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sustainabletimes
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office design
Autodesk hopes that its new 21,000
square foot UK HQ in Farnborough,
Hampshire will become the
company’s 13th office to achieve LEED
Commercial Interiors certification, a
byword for sustainable office design.
Regional FM Donna Bourne is confident
that it will achieve Gold accreditation
– not as good as the Shanghai and
Singapore offices, which are Platinum
standard, but impressive nonetheless.
The fit-out based on workplace
usage analysis by DEGW and
sustainable office design by Morgan
Lovell has already delivered big savings
for Autodesk, including a 21% cut in
lighting-related energy use and a 27%
reduction in water use.
Donna points out that as a tenant
Autodesk has not been able to implement
all the measures it would have liked, but
says the landlord has worked hard to
accommodate most of its wishes.
“The main plant isn’t ours so we
can’t touch the plant room, chillers and
boilers, but we can make suggestions. For
example, we have reduced the water flow
to the taps and toilets in our space by
25% and we have put in efficient shower
fittings. And we are working with the
landlord to get local control of heating
and air conditioning, but at the moment
the building management system (BMS)
is old so this isn’t possible,” she explains.
Like any FM, this is a battle Donna
Grasping the nettle
would love to win as temperature levels
are as polarising an issue in Autodesk’s
HQ as in any other office. “We did a post-
occupancy survey and the design was one
of the things people loved. The moans
were to do with the air conditioning and
the removal of bins,” she says.
No bin policy
Donna has replaced under-desk waste
paper baskets with central recycling bins.
This has a financial advantage – “We are
paying less because the cleaners do not
have to empty the bins so much” – and
also contributes to higher recycling rates
and a neater working environment. So,
too, does the lack of desktop printers,
which are now only found in the HR
department. Everyone else has to walk to
one of two central printing stations.
A wide variety of energy-efficient
lighting is used throughout the offices,
all of it daylight or motion-sensitive.
Personal lighting is not allowed: Autodesk
wants to keep energy use down and the
offices are light enough anyway – the
building has glass on all sides and is
arranged around a large central courtyard
so that all desks are within 7 metres of a
natural light source. User-controlled blinds
on the south and east sides prevent glare
and solar gain.
Reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions also come from the dedicated
Cisco 3000 teleconferencing suite, one
of 50 video conferencing systems used
globally by Autodesk. The system cost
$200,000 but because it is on the IP
infrastructure there are no monthly call
costs so it is relatively cheap to run –
previously Autodesk was paying $5,000
a month in video calls. The fact that this
room is occupied 65% of the time gives a
clear indication of its impact in reducing
travel-related CO2 emissions.
Outside the suite there is a large
media wall that is used to display
Autodesk’s new offices in Farnborough, Hampshire are not just a demonstration
of the savings that can be achieved by designing a workplace compatible with
today’s flexible, mobile working practices; they are also a great example of
sustainability in action. The latest edition of
Business Info
looks at how the
3D, design and engineering software company has created a space to meet the
needs of its 177 employees. Here, we look at what it has done to reduce its
carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions.
...we have
reduced the
water flow to the
taps and toilet by
25% and put in
efficient shower
fittings.
“