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Cowork to Go Green

Don't Be Trashy mug
Photo by Danielle Lim

Great customer service is about delivering on the promises that you make and building them to surprise and delight your customers. We’ve been talking a lot about delivering excellence within our coworking community and it’s had me thinking a lot about our manifesto, where we clearly state what we stand for and our promises to our members. Because it’s Earth Month and Earth Day is right around the corner, let’s dive into one of those promises:

“We believe that giving back, supporting local and living sustainably improves our lives and our communities.”

This promise is one with a real and lasting impact as stewards of our community. It’s rooted in who we are and also how we hope to make a difference with our membership and within our neighborhoods. The people across Haven’s collective actively participate in our green initiatives – and sometimes, without even knowing they’re a part of something bigger than themselves! Here’s how we’ve worked to make sustainability a part of our community:

Building Stewardship

Long before Haven’s doors were open, we had already leaned into being green. We chose vacant, underutilized, and unloved buildings within our communities to bring back to life. During the renovation, we kept as much of the original appearance, materials, and layouts as we could to limit our construction footprint. Did you know that up to 40% of annual consumer landfill waste has been attributed to construction waste? We wanted to limit what our renovations would contribute to that, so we saved as much of the original materials as we could when building your havens.

Walking through the spaces, you might not always notice the green choices that we made throughout them. For example, did you know that all of our lighting is LED, which helps minimize energy usage and maintain longevity? Wherever we couldn’t reuse the existing flooring, we replaced it with sustainably-manufactured materials from Interface Carpets – who, by the way, in many ways, is the corporate leader in enterprise sustainability. Also, each of the painted surfaces used low or zero VOC choices so you can breathe easily. Plus, we chose quartz for our countertops, a more sustainable and durable choice (careful with the red wine, please!).

Green Design

Welcome. Comfortable. At home. This is how we want everyone to feel at Haven Collective. We carefully curate every piece of furniture and décor in our spaces. Working with local woodworking companies to create custom tables, benches, reception desks, and shelving help support local businesses and buy sustainably.

We LOVE vintage. We have a ton of fun shopping in vintage stores, going to auctions, and finding pieces online that bring warmth and depth to our workspaces. One thing we didn’t expect was the chance to keep a few great pieces that were a part of the buildings before we moved in. Can you guess which vintage pieces those are?

Natural Elements

Turn on any show on HGTV and you’ll probably hear, “I want lots of natural light!”. Well, so did we! That’s why we designed our spaces so that every office, shared or private, has access to natural light. Those wonderful rays of sunlight help our members see better and feel better. It also helps keep our artificial light usage down, limiting our energy usage. Just like plants, we all need natural light in our lives.

Speaking of plants, each Haven coworking space is filled with not only bright, natural light, but lots of living plants. You’ll see them from the moment you walk in and notice they’re just about everywhere! Did you know that plants not only help improve air quality, but they also improve our own mental health, too? Go ahead and try hanging out next to a plant and see how you feel.  See? So much better.

Action Steps

Making sustainable choices is about creating good habits. That’s why we’ve made recycling easy by placing recycling bins throughout our spaces. Whenever possible, we choose products with recyclable packaging so it’s less confusing to know what can go in them. Now, what’s your excuse for not recycling while coworking again?

Every year, Haven Collective is proud to support Green Columbus, a local green nonprofit, through Earth Day service projects that aim to improve the environment and local communities. We promote their projects, volunteer in the community, and encourage our members to take action. Find out more about how to get involved with Green Columbus’ upcoming Earth Day Columbus volunteer opportunities today!

Shared Services

Do you have a printer at home? Neither do we. One huge perk of coworking is the opportunity to share services. Each workspace shares a printer/copier, reducing the need for everyone to own their own. It also gives us the chance to choose greener materials for everyone to use, from recycled paper to remanufactured print cartridges.

Caffeine is another benefit that we’ve greened up for our members (and we’re not just talking about green tea!). Forget Folgers, at Haven, our coworkers get the best, small business, locally-roasted, equitably sourced, great-tasting coffee. By supplying our members with delicious alternatives to Starbucks, everyone’s environmental footprint is a step smaller while also supporting local. Plus, you can use a reusable mug with something funny or motivational to make your day a bit brighter. And don’t worry, if you need to take your cup ‘o joe to go, we’ve got compostable cups made from recycled materials, too.

If you’re staying with us for coffee, don’t forget there’s a library at each location for learning – one of our members’ favorite shared services. Browse, borrow, read, skim, write notes in the margins, or even leave your business card for someone else to find and connect with about a book you both read. Our libraries are not only beautiful but places for growth and connection.

With built-in networking opportunities, workshops, business coaching, and peer-group masterminds, Haven Collective coworkers have a one-stop spot to work on their business, get their best work done, and grow without all the running around when trying to go at it alone. Sharing resources, by doing business as a community, is just one way that it can be easy being green.

Staying Green

Coworking plays a huge part in greening up how we work and where we work, and at Haven Collective, we like to go the extra mile to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make sustainable choices and provide our members with a healthy, green environment to get their best work done.

We’d love to show you how we go green. Sign up here for a tour to visit one of our beautiful green spaces.

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