What is “green” about Everything Office
Everything Office as a company are ISO14001 accredited.

As part of being ISO14001 accredited Everything Office all of our paper used in the office is recycled. We offer a recycled service for toner and inkjet cartridges free of charge to our customers. We ensure all machines are turned off when not in use, and for extended shut down periods only the essential business machines are left on stand by.

To help raise the awareness of our “green” range of products we have launched a new web site this year called www.enviro-office.co.uk

As resellers of electrical items Everything Office also advise customers how to follow the WEEE directive and dispose of their items in an environmentally sustainable way.

Office furniture is part of the range of products sold, so for all local office installations we encourage our customers where possible to recycle their old furniture and we will send it free of charge to Eastex - the materials exchange for the east of England.

Everything Office is currently in the process of having a brand new purpose built office constructed. This new building has been designed fully with the environment in mind and is due to be completed March 2008.

Some of the new office features include:
A green roof – The green roof will be a roof covered in a plant called Sedum. This covering of the roof in Sedum will act as insulation for the building.

The roof is made up four layers.
Layer one (the base layer) is a protective and storage mat that helps to protect the roof membrane against damage and store water.

Layer two is a drainage system that enables rapid discharge of surplus water and helps prevent the accumulation of water on non-pitched roofs.

Layer three is a substrate specifically designed to enable a high water retention capacity and good drainage.

Layer four is the spread of sedum shoots, which will self set and germinate giving the roof a soft green finish.

As a genus, sedums are tolerant of most well-drained soils and are at home in poor soil and dry locations. They love sunshine and thrive in full sun or light shade. They can stand going without water for long periods of time but are just as happy in an irrigated flower bed, so long as the soil isn't persistently soggy.

Rain Water collection – Excess water that is drained off the roof will be collected and used for hand washing and the flushing of toilets. The captured rain water will have filtered through the green roof the water will have gone through some natural water purification.

Heating/Air conditioning unit – Many options have been investigated including geothermal energy via a ground bore hole and a ground source slinky, but neither of these option were viable because at best the slinky would take 60 years before you got any return on investment and the bore hole was 100 years. We have opted for heat pumps from Mitsubishi.

The operational characteristics of a heat pump are totally different to a traditional boiler. With a conventional boiler, one kilowatt of energy in gives less than 1 kilowatt of heat to the building. With a typical electrically driven heat pump boiler, one kilowatt of energy in will give more than 3 or 4 kilowatts of heat to the building, and these efficiency levels are predicted to rise year on year, increasing the benefits to Everything Office and reducing CO2 emissions further. The heat pump also draws in air from the outside giving the staff a constant supply of fresh air and will help reduce the circulation of bad air and reduce the amount of colds and viruses that can be spread by traditional air conditioning units.

Hot Water – The heat that is generated from the companies servers is to be captured and converted into heat for hand washing and the shower unit.

Energy efficient lighting – All lights will use energy efficient bulbs. Areas such as the warehouse, kitchen and toilets will have motion sensitive lighting reducing the amount if wastage from leaving lights on.
Light Reflective Blinds – The new office will have light reflective blinds in so the natural light from outside is not completely blocked out of the office, but reflected up into the points in the ceiling which will then beam around the office giving staff a more natural light to work in.

Wind Turbine - Outside the office we will have a wind turbine that will be connected up to the office generator enabling the company to have constant uptime should the main power supply fail.

Outside Space – The out side space of the office will be fully landscaped to give a pleasant working environment for the staff including a grassed seating area. There is also space for several shrubs and trees to be planted. These will consist of a mixture of fruiting and non fruiting trees and shrubs which will also offer a variety of habitats for the insects and wildlife.

Bicycle Parking – With the new office being located more centrally for most of the staff at Everything Office, we have incorporated a bicycle parking lot which is undercover and we have a new shower/bath room area has been designed to try and encourage as many staff as possible use their bikes rather than their cars.