As people start to return to the workplace, Roy Girt, Executive Director at ThirstLink, looks at how technology can help to ensure buildings are safe, healthy, and more sustainable places to be now and in the long term.
With the UK beginning to make the first steps out of national lockdown, many businesses have either begun to tentatively welcome employees back to the office or are preparing to do so. This process is still fraught with uncertainty, especially as new variants of concern threaten to disrupt the UK’s reopening. The “built environment” is going to be at the forefront of helping organisations navigate the challenges of reopening. Few other industries have such oversight of the spaces in which we live, socialise, learn, and work.
As buildings reopen, the top priority for many businesses and their employees will be health and wellbeing. At the forefront of everyone’s mind is the potential risk of infection now possible in buildings, particularly as it relates to airborne infection and transmission in common areas. It is important to note that, while this has been brought into focus by the pandemic, it is not simply about combatting Covid-19.
To manage the risk of transmittable diseases in a building, you need proper procedures in combination with monitoring and air cleaning technology. While more work is needed to understand how a virus travels through a building, having proper ventilation systems in place is critical. Technology can help with managing the associated risks, such as using infrared CO2 sensors to measure the level of ventilation.
There is also a significant and growing body of evidence that suggests that germicidal ultraviolet light – using light in the UV-C spectrum in a safe manner – is effective against Covid-19 and other diseases, although it is not a replacement for proper ventilation. Touch points in “We” Spaces and Refreshment areas, the implementation and installation of the latest touchless technology to support Catering and Vending Services. Latest innovations in plumbed in water services, contactless purchases from intelligent fridge systems.
Vending machines with touchless menu systems are all now available to support companies looking to provide the best possible support to their staff and visitors.
It should also be recognised that how a building impacts our health goes beyond disease. Lighting, humidity, and room temperature can be stressors on people’s wellbeing that lead to poor health outcomes over time. The built environment should take advantage of the current heightened awareness around buildings and health to drive change here too. Automated systems that regulate room temperatures are clearly of use here, as well as lighting solutions that optimise the balance between artificial and natural light.
What will the future workplace look like?
A major challenge for organisations and landlords is going to be the desire to reimagine the workplace. This doesn’t just mean plush surroundings, a great location or cityscape views. To successfully usher in the era of hybrid work, spaces will have to be adapted to create vibrant workplaces and atmospheres, regardless of occupancy levels.
Early indications, both from the UK and countries such as Australia, where restrictions have been relaxed for longer, suggest that businesses need to actively optimise the use of space in a hybrid working environment. As usage patterns fluctuate, organisations should adopt a hotdesking approach and optimise the use of space. This will create the social interaction needed to draw people back to the office.
In optimising the use of the space, organisations can also realise significant efficiency savings. These savings will not be automatic, however. Systems need to be put in place to measure the utilisation of the office space and ensure that heating, lighting and Refreshment Services are only in use when rooms or sections of the office are being utilised. If scaled across the UK’s entire commercial building stock, such changes would make a major contribution to reducing carbon emissions.
As businesses encounter this challenge of having to make more sizeable commitments, we come to a second notion of sustainability in this context: how we recycle our buildings. Demand for high-quality, sustainable office space cannot be sustainably met by simply building new office space. Yet as organisations reassess their estates and jettison unneeded space there is a need to find new uses for these structures. To solve these two problems, it is critical for the built environment to understand the relevant technologies, techniques and expertise needed to manage these changes.
How often employees choose to return to offices is one of the known unknowns of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is for this reason that organisations and landlords need systems that can help them respond flexibly to changes in usage patterns. To be most effective, these systems ought to be AI-based and automated as much as possible, helping drive efficiency savings and reducing emissions.
It is impossible to avoid the need to upgrade our buildings, but we must do so without it being a drawn-out and expensive process. To help ensure success, the built environment should be forthcoming in its adoption of technology and should embrace the opportunity to work with niche consultants who can advise accordingly and with confidence.
