Coworking stands for community, collaboration and the sharing of resources – through this and beyond, coworking communities have an impact on the carbon footprint of many people! Self-employed coworkers share equipment, heating, air conditioning at work. Employees reduce commuting while working in a space near to home. Some space hosts did more than that. Shall we have a look at some best-practice considerations and decisions that might be an inspiration for you?

(de) Coworking wirkt sich auf den CO2-Fußabdruck vieler Menschen aus; einige Gastgeber sind nachhaltiger: Lasst euch von ihren Best-Practice-Überlegungen und Entscheidungen inspirieren • (es) El coworking influye en la huella de carbono de muchas personas; algunos anfitriones hacen más para ser sostenibles: inspírese en sus consideraciones y decisiones sobre las mejores prácticas

Sure, sharing and pooling our infrastructures with lots of coworkers is itself already a huge move in regard of sustainability. But most of us coworking hosts did not stop at that point. For the Coworking Climate Coalition* I started to collect examples to inspire and encourage coworking spaces to make better decisions respecting our nature and its resources.

What are the ingredients of an eco-friendly coworking space?

Let’s have a look what space operators did and do to reduce their and their coworkers‘ carbon dioxide footprint. And if you have a sustainability hack to add, feel free to add it in the comments.

OVERVIEW to this long read

• Building
• Furnishing
• Electricity, Light & Equipment
• Indoor Ambiance
• Maintenance
• Beverages
• Snacks
• Transportation
• Engagement for Sustainability

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Hardware of a Coworking Space

Building

In our coworking space we can make the best use of natural light.
Our coworking space is located in an energy-efficient building.
The building has a proper insulation.
The building has been constructed with sustainable materials.
We used eco-friendly material to paint the walls.

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Furnishing & Furniture**

Minimalism is our Maxime.
We prefer second hand furniture.
We prefer certified eco furniture.
We prefer self-made furniture.
We strongly prefer wood over plastics.
We strongly prefer glass over plastics.
We strongly prefer felt from wool over plastics.
We strongly prefer recycled materials.

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Electricity, Light & Equipment

All lightning is LED.
We switched to an eco-friendly supplier.
We convinced our landlord to switch to a sustainable supplier.
We chose a green web hosting service for our website.
Our printers are eco-friendly.
Our heating is eco-friendly.
We did not install air conditioning.
We installed solar panels.
We plan to go solar.

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Indoor Ambiance

We have a variety of air-cleaning plants.
Coworkers may bring their own plants.
We offer an outdoor area with lots of plants.
We installed an eco-friendly air conditioning system.

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Zero Waste Maintenance, Drinking & Eating

Maintenance

We prefer repairing over buying.
Our Coworking Guidelines educate coworkers to work with reduced carbon footprint.
We collect rainwater to water our plants.
We provide a system for separating waste that is easy to understand.
We work with a fair-paid cleaning service.
We clean with „Zero Waste“ products.
We use eco-friendly cleaning products.

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Beverages

We offer local beverages.
We encourage to drink coffee with non-dairy ‚milk‘.
We serve fair-trade coffee.
We offer fair-trade tea.
We serve only sustainable coffee
We prefer „Zero Waste“ products.
We offer (filtered) water from tab.
We offer a public water filling station.
We encourage coworkers to favor „Zero Waste“ ToGo drinks when buying elsewhere.

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Snacks

We offer local produced snacks.
We recommend local eco-friendly snack options.
We partner with an eco-friendly snack provider.
We encourage coworkers to get their snacks without unnecessary packaging.

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Reduce human carbon footprints

Transportation

Coworkers

Coworkers can easily arrive with public transportation.
We encourage coworkers to arrive eco-friendly.
Coworkers make use of a carpool.
We offer cost-free use of bicycles / scooters / eBicycles / eScooters.
We offer cost-free use of a pooled eCar.
We offer low-cost rent of bicycles / scooters / eBicycles / eScooters / eCars.

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Staff

We encourage staff members to arrive eco-friendly.
Most of our staff members arrive by bike.
Most of our staff members arrive with public transportation.
Staff members do carpooling.
Staff members may use our bicycles / scooters / eBicycles / eScooters / eCar for free.

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Take action!

Engagement for Sustainability

Cost-free hosting of repair cafés.
Cost-free hosting of events for exchange of clothes.
Cost-free hosting of flea markets.
Cost-free hosting of other events for sustainability.
Our staff members are engaged in sustainable projects / activities.
We are part of an organization that deals with sustainability at large.
We encourage coworkers to think about their carbon footprint and offer advice.
We take part in activities for environmental awareness and sustainability together with our coworkers.

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And you?

Got some new ideas for your space as coworker or host? Great! This was one of the purposes of my blog article.

If you have a „green“ advice to add, please feel free to share with us in the comment section.

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*Coworking Climate Coalition :: The initiators like to motivate more and more coworking spaces to participate in this movement – at least to make an effective contribution to climate protection with our industry. Since July 2021, the group comes together to inspire each other on how to work with their communities towards a more sustainable world. www.coworking-germany.org/tag/climate/

**Eco-friendly Telephone Booth :: Learn more about our recent choice for sustainable telephone booths!

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