DELIVERING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY A TOOLKIT FOR POLICYMAKERS

DELIVERING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY – A TOOLKIT FOR POLICYMAKERS • 121
In a time of rapid digitisation, it is not difficult to imagine a more virtualised and shared
office environment. Since office spaces are already under-utilised, business could
rethink the role of the office as central but temporary place for colleagues to meet while
spending a significant share of their time working remotely. This would entail increased
desk sharing and reduced need for floor space. Another option is to temporarily rent out
unused space, an idea Liquidspace capitalises on by connecting people in need of desks
or conference rooms with nearby suppliers, much like an Airbnb for office space. 206
Businesses are very aware of the potential cost savings from reducing office space. In a
2012 survey, over 70% of 500 corporate executives indicated that the gross square foot
per person in their organisations would drop to a point that is more than 55% below
the current industry average. 207 Two major technology companies, IBM and Cisco, have
gradually increased the staff-to-desk ratio by encouraging teleworking, saving EUR 100–
250 million a year. 208 A Scandinavian example is Microsoft Sweden, who reduced their
office space by 27%, while still adding 1,500 additional seats. 209
Increased repurposing of existing floor space would make it possible to better utilise old
buildings and change the use of freed-up office space to, e.g. residential housing, in a
cost-efficient way and reduce the need for demolition and renovation. This is particularly
relevant since ~80% of Europeans live in buildings that are at least 30 years old, which
risk slipping into costly obsolescence as changing lifestyles and shifting demographics
and age distribution drive construction of new buildings. 210 The repurposing concept
of companies like DIRTT – with interior building components that are modular and
standardised – allows for maximum efficiency in changing the use of a building.
Complementary to repurposing, which changes the sequential use of a building, public
buildings could be multi-purposed for parallel use of the floor space, meaning that
different activities can take place during a short and repetitive time cycle. Making
better use of schools or libraries for evening activities (e.g. classes and cultural events)
is probably the most accessible example – such multi-purposing is indeed extensively
implemented in Denmark. A more advanced practice would be to design more multipurposed
buildings. This is already common practice for sports, cultural and conference
venues, but could in principle be implemented for smaller buildings as well. Public
spaces could be designed for both multi-purpose use and gradual repurposing to
optimise their economic value; an interesting example is the Boston Convention
& Exhibition Center whose parking structure has been designed to be gradually
transformed into retail and residential space. 211 So could office spaces; an example is the
Park 20/20 mentioned in Section 3.3.2, designed with shared and multi-purposed spaces
for meetings, videoconference and other functions.
By 2035, Danish companies could be expected to reduce their need for office space due
to shared desk policies and increased teleworking, which together with multi-purposing
of public buildings, repurposing of old buildings and freed-up office space, and the
accelerating sharing of residential floor space could increase the overall utilisation of
buildings by 60% (20%) by 2035 (2020). This could lead to a reduced demand for new
buildings by 9–10% (3–4%) by 2035 (2020), saving the Danish economy an estimated
EUR 300–450 million. 212 These findings give a directional view of the magnitude of this
opportunity for Denmark. They rely by necessity on a number of assumptions, the most
important of which are detailed in Appendix B.
206 liquidspace.com/. Liquidspace has also partnered with Marriott to provide conference rooms and other functions,
thereby increasing traffic to the hotels.
207 Cushman & Wakefield, Office space across the world (2013).
208 GSA Office of Government-wide Policy, Workspace utilisation and allocation benchmark (2011).
209 vasakronan.se/artikel/det-digitala-arbetslivet-ar-har
210 architecturemps.com/seville
211 Franconi, E. & Bridgeland, B. Rocky Mountain Institute, presentation at Re:Thinking progress conference,
Circular Business Opportunities for the Built Environment (14 April 2015).
212 This sector-specific impact does not include indirect effects, e.g. on supply chains, that are captured in the
economy-wide CGE modelling.