IWG is installing EV charging points at a number of its flexible work locations in the UK to support members’ sustainable choices.

IWG – the world’s leading provider of flexible workspace – is introducing electric vehicle (EV) chargers across a number of its locations in the UK to help the nation’s hybrid workforce operate more sustainably.

The facilities are being supplied and installed by electric vehicle charging specialists Mer, after recent figures showed that 2021 was the most successful year in history for EV take-up in the UK.

Mer’s mission is to make sustainable electric mobility easy and accessible to everyone by simplifying the EV charging experience through its cutting-edge EV charger tech and payment solutions. Having Mer’s chargers at IWG locations will empower members to make more sustainable transport choices under a hybrid working set-up. 

Hybrid working – where employees can split their time between working from a flexible workspace close to where they live, working from their company’s headquarters and working from home – is becoming the way forward for a growing number of businesses following the pandemic. Having the freedom to work flexibly has led to improved wellbeing and productivity for the digital workforce – an IWG survey revealed that 72% of employees said they would prefer flexibility over a 10% pay rise. 

Improving cost efficiencies 

Meanwhile, a hybrid working model brings cost efficiencies for companies looking to streamline their operations and avoid using resources they no longer need, reducing their environmental impact as well as their overheads.

IWG’s recent white paper, Hybrid World: Sustainable World, highlights how hybrid working is integral to helping businesses reach their ESG (environmental, social and governance) targets, due to the role it plays in reducing fossil fuel emissions, as well as its impact on other areas including health and wellbeing and gender equality. 

Reducing carbon footprints

By empowering employees to work flexibly, companies negate the need for a daily commute to a city-centre headquarters, which dramatically cuts their employees’ collective carbon footprint. Citing research from Global Workplace Analytics, the report states: “If all US residents who could and wanted to work from home started doing so for half the week, it would be the greenhouse gas equivalent of taking the entire New York State workforce off the road.”

The new EV chargers at Spaces, Regus and Basepoint locations will support companies’ efforts to operate more sustainably, making it possible for employees to make use of electric vehicles for short trips to their local flexible workspace, with the added convenience of being able to charge them while they work. It also supports the concept of the 15-Minute City – a sustainable urban planning concept where everything citizens need in life exists within a 15-minute journey from their home without the use of polluting transport.

Mer have now installed 25KW DC semi-rapid chargers at four of IWG’s locations, including Regus Atterbury Lakes, Milton Keynes, Spaces Globe Park, Marlow, Regus Chester Business Park and Basepoint’s Bromsgrove Enterprise Park.

Over the next few months, the rollout will be extended to 30 workspaces, offering thousands of customers and their clients more environmentally-friendly transport options and helping to accelerate EV adoption.

Find out more from IWG about how hybrid working can support your company’s sustainability agenda.