The workplace is changing. It has been for years and we reached the epicentre of development for the way businesses continue to manage their companies. We need to relearn managerial techniques in an environment where around 33.5% of Dutch Nationals now work exclusively from home; we need to learn how to analyse costs and regulate emissions as we use our workspaces in new hybrid ways.
Agile Workforces
Agile workforces have proven to be more effective in adapting to remote working, implementing tools for tracking performance and giving management a clear sense of how well and quickly things are happening. Whilst we are all familiar with these variations of the software, we may not be familiar with the types of software that can be used when measuring energy consumption when offices are working with a reduced number of in-office workers.
Having an increasing number of remote workers within a company means that the way businesses approach and understand their energy consumption needs to be adjusted. Is it necessary to keep lights on throughout the workplace or should a business consider using occupancy monitoring sensors that help automate lighting controls based on whether or not the room is in use?
These monitoring systems can also be programmed to keep track of the temperature within an office, reducing or turning off at a certain time or turning on when there are people actively using the office. There are even air quality sensors that can help keep a room at a comfortable temperature in an energy-efficient way. Executing software like this can help reduce costs spent by a company when considering the amount of remote and flexible workers who may not use an office in the traditional sense.
Companies such as Rhino provide businesses with various types of software that help monitor the energy output in a workplace through the use of smart meters. Currently, around three-quarters of the EU’s net domestic energy usage is due to domestic production activities, showing that businesses are not presently conscious of their energy output. In a time when companies are striving to become more climate-conscious, these innovations can offer support to businesses that are concerned about their energy consumption and want to make the necessary changes to help their business reduce their emissions.
Is Hybrid working cost-effective?
For many, hybrid working is proving to be the more cost-effective option for running a business in today’s climate. Research has shown that you can significantly reduce office costs by up to 40%, with most office workers preferring to use an office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Whilst Mondays and Fridays see a reduction in use by 19 and 13%.
This reduction is vital when considering managing energy costs and rented spaces. Is it necessary to have a larger office when around 40% of an office's desks remain unused?
Having a limited amount of employees using space at any given time means that an employer can spend thousands heating these unused offices, increasing the amount of energy consumed by the company and ultimately becoming a waste of resources. Hybrid working can help drastically reduce these costs, especially when companies encourage employees to work from home two or three times a week.
Employee travel is one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions and whilst emissions dropped 7% during the pandemic, there is still a lot of room for improvement. One of the ways a business can help reduce the amount of carbon emissions from transport is to implement a carshare scheme or encourage the use of bicycles. Learn more about the different scopes of emissions which impact your company in our article concerning Scope 1, 2 & 3 carbon emissions.
Why a smart office is the best office
The reductions to office usage mean that workplaces need to think effectively about where money is being spent especially at a time when energy usage is becoming monitored throughout countries to ensure that they are complying with the recently enforced legal responsibilities a business must take to ensure the reduction of energy used.
Companies such as Brivo offer a technological and innovative approach to workplace security. Allowing managers to monitor activity from their phones to see who is accessing the building at any given time. It also gives employees the option of having their key cards on their phones which helps provide overall security within a hybrid working environment. Having a smart office helps a workplace optimise how they work, boosting productivity by allowing employees to focus on tasks that work technology cannot do. It offers a business the opportunity to work effectively when communicating with employees who are working out of the office.
It also, as previously mentioned, allows a business to monitor their energy consumption, offering employees the ability to make adaptations to the workplace and become more energy efficient. By using smart meters, companies can also monitor if their properties comply with the recommended energy consumption boundaries.
IoT technologies (Internet of Things) can help improve employee experience in the workplace, software that monitors air can ensure that people are working in rooms with low CO2 levels which has been proven to reduce drowsiness. These IoT technologies can also be programmed to make seasonal adjustments to account for the impact of weather, holidays and other external elements.
It can also offer employees the ability to access meeting rooms and desk occupancy monitoring that can reduce the friction caused by hot desking. By having desk or office availability accessible to employees, companies can choose which spaces to keep open and effectively communicate with employees to ensure that they are all using the same space. Further reducing the amount of emissions caused by having too many unused office spaces open.
Overall, the use of smart technology to help a company reduce its carbon footprint is proving to be incredibly effective, owing to the use of AI software and a business' desire to become more climate-conscious.
Rhino allows you to effectively monitor the real-time utility consumption of your facilities, helping to drive down energy costs and increase your business’s sustainability. Take the first step towards decarbonization and contact us at sales@rhino.energy