The European Commission has delayed proposing a fourth Daughter Directive on air pollution while it carries out more research into the health benefits of strict air quality standards on four cancer-inducing pollutants. The Scottish-wide project stems from an Edinburgh based pilot initiative and from other European office developments in Copenhagen, London and Dublin. They will also encourage reduced car dependency, use environmentally friendly office stationary, green office technologies and be based on sharing of office resources.
The eco-offices will each be developed as examples of best practice in sustainability by using renewable energy, state of the art energy efficiency and water saving measures. The EcoOffice Scotland Initiative wants to provide affordable shared office space in city centre locations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. A Scottish company is hoping to set up green and environmentally friendly office spaces throughout Scotland. People throughout Scotland were asked to empty out all unused and surplus stationery items in their desks and put them in a central cupboard for use by others. For search engine reputation management Scotland ran a Green Office Action Week in March to encourage businesses to save money and resources.
These included emailing memos instead of printing them, re-using envelopes whenever possible, using a stapleless stapler and buying second-hand furniture. Matt Davis of BioRegional, a London-based charity that has recently opened an office in Glasgow, outlined easy, common sense examples of how to re-use, reduce and recycle in the office. One of the main messages from the seminar was that greening an office doesn’t happen overnight, and changes should be introduced slowly. Grants are also available to convert new and up to five-year-old cars to convert to LPG tanks, delegates were told.
Projects to cut back on waste and reduce energy use had been successful, including a waste minimisation project in the west of Scotland which saved nine small and medium businesses £835,000 between them. The seminar heard that £55 billion is spent on energy in the UK each year, but 20 percent, or £11 billion, of this is wasted.
