Navigating the Green-design Process for Small Business

Thoughtful Planning Can Achieve a More Sustainable Space

By John Bencich, AIA

As a small business owner, opening your first office, store or restaurant is one of the biggest decisions and investments you will ever make. Building your space in an environmentally responsible manner can seem overwhelming. Square Feet Studio, based in Atlanta, has helped a number of entrepreneurial companies navigate this process. In fact, the firm experimented on its own office space, achieving LEED-CI Gold certification in 2009, which at just 1,400 square feet is among the smallest LEED Gold projects in the world.

For Square Feet Studio, sustainability and smart design are synonymous. Too many clients worry that going green will be complicated, expensive and intimidating. By simply taking greater care to determine what defines a company and its goals for the space, it is easy to execute a design that reflects these goals. In addition, a few defining principles will result in smart, simple and sustainable designs.

Be Clear about Your Goals but Open to Refinement
As a business owner, what does green mean to you? Is it to align with a brand by way of a certification? Or does the goal go to the core of your business and beliefs? The latter often leads the way toward better choices.

Be open about how much space you think you need. One of the most sustainable strategies Square Feet Studio practices involves simply using less. The firm worked with a commercial office tenant in early 2009 that believed it needed 10,000 square feet of space with an additional 2,000 square feet for incubator space and potential expansion. Square Feet Studio demonstrated that the tenant could achieve the necessary incubator space (an income producer) within a total footprint of 10,000 square feet without compromising other needs. This reduction in lease costs allowed the business more latitude in procuring furniture and other elements.

New sustainable material options become available almost daily, so don’t shy away from looking honestly at these options. With an open mind and consideration during the design process, you can improve indoor air quality, reduce your carbon footprint and even support local business without necessarily disrupting your bottom line.

Utilize Existing Circumstances to your Best Advantage
Whether you will own your space or lease, look at your existing assets to see what can be incorporated. When Square Feet Studio helped MATCH Inc., an advertising firm, relocate from an adapted warehouse to a brand new fourth-floor office space in Midtown Atlanta, the advertising firm’s administrators were concerned about how moving to a more corporate environment would impact the office culture of creativity. They also wondered whether their existing furnishings would stand out in the new space. The Square Feet Studio team decided to highlight two pieces that had been with the advertising firm from the beginning. A conference room was scaled around a table of reclaimed wood that was modified for technology and refinished. A break room was scaled around a 6- by 6-foot steel table with complementary finishes. To further the reuse scheme, reclaimed pine was utilized in the lobby. These simple, thoughtful decisions went a long way toward blending the old with the new and meeting their need for a more eco-friendly space, thus easing their transition.

“Square Feet Studio’s vision for our new office space captured the true essence of our agency and they did it by integrating high-end, sustainable materials with the bohemian vibe of our former space,” explains BA Albert, former president of MATCH Inc. and current chief creative officer for Grey Atlanta.

If leasing, you may find your building owner can only provide basic air-conditioning systems. Using passive strategies in conjunction with these base systems can help you economize. Consider how the building’s orientation will affect shade and ventilation. Determine how to bring daylight deeper into spaces, and reduce the number of offices so temperature controls can be grouped. The last simple trick will increase the perception of comfort without additional costs.

Today, more businesses are moving into adaptive-reuse spaces in cities’ urban cores. The quality of traditional materials and construction is almost always something to celebrate, so Square Feet Studio seldom makes radical alterations and instead draws out the pleasant patina. Simple gypsum walls, antique furnishings or reclaimed products are natural, green options that can reflect the personality of the client. In a recent project, Square Feet Studio incorporated raw-timber materials from an abandoned tire factory into the décor of a restaurant in a historic meat-packing plant. What at first seemed like a risky choice translated into to the right aesthetic.

Think as Long Term as You Can
The most sustainable spaces allow for long-term flexibility. To achieve this, consider minimizing or grouping fixed-function areas, like break and storage areas or offices. Also, placing them away from exterior windows allows the remaining floor area to remain flexible and can reduce costs by minimizing doors and walls. Softer room separations, such as drapery, glass walls or low walls, allow occupants to adapt the space for their individual needs. Classic and timeless finishes are less prone to the fickleness of design trends.

Adaptive-reuse projects remind us that smart, eco-minded design is not a new concept. Reducing your space needs, maximizing daylight and natural ventilation, sourcing local materials, and minimizing unnecessary materials and waste are smart design concepts that also fit into many green-building certification programs’ criteria. Although certification may not be the end-goal of every project, it provides a common baseline from which to make decisions. Greener spaces do not have to be overly complicated or expensive. They simply require smarter planning and execution.

John Bencich is a principal at Square Feet Studio, an Atlanta-based architecture and design firm that specializes in sustainable design for small-business clients. Bencich can be reached through www.squarefeetstudio.com.

Square Feet Studio's Atlanta office space achieved LEED-CI Gold in 2009. At just 1,400 square feet it is among the smallest LEED Gold projects in the world.
Square Feet Studio's Atlanta office
Square Feet Studio's Atlanta office
Square Feet Studio's Atlanta office
To maintain this Atlanta advertising agency's Bohemian feel in a corporate environment, Square Feet Studio's design team highlighted pieces from its former space, including a reclaimed-wood conference table.
And Atlanta ad agency's break room is scaled around a 6- by 6-foot steel table that had been used in the firm's former space.
Square Feet Studio incorporated raw-timber materials from an abandoned tire factory into the décor of the restaurant Abbatoir in a historic meat-packing plant.
Reused timber fits in well in an urban restaurant.
A colorful concrete ceiling at the entrance to the Dragonfly Salon in Atlanta.
Square Feet Studio designed benches made of salvaged pine and steel for the courtyard at White Provision in Atlanta.