Case Studies

Customs Border Protection: Shrink the Office

Workplace Success Case Studies

Issue link: https://resources.agilquest.com/i/1308460

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 1 of 3

Since 2013, the federal government has quietly carried out a decidedly unsexy sustainability mission. The White House's "Freeze the Footprint" policy states that fed- eral agencies are not allowed to increase their leased square footage and, where possible, must take steps to reduce it. The Department of Homeland Security's inter- nal mandate is to reduce what they term "usable space per person" to a maximum of 150 square feet in each of their facilities. In the case of Customs and Border Protection, an agency housed within the DHS, some existing facilities "have a space utilization rate above 200 usable square feet per per- son," says Aron Beninghove, an architect contracted by the CBP to help improve that metric. "From a sustainability standpoint, space reduction is a huge thing," he says. "In most cases, we're looking at making a significant reduction in the footprint." In other words, the same number of workers will occupy much less space—which means a major reduction in building materials, energy usage, and everything else that goes into a government office—without sacrificing productivity. As it turns out, the solutions that CBP is implementing are actually im- proving worker productivity. There is also the not-so-minor detail that every square foot of space reduction represents savings in rent, construction costs, and operational expenses. Beninghove, as a government contractor with AECOM, acted as the facilities lead for CBP's recent pilot program to reduce its footprint, for which employee mobility was the central strategy. The idea is simple: rather than each employee being assigned to a specific desk or office, a multitude of different workspaces are made avail- able—ranging from private offices to col- laborative workspaces, and everything in between—and employees pick and choose which one they need on a given day. Some employees constantly move about through- out the day so they may use a handful of different workspaces on an informal basis. Telework is also a huge component: by en- couraging employees to work from home two days a week, workspace is freed up for those who actually need it. The first pilot project involved about 80 employees spread across two floors and nearly 14,000 square feet in one of CBP's Office of Administration buildings in Washington D.C., who were consolidated onto one 8,700-square-foot floor with just 27 desks. The transformation will net a sav- ings of $287,000 in rent each year, while the increased teleworking will save employees an average of $600 per year in commuting costs. The number of miles commuted by employees has been cut in half, resulting in a corresponding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Phase two was even more ambitious: 550 employees from seven floors in three buildings were brought together onto three floors in one building, resulting in a 46% reduction in square footage and a savings of $3.3 million per year in rent and opera- tional costs. The increased use of electron- ic files, which went hand-in-hand with the new mobility strategy, has resulted in a 25% reduction in office paper use. In addition, 17% of employees reported an improvement in their sense of work-life balance. Eleanor Moody, the "people and prac- tice" lead for the AECOM project, says the mobility strategy has nothing to do with cramming more people into less space, but is aimed at "depersonalizing the work en- vironment and adapting to a more mobile work style, not just in the sense of telework- ing, but also to be mobile within the space where you work. So one day you might sit in one seat, and the next day you sit in another, and the next day you might just be working FE ATURES AGILQUES T FE ATURES As a result of the changes at the CBP Office of Administration, 17% of employees reported an improvement in their sense of work-life balance. may – june 2016 gb&d 75 may – june 2016 74 gbdmagazine.com in a conference room all day. It liberates peo- ple to move throughout the space." Moody herself works in one of the trans- formed spaces and says that she typically sits in one of the tablet armchairs that are arranged next to a bank of windows on her floor. If she needs to make a private call, there are phone booth style cubicles scattered throughout the space that she can duck into as needed. There are also "touchdown stations," where she can sit down for a few minutes to touch base with a colleague, as well as comfy diner style booths for working lunches, among a myr- iad of other flexible workspaces."It's really rewarding to have worked on this project, where you can just see the change in peo- ple's attitudes in the way that they have embraced coming to work," Moody says. "People have said to me that the flexibility of the new approach has allowed them to be home when their kids get off the bus from school. They have the ability to man- age their time in their own way, and they are really appreciative of that." Freeze The Footprint: The White House's sustainability policy states that federal agencies are not allowed to i ncrease thei r leased square footage an d, where possible, m ust take steps to reduce it 98%: percentage of employees who reported they felt that communication and collaboration were improved by the transformation 102%: increase in worker productivity due to the increased use of mobile technologies $287,000: the annual savings in rent as a result of phase one (which saw a space reduction of 5,300 square feet) $3.3 million: annual savings in rent and operational costs as a result of phase two (in which seven floors of office space were reduced to three) 46%: reduction in overall square footage 25%: reduction in office paper use as a result of increased use of electronic files Customs an d Border Protection Office Transformation: By The N um bers $600: the amount employees will save, on average, in commuting costs PHOTOS: COURTESY OF AGILQUEST Additional Phase One Pilot Results:

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

view archives of Case Studies - Customs Border Protection: Shrink the Office