Fifteen years ago, Travel Corp. Canada chose a one-storey former soap factory built in the late ‘50s to house its thirty international brands.
The building had plenty of space the company needed for rapid expansion of both staff and warehouse space but needed to be upgraded a lot.
Improving Energy Efficiency
The travel, tour and river cruise company have focussed on improving energy efficiency and upgrading systems to the latest technology – quality, eco-friendly upgrades that have quickly paid for themselves over the last ten years. In fact, the company is reported to have saved over half a million dollars by swapping conventional, power-hungry systems with more eco-friendly versions, as well as reducing the amount of natural gas they use by 82%. On top of this, they’ve also reported additional savings in equipment maintenance and replacement costs.
It was thermal imaging, highlighting the loss of heat from the roof and rear wall, that led the drive to become more efficient – a process which began with better insulation. Shortly after, the announcement that the office was to become the site of the data hub for the company’s eight main offices and 40 sales offices called for a solution to cool servers that produce huge amounts of heat.
Energy Saving Equipment
The company’s drive to use the latest technologies led to the installation of a “Kyoto Wheel” heat exchanger for the data hub – a large rotating honeycombed disc that draws heat out of a room and cools it using just a quarter of the energy that traditional air conditioning uses.
Other energy-saving equipment, such as a UPS flywheel power back-up array for the data centre and the installation of a geothermal system for natural heating and cooling of the office, is also leading to massive savings for the company.
Further savings came from using co-generation (directing exhaust heat from the data centre to heat the warehouse and office areas), automatic lighting that only comes on when a room is occupied and simply shutting down computers and monitors when not in use.
Going Green
There has been a big shift towards green technology in recent years. It’s important to invest in the future of your office space. Of course, major changes come as part of a long-term strategy. In the meantime, there are loads of small changes that can be made to make your office more eco-friendly and save money along the way:
Purchasing green office supplies and stationery will drastically reduce your impact on the environment and help limit the amount of waste that is sent to landfill. Global Office Supplies offer a wide range of green office supplies and collect your old stationery to send it off for recycling.
Recycling
Recycling helps save energy and money, protects the environment and reduces landfill as well as providing us with the opportunity to create brand new products from recycled materials.
LED Lighting
Energy saving light bulbs are an easy and effective way to help your office go green and become eco-friendly. Not only are they better for the environment, but they also save energy and costs.
Global Office Supplies specialise in cutting down costs on the products your office consumes on a daily basis. As well as this, we offer excellent recycling services to help companies lead the way towards their green energy targets and help turn their office into an eco-friendly working environment.
In most cases, we can deliver all of your office supplies, including paper, the very same day.
Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/industry-news/property-report/article-an-unconventional-offices-eco-friendly-retrofits-pay-big-dividends/
