The inconvenient (office) truth

The green colour is still fashionable. As energy bills continue to rise, investors and developers are finally starting to take a closer look at green office projects. How far behind is Central and Eastern Europe?Mladen Petrov It is late evening in Warsaw, but the skyscrapers downtown are still buzzing with life. These illuminated towers certainly look magnificent and contribute to Warsaw’s image of fast-paced city, but those who actually bother to enter these office buildings will be disappointed. The yuppies have all gone home. So how come the lights are still on? An office emergency? No, just another example of environmentally-unfriendly behaviour at the office.The next time you are leaving the office, please remember to switch off the lights. Action at the workplace is now needed, as the recent figures make clear: energy use in buildings accounts for 30-40 pct of the total energy consumption and carbon