We don’t mean you should go green with envy, we mean you should turn your office into an eco-friendly habitat. In recent years more businesses are focusing on promoting their efforts to create sustainable work spaces. With some businesses, they have created their entire office with the health of the environment in mind.  We’ve collected some examples of the best eco-friendly offices from around the world – use them as inspiration to turn your office green.

There are many benefits to having an environmentally friendly office. Along with helping the environment and showing a positive work culture, you can attract new customers. Some customers appreciate companies who have an eco-friendly ethos and make efforts  to benefit the environment.

Some studies even suggest having inspirational eco-friendly offices can improve productivity for employees. From a study at Harvard University, they discovered the cognitive performance scores of employees improved by 101% when working in a green building with improved ventilation.

Have a look at some of these inspirational eco-friendly offices and take a leaf out of their book, go green.

Rijkswaterstaat Head Office (The Netherlands)

Built in 2009, the Rijkwaterstaat Head Office is an eco-friendly office located in Assen. The architect and the client wanted to create a building that would reflect the company’s values and be sustainable.  The mass facade was designed to block the sun and lessen the noise of the highway next door (that’s one way to reduce noise in an office).

This inspirational eco-friendly office used FSC certified wood and has solar panels on the roof. There is also a green roof terrace for employees to gather for meetings. The building received a Class A Level by GreenCalc and was classed as an Excellent building by BREEAM (environmental assessment methods for buildings).

Eco Park by Arkus

This building project by Arkus shows the ability to combine nature and modern architecture.

The four office areas are separated by vegetation which can be used to insulate the buildings and help the buildings look like they are part of the natural landscape. The double roof system is designed to help the building retain heat and stabilise internal temperatures. These features help the building keep heat inside so it’s not wasted.

Gummo (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

This office is incredibly eco-friendly by how they bought all their furniture second hand. Gummo bought all their furniture second hand online and from charity shops showing how it’s possible to recycle old furniture and still look stylish.

Of course you want to buy new furniture for your office but this company have made their office look brand new by how they’ve restyled all their furniture. You couldn’t tell it was from eBay.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Building (London)

Arguably one of the most environmentally friendly buildings in London. The PwC building has an integrated IT system so each employee has control over temperature and light in their work space. Because employees can control the conditions of their work space, they aren’t wasting additional heat or light.

The building has other eco-friendly innovations:

• 80% recycled aggregate in the concrete
• Recycles wasted heat into the building to alter temperature in the building
• Uses recycled cooking oil to produce 25% of building’s energy
• Installed solar thermal panels

The PwC building was shortlisted for the LEAF Awards 2011.

The Foundry – Social Justice Centre (London)

Winner of the RIBA London Building of the Year award 2015 is The Foundry. Built in a repurposed shoe factory, the architects of this social justice centre were considerate of the environment surrounding the building when they started their work.

By keep most the building’s traditional feature, they kept the building’s structure the same but added wide windows along the facade. The natural light let into the building means most of the building can be lit and warmed by the sun.

PIXEL (Melbourne, Australia)

Proclaimed to be ‘Australia’s greenest commercial office building’, PIXEL proves it’s an advanced eco-friendly building and looks futuristic with its modern design.

As a sustainable building, it has a sun shade system that lets natural light into the office and can change to limit the heat and glare into the building. By using its own wind turbines, PIXEL produces its own electricity – very sustainable!

Nanyang Technical University, School of Art, Design & Media (Singapore)

Cheating slightly as this one isn’t an office but this university building deserves a mention. The green roof tops promotes the outdoors and reduces energy consumption. Completed in 2009, it has the Green Mark Platinum Award – Building and Construction Authority (BCA).  Offering an outdoor environment to work or study helps to boost morale and productivity.

In 2007 the building won the Honour Award in the DesignShare Awards for innovative learning environments.

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If you’re not ready to create your own eco-friendly office, then you could get an eco-friendly printer. What’s so special about a printer? Well, this one, recycles.

Epson’s PaperLab is an inhouse recycling machine that produces recycled paper

This papermaking system will let offices recycle in the office so they can save money buying new packs of paper every month. Epson claims the machine will be able to produce paper in various sizes and thickness – meaning it won’t be just standard A4.

It’s not been revealed how much this recycling system will cost but it’s likely to be estimated around £40,000. PaperLab will go into production in Japan in 2016, so keep your eye out.

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Modern offices are driving towards being eco-friendly and having sustainable features. Being environmentally friendly benefits your employees and benefits your brand. Read our FREE eBook about Modern Offices to learn what people expect in today’s offices.