When my two business partners and I started thinking about developing the GreenCollar brand, a fun part of the job was going to be outfitting our new offices according to the principals laid out in our sustainability policy. As an environmental consultancy, we well understood the challenges that “greening” an office in a 1970s building in central Sydney would pose. It was difficult, but it was also well worth the effort.
After weeks of exploring the best options for finding, using and installing things like solar panels for cooling and heating, custom-built furniture made of recycled and environmentally-friendly materials, and plant walls, we are settling into an office that is vibrant, clean, and something to be proud of.
The challenges along the way took time to work through, but were also instructive and fun for our staff team, all of whom took active roles in researching information, building desks and shelves, and planting ferns and native creepers.
Gaining permission to place solar panels on the roof of the building was the first of many obstacles. Putting in place a passive solar approach to cooling and heating, which included installation of blinds across 8 metres of glass walls was also an interesting experience.
One of the most fun parts was building our work stations. To create these, we sourced large panels of recycled timbers (GEC LA-2005 certified), and edged them with strips of recycled Tasmanian oak, previously used in an old school. We also used “echo board” as desk dividers – a product made out of recycled plastic bottles that is very effective at sound-proofing.
Our most obvious green effort was introducing plants into the office. We wanted more than the standard palms and flowers in the reception area and balcony. Instead we designed and put together two “living” walls made of crawling native species, which now cover 3.6 by 2.4 meter sections of our office walls.
The fact that we ended up with more than a couple of dozen plants begged the question of how to keep them happy, so in the end we decided to install a worm farm for our organic waste, which we could use to fertise our plants. This last idea is still in the works, but given how enthusiastic our team has been about chasing after things, I suspect the worms will be in place by next weekend.
So the last few weeks around GreenCollar have been good fun, and not just because of all the green we’ve got under our collars from shifting plants around. 1970s office buildings are not particularly geared for the fit-out we wanted, but the result is an office that works well with our culture and helps contribute to our sustainability policy.
I think I can safely say that our team looks forward to lending a hand in greening other offices around Sydney. In fact, our first visitor to the office has already asked us to help build a plant wall for his company office!
If you would like to visit the GreenCollar office, or get some more information about our suppliers, please feel free to call Peter Hooper on 0(2) 9994 8033.
