in the form of new gas boilers that utilize fuel cell technologies, reducing elevator and escalator energy consumption by 40%, upgrades in restroom fixtures, condensation recovery systems and water efficient landscaping resulting in water savings, upgraded lighting that will save up to 40% of lighting energy consumption, and the use of renewable energy.

OfficeLinks, located on the 84th floor of the Willis Tower, applauds Willis Tower’s commitment to going green. OfficeLinks has created a LEED compliant office space for their tenants that includes paints, finishes, adhesives and carpeting that meet low VOC (volatile organic compounds) or Green Label Plus requirements, Energy Star rated equipment and appliances, and re-used material use wherever possible.

Going green at Willis Tower gives Chicago sky high hopes for a better future. To find out more about Willis Tower’s green transformation, click here.