Teleworking Anybody?

Jerry Burbridge was our final in-class speaker of the day and of the mini-semester. He is employed with the Cherokee Nation where he is currently the Budget Manager for commercial leasing and ground construction and assigned to the Department of Homeland Security and Customs/Border Protection. Mr. Burbridge spoke to us about teleworking and the great benefits this brings not only to the individual but to the company as well. Teleworking is becoming increasingly popular but it is also becoming a way of life for many individuals and their families. Wouldn't it be great to work 2 or 3 days in the office with the remaining working days at home? Asked Mr. Burbridge. YES! 132 metric tons of CO2 per year are saved by the average full time employee when you add up the average vacation days, sick days and temporary leave. Can you imagine how much more CO2 can be prevented from going into the atmosphere if everyone telecommuted 2 days a week?

He continued to explain that his role in this process is to conduct site assessments and come up with a space planning sketch or plan for the work-spaces. He needs to make sure every possible work-space is being utilized efficiently for the specific number of people that are present each day at work while others are teleworking; Standardization of space! Mr. Burbridge, therefore builds Labor employee relations offices, forensic labs, jails among many others. He designed a space planning process with a "six side approach - 6666" where you must think of six sides for the four sixes:

1. Every piece of land has six sides. You must examine up, the top of the land, down and all four sides by asking yourself what is around me, are there minerals beneath the surface, who or what is next to me to the north, south, east and west?
2. Next comes the building and you check all six sides. You inspect the roof system, the foundation system and all four walls.
3. Third, you check all six sides of every room within the building.
4. The fourth and last six sided approach is for furniture, fixtures and equipment.

For Mr. Burbridge, this approach is essential for his everyday responsibilities and he proceeded to show us that a cost-savings on a 3,000 square footage space was $35 per square foot, $160,000 savings from construction costs and $155,000 savings in furniture costs. A reduction of 3,000 square feet  resulted in a cost-savings of $420,000 with these three items alone and everyone had a work-space for everyday they were physically in the office. Impressive! On top of his six side approach, you want to take into account operating costs, lease costs, contruction costs, furniture costs and carbon footprint. If you remember to incorporate all in your analysis, you will be an expert in green building!