June 28, 2019. O1 Properties, which was among the winners of Russia’s Green Office awards, took part in the “Office to Green Standards” business breakfast organised by GreenOfficeClub & Lab. The participants reviewed results of the Green Office competition, held annually by the Moscow City Department for Environmental Management and Environmental Protection. The competition recognizes and rewards best practice in the implementation of environmental performance standards at offices and business centres.
Participants of the business breakfast spoke about their projects, and Green Office winners shared their experience of implementating environmental standards.
O1 Properties took first place in the “Business Centre Green Leader” category of the Green Office competition. The company implements environmentally responsible practices in construction and maintenance of its business centres in Moscow. Five of the company’s projects already hold environmental performance certificates from BREEAM (the international environmental certification agency) and the company intends to certify 100% of its property portfolio.
As explained by O1 Properties at the business breakfast, the main driver for environmentally efficient technologies in office real estate is the new generation of office staff. Staff nowadays are more aware of ecology and sustainable development issues, and they demand comfort in the work place. Employers (and, therefore, office real estate developers) have to respond to this demand in order to attract the most talented workers.
Standards of office construction and amenities are therefore vital for attracting and retaining staff, and the costs of equipping a high-quality, creative and convenient office are often lower than wage and incentive payments that would be necessary to retain staff in a less favourable working environment. So investments in green office technologies benefit the environment, create a comfortable and productive working atmosphere, and make employers more competitive on the job market.
Elena Belevtseva, PR Director at O1 Properties, said: “The best approach is to create a green office in a green building, where architectural, planning, engineering and technology solutions are already in place that will enable the tenant to save money in office operation while reducing negative impact on the environment.”
Separate waste collection has been centralized at all the environmentally certified business centres of O1 Properties. This greatly simplifies the task for tenants who wish to collect waste for recycling, but do not have sufficient room to store recyclables in their own office space.
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