Fujifilm has officially opened Fujifilm House, its new UK headquarters in Bedford. Sustainability considerations were integral to the new building’s design, as underlined by the 2787m2 site’s BREEAM environmental rating.
In designing the new building – which is a short distance from where Fujifilm operations had been located since 1983 – Fujifilm worked with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, one of its corporate charity partners, to keep the environment around the UK HQ site as habitable as possible for plants, wildlife and animals.
In addition, the site’s 80 rooftop solar panels are able to generate up to 63,000 kW of electricity each year, saving 29 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. On a sunny day, they collectively generate enough electricity to sustain the building without needing to draw energy from the grid.
Meanwhile, the site’s interior is fitted out with intelligent LED lights, which are triggered by motion sensors, turning on when they detect movement and remaining off when rooms are empty.
The temperature in the main areas of the building is maintained with a centrally controlled comfort cooling system, which is turned off overnight.
To accommodate Fujifilm’s evolving company fleet, as well as anticipating the shift away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles, the car park at Fujifilm House has 16 charging points and there is capacity to provide double this number in the future as demand grows.
A continued part of operating sustainably at Fujifilm House involves reducing waste and recycling. A waste sorting system enables rubbish to be sorted into general waste, printer cartridges, plastics and cans, and paper and cardboard.
Fujifilm has also taken steps to keep its UK headquarters clean and tidy in an eco-friendly manner – the toilets are flushed with rainwater and toilet paper is made from recycled material. Even the toilet roll dispensers are made from recycled Tetra Pak packaging.
Installed throughout Fujifilm House is Soap2o. The cleaning agent, which is made from biodegradable materials, is sold as tablets which can be added to water to form a liquid soap. Benefits of the soap include its lightweight delivery compared with traditional liquid soaps, a reduction of packaging by up to 70% and the elimination of single-use plastic packaging.
The cleaning routine on-site involves an ioniser which adjusts the pH of the water to create a strong alkaline liquid that is suitable for sanitising. After around 24 hours, the ionised cleaning solution gradually neutralises back into water.
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