A creative workspace with circular practices
McLellan Works is a new creative workspace in the heart of Glasgow’s city centre, refurbished by Bywater Properties.
Offering small (500 sq ft) and large (up to 10,000 sq ft) office suites as well as retail and café areas, McLellan Works supports a vibrant and entrepreneurial culture which goes beyond just ‘work’. In a bid to reduce the building’s environmental impact, Bywater Properties has introduced several initiatives for its tenants which are helping to reduce carbon emissions and costs.
CIRCULAR RESULTS
Collaboration: Working with suppliers to provide high-quality, remanufactured office furniture and remanufactured bicycles
Rethink resources: the efficient use of existing materials and structures during refurbishment meant carbon emissions were reduced and less virgin materials were needed
HOW THEY DID IT
Refurbishment
During the refurbishment of McLellan Works, Bywater has re-used and recycled elements where possible whilst not compromising the heritage of the 160 year old building and their aspirations for the design and performance of the new office spaces. Strategies such as retaining the building structure, refurbishing rather than replacing windows, retaining and opening the roof structure rather than replacing and re-using the raised floors in the office suites has saved 2,486t CO2e of emissions compared to an equivalent new build. Expressed as the forest amount required to offset the emissions (defined by the Woodland Carbon Code) this is equivalent to 7ha of Mixed Native Woodland.
Remanufactured furniture
Did you know that 300 tonnes of office furniture is sent to landfill in the UK every working day? Or that 42% of the embodied global greenhouse gas emissions of a commercial building over a 40 year lifespan typically come from the regular cycles of tenant fit out?
In a bid to tackle the waste and carbon emissions associated with offices Bywater Properties have introduced the following projects as part of its commitment to protecting our planet.
Working with Rype Offices, McLellan Works offers its tenants a range of office furniture packs that have been remanufactured rather than sourced from new. Thanks to Rype Offices remanufacturing process, the furniture available at McLellan Works comes from renowned brands but at an affordable cost and with an 80% lower carbon footprint than the same items made from virgin materials.
Free use of remanufactured bicycles
Tenants within the building will be offered the use of a ‘pool’ bike scheme where they will be able to use one of five bikes whenever they want. The bikes, which come from Cycle of Good, were initially bikes used for postal services. No longer suitable for this use, Cycle of Good is helping to give the bikes a new lease of life and they are expertly remanufactured and fit for any commuting or leisure needs.
LEARN MORE
Click here to learn more about McLellan Works.