Green office buildings are designed to optimally catch sunshine as the main source of lighting on each floor. Glass walls are installed around the buildings, making it unnecessary to turn on electric lights during the day, and you can save on electricity bills.

To enable cool air to freely enter through the windows, green, spacious parks (60 percent of the total area) should be built around the building, filtering the air.   

The efforts in making offices green should be supported by building users’ environmental awareness and attitude. They are the spearhead of the campaign to preserve the environment by doing small things that may appear trivial but have big impacts, like managing waste with the 3R — reduce, reuse, recycle — principles.

The growing number of green office buildings seems to be in accordance with the growing understanding about the importance of the green architecture of a building. Efforts to make green buildings should be stepped up, even if a building was not initially designed to meet the green building criteria.

A building owner can optimize rooms that are feasible to be re-greened, for example by planting climbing plants along the fence, walls and tree trunks, and providing separate containers for non-organic (paper, plastic, bottles, cans) and organic waste (food scraps).  

The implementation of green office building principles is based on the fact that buildings are the biggest carbon emission producer (more than 70 percent) on earth, so that a reduction in the carbon footprint of any building would significantly mitigate global warming. Other data show that since 1960, buildings have become the biggest carbon emission contributor, followed by the transportation sector and industry.

What can we do to make an office green?

One of the efforts to make a green office is by constructing the building in accordance with green building principles. According to the Green Building Council Indonesia (GBCI, 2009), a green building is a building that has been constructed and operated in line with environmental factors/ecosystem.

Use the land wisely, with only 30 to 40 percent of the land built on and 60 to 70 percent green space (balance between developed land and green space), Green Basic Coefficient (20 to 30 percent). Make the building green by establishing a green roof or roof garden and green wall or green screen.

Save water. Turn off the faucet when not in use. Don’t let the water drip. Save water when washing your hands and dishes. Install dual flush buttons for the toilets and sensor faucets and make infiltration wells.  

Save energy. Use electric equipment that saves energy. Turn off lights during the day or when not in use, as well as computers when not in use. The open doors, windows and ventilation vents located facing each other will enable fresh air to circulate in the rooms and bring in sunlight all day. Use a power supply with alternative energy such as solar power, wind power or biogas.

Save materials by acting environmentally friendly. Reduce the use of paper, encourage efficiency in material usage, reduce waste and become familiar the 3R principles.

Ask the employees to reduce the use of private vehicles and encourage car pooling, shifting to environmentally friendly public transportation (train, Transjakarta buses), promoting eco-driving, and biking or walking for short distances.

Provide a special space for bicycles in the parking lot and a comfortable changing room for cyclists. Footpaths in office complexes should be connected, safe and comfortable as well as free from motorized vehicles.

Making a green office can start from the gate and the parking lot, which should be shady, and a green garden design. Put attractive pots with plants in the lobby, meeting rooms and workrooms.

Establish a roof garden to reduce the temperature in the rooms below (save energy used by air conditioners), absorb pollution and add to the green space of the city.

The clean, fresh and healthy atmosphere of a workplace will surely give additional benefits for the improvement of productivity and the health of employees.

Investment in green office development, which is quite big, is a long-term investment for the economic sustainability of healthy and environmentally friendly buildings and cities in the future.

Making an office green is a company’s responsibility for environmental preservation, which has been proven to be economically advantageous (healthy environment-healthy economy), creating a comfortable and healthy workplace. What is most important is that the image of a green office is proven to have high selling power for the company’s marketing.  
Have you made your office green?


The writer is a specialist in
architectural issues.

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