Design A More Environmentally Friendly Office

By Erik Braunitzer, and courtesy of Douglas Elliman Real Estate Company, agents for NYC Apartments.

Designing an environmentally friendly office demonstrates social and financial wisdom.  By caring for the earth’s natural resources, you impact the environment in a positive way.  You also save money by consuming less energy. 

Before starting an office design project, educate yourself and others.  Research local sustainable offices, and find ideas and techniques that work for them.  Invite your employees and clients to share their favorite eco-friendly tips.  Write a press release that outlines your environmentally friendly design plans.  Work in partnership with the office community to reduce your carbon footprint in various ways. 

Lights

By replacing traditional light bulbs with eco-friendly bulbs, your office remains well-lit and environmentally friendly.  Available in all sizes, shapes and watts, LED light bulbs allow you to transform existing or new ceiling fixtures and desk lamps into eco-friendly lighting. 

Water

Conserve water by installing a water sensor system that notifies you of water leaks.   Install low-flow toilets and infrared faucets to reduce the amount of water office personnel use.   

Waste 

Encourage employees to recycle.  Place recycling containers alongside trash cans, and post signs that list the types of materials that can be recycled.  Designate a collections area for used ink cartridges.  Purchase rechargeable batteries, and rely on computer files rather than printed paper. 

To protect the landfill and water sources from harmful chemicals, separate and properly dispose of hazardous or chemical-laden items used during the design process and in daily office use.  Batteries, foam, tile, and paint should be disposed of separately from the regular trash.

Materials

Whether you replace the office furniture, repair the floor or repaint the building, purchase materials with low VOC ratings.  Use secondhand or recycled building and furniture materials whenever possible. 

Electricity 

Reduce your office’s energy consumption and your electric bill by turning off electronics and all lights overnight.  Instruct employees to unplug non-essential technology tools before leaving the office for the weekend.  When purchasing new printers, computers and other equipment, choose options with high energy efficiency ratings.

Temperature

Investigate geothermal options when choosing a heating and cooling system for your office.  Geothermal choices utilize the ground’s energy and decrease your energy consumption.  Alternatively, purchase an energy efficient system or install additional insulation to aid the existing system in maintaining a comfortable office temperature. 

Air

Install air purifiers to reduce allergens that aggravate asthma.  Clean the air and provide a healthy work environment for employees and clients.     

Design an environmentally friendly office, and save natural resources and money.  While the initial cost may be high, the long term savings to the environment and your budget make installing eco-friendly products worthwhile.  Choose to invest eco-friendly equipment, materials and practices for positive, long-lasting results.   

An Arranging Order Update

It’s been awhile since I’ve put anything regarding Arranging Order into the blogosphere, but I have some exciting updates to share with you.

I officially finished working for corporate America on May 28, 2010.  Though I launched Arranging Order full time on September 1, 2009, it took several months to create a pipeline of sustainable business in which I could use as a foundation of business before becoming entirely self employed. 

A Designer Spot – an interior design blog resource based out of New York recently started covering events in Chicago and they asked me to provide coverage for them!  Head over to the Chicago version to see read about some of the exciting events I’ve attended, as well as images and commentary from the  events.  Thank you to A Designer Spot and Alin Boicu for the opportunity!

We’ve also started working with two new clients over the past few months in the virtual assistance category.  I’ve recently started working with Circa1856 and Alton Jamison (professional speaker). 

Circa 1856 reimagines antique and vintage pieces and turns them into wearable modern jewelry.  Remembering the past, and updating the style allows us to preserve the important history.

Alton Jamison speaks to individuals, educational institutions and businesses spreading the message on the importance of a positive mentality, while emphasizing the power behind removing imaginary handcuffs that prevent you from being your true self.  

We are also working on expanding into California - more on that later.

Finally – Arranging Order joined the Chicagoland chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).  In doing so, we have seen an increase in the organizing side of our business. 

AO would like to thank our clients for their business, our friends and family for their support, and Lennie Rose for her unconditional mentorship.  Thank you for taking this journey with us, and best wishes for a successful and productive 2011.

Are virtual offices growing in popularity? Yes, and here's why.

Why would I ever use a virtual assistant?

A recent article I came across suggests an emerging trend in where and how people work.  If you've been working in "Corporate America" for any length of time recently, you've most likely noticed this fundamental shift. 

Our bosses aren't working in their offices most of the time, they are working out of their cars, their homes, and in Starbucks on their blackberries.  Gone are the days of fax machines, and snail mail, replaced with .pdf's and e-mail.  These changes have caused us to conduct business in a manner in which everyone is adapting, some more quickly than others.  For example, you know you've come across an e-mail at some point where the sender wrote their eloquent message in all capital letters, and you've discovered you barely want to read what they've sent because you're annoyed. 

Not only are we changing our communication, our workplace locations, and our technology, but the business industry is changing as well.  With the fall of our gigantic corporate conglomerates (Enron, Lehmen Brothers, etc.) we have begun to see a new crop of employees taking their financial security into their own hands, and becoming entrepreneurs. This not so subtle shift has led to a new set of challenges, needs, and business options.  Hence - the invention of the business service category of Virtual Assistance.  Was there a need for virtual assistance back in the "Mad Men" days?  No - your secretary sat outside your office waiting to assist you with your every need.  Do we need assistants sitting at desks outside the offices our bosses are never in?  No...  We need someone who can assist us in a new way, that is flexible, understands technology, is able to work on our timeline, not theirs.

So what is a virtual assistance?  The International Virtual Assistants Association explains:

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis."

Why is this industry growing in popularity? Well - given that we have a changing workforce, our needs have changed.  Gone are the days of the need for a salaried employee who drains your company financially with payroll taxes, benefits, health care and equipment.  Now you can find practically anyone within the virtual assistance community who can do what you need, faster, cheaper and better than your traditional employee who needs to figure out how to accomplish this new fangled task you've requested of them, before being able to undertake the task.   An example of this is - a small office has 3 employees, one of them works the accounts at the firm - whether it is calling, selling or working on an account, while another takes care of the books and office needs, and finally the third person is perhaps the owner, the professional, etc. who oversees everything but doesn't touch the daily needs of the business so much.  Now in this example - the 3 person company decides they need a web-site.  They have one of two options:

1) Ask the person who handles the office needs to learn how to build a web-site, build it, and then launch the site.  This person now needs to learn how to drive traffic to the site, how to measure the statistics of the site, and be able to alter the site when needed.  This likely takes up a considerable amount of time, on top of the already assigned job duties.  This project also likely takes a long time to complete.

or

2) Hire a virtual assistant skilled in building web sites.  Contract the project out to the virtual assistant, and project launches within a reasonable amount of time, while normal working environment continues.

Which option costs the organization less?  Option #2.  Basic economics - the opportunity cost of utilizing the existing employee to do something outside of what that employee is qualified to do is simply too much.

While this way of working is foreign to us...so were blackberries, e-mail and the internet.  The key to business is adapting.  If you can adapt quickly, you will survive and thrive.  Do you want to not only survive but also thrive?  Of course you do - so start adapting and out source your business to someone who can help.

Have no idea where to turn?  Good news.  The Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce is just the place for you.  Head on over there to get started.  Not only will they educate you on what else a Virtual Assistant does, but you'll be able to choose one of two ways to get started working with someone - either a "quickie gig" where you will have a fast turn around time or you can submit an RFP (Request for Proposal) to the Chamber of Commerce who will invite their assistants to bid on your project. 

Good luck and happy hunting.