Celebrating Our Planet: 5 Ways We Prioritize Sustainability at WorkSmart

While April’s Earth Day is a great reminder, every day is an opportunity to reflect on how we can reduce our environmental impact. The best place to start? In the office. 

Sustainability in the workplace is more than a trend; it’s a necessity. More businesses are adopting eco-conscious practices, and coworking spaces like WorkSmart Coworking & Meeting Space are leading the charge. From reducing individual carbon footprints to fostering a greener community, we believe that sustainability and productivity go hand in hand.

Here are five things we do to create a smarter, greener atmosphere – for our members AND our planet: 

Use Energy-Efficient Systems

At WorkSmart, our goal is to give you everything you need for a productive workday, including energy-efficient systems. 

Our renovation in 2018 gave us the perfect opportunity to thoughtfully upgrade the space while honoring its unique character and history.

We installed a modern HVAC system featuring continuous fresh air intake and MERV-13 filtration, allowing us to prioritize air quality for respiratory health and improve energy efficiency – a win for both wellness and sustainability. 

We also took great care in selecting lighting options that align with our vision for comfort and wellness for our members.

Every office space features dimmable lights, allowing you to adjust the ambiance to suit your needs. The lights we use are solely LED, which are 100% recyclable and contain zero toxic materials.

Using LEDs can help reduce your carbon footprint by up to a third, allowing us to lessen the environmental impact of every individual who uses our space.

Enable Resource Sharing

With a WorkSmart membership, you have access to high-speed internet, wifi, printers, office supplies, free coffee, kitchen facilities – the list goes on. Utilizing these resources eliminates the need for you to purchase and maintain your own equipment, benefiting both your wallet and the circular economy. 

Materials aren’t all – utilities like electricity, water, and heat count too! Sharing these resources significantly reduces consumption per person, minimizes waste generation, and creates one footprint where over 50 business owners can co-inhabit.

Promote Paperless Operations

Despite our increasingly digital world, paper consumption continues to rise. Every year, offices in the United States use a total of 2.1 trillion sheets of paper, placing the paper industry as the third largest polluter of air, water, and soil. 

As active participants in the business world, we have the power to decrease these numbers – one of the reasons why WorkSmart uses paperless operations.

With our automated software, members can easily manage their membership plans, access resources, book meeting spaces, and more –100% online.

Our system’s eco-conscious design ensures efficiency and simplicity, allowing us to minimize paper use and maximize convenience for our community.

Revitalize a Historic Building 

Although the Beaux-Arts style building that WorkSmart calls home is beautiful, we chose it for more than its aesthetics. 

Originally built in 1914, our building began its life as the First National Bank of Glens Falls. It continued to operate as a bank under various names until 2015, when it was vacated and remained empty for several years. That changed when WorkSmart launched our expansion project, officially occupying the space in July 2022.

As a coworking space with a hyperlocal focus, we understood the impact our relocation could have. Rather than just a move, we saw it as a chance to create meaningful change—for our community and the environment. 

Our relocation placed us in the heart of downtown Glens Falls, giving our members shorter commutes, more walkable access to shops, dining, entertainment, and much more. Skipping long drives and opting for walking or biking saves much more than your time – it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, supporting a cleaner, healthier urban environment.

By choosing to rehabilitate an existing building instead of opting for new construction, we avoided 50-75% of the embodied carbon emissions that a comparable new build would generate. It’s another step forward in sustainability for WorkSmart—and one we’re proud of!

Utilize the Power of Plants

All of our unique spaces at WorkSmart are decorated with plant life, creating an environment where productivity and well-being can flourish. However, these leafy companions offer more than just aesthetic appeal—they play a vital role in supporting mental wellness and sustainability.

Plants bring a calming, natural energy to our coworking spaces, creating a soothing presence that is scientifically proven to reduce stress and anxiety. Beyond their psychological benefits, plants are powerful productivity boosters, improving concentration, enhancing attention span, and even sparking creativity.

And let’s not forget what plants do best: clean the air. Through photosynthesis, they naturally increase oxygen levels while reducing carbon dioxide, making our shared spaces not only more beautiful, but healthier too.

At WorkSmart, we believe the little things—like the presence of a plant—can make a big impact on how we work and feel every day.

Start Your Sustainability Journey with WorkSmart

When you choose to work in a space that values sustainability, you become part of a larger movement for change.

At WorkSmart, we’ve built our community around doing good - for people, for business, and for the planet.

Want to work in a space where green practices are already in place? Join us at WorkSmart, and help create a future where work and sustainability thrive together.