Islington, North London. Recently, global creative businesses, architects, designers and end-user occupiers convened for the Workspace Design Show. This year, Hunters proudly sponsored both the Sustainability Works and Occupiers Forum.
This year's talks were held in the Insights Lounge, designed by Gensler and BDP and installed by Lewis Harman, Leah Howey and Alan Palmer with support from Merit Office Installations and Workplace Connect. Leah is a member of Hunters design team and Alan is one of the company's project managers. Two of the Hunters team spoke at this year's event covering both B Corps and the the future of the workplace.
We would like to thank NORR11, Normann Copenhagen, Muuto, Fredericia, Merit, Workplace Connect and West Sussex Office Furniture for enabling us to create an inspiring and welcoming space for the event's visitors.
The first talk from Hunters saw our Sustainability Lead, John Wozniak feature as a panellist on the topic of B Corps. Deepak Parmar, DesignDirector / BCorp Lead at MCM and Beatriz Gonzalez, Director at Scott Brownrigg, were also panellists. The trio discussed the pros and cons of B Corps and what it means for business. Everyone was unanimous in their beliefs that any business wishing to become B Corps certified must do it for the right reasons.
Whilst there are lots of merits to achieving B Corps status, it was acknowledged that B Lab, the governing body, has come under criticism. Nonetheless, it appears B Lab has consulted with its stakeholders, and subsequently released a new version of the scheme.
John, speaking on behalf of the furniture industry, made it clear that B Corps might not be a priority for many manufacturers, especially when you consider the investment needed to attain a myriad of Environmental Product Declarations and other industry standard certifications.
On Wednesday, it was the turn of Hunters Director, Lewis Harman to discuss bringing energy back into the workplace. Joining Lewis, was Marco Gastoldi, Associate at Gensler and Linzi Cassels, Principal Design Director at Perkins&Will.
Companies are making a real effort to create positive working environments and the cost of getting that wrong can be expensive, putting a lot of emphasis on the design process.
Employees are looking for an environment that caters for all of the work settings that they may need to carry out their roles. This means that the days of rows and rows of desks is firmly in the past. Because of this, the Workplace needs to offer focus spaces along with a variety of meeting and collaboration spaces and this is what will attract your people back to the office.
Most importantly the space needs to flex to the number of users in the space each day.
On behalf of our suppliers, we would like to thank everyone for taking the opportunity to visit this year's event. If you're considering B Corps, don't forget to check out the free assessment tool, as used by Beartriz and the team at Scott Brownrigg.