Decarbonising offices: the hidden carbon in interior renovations

The fit-out sector, the interior adaptation of offices and premises, has an environmental impact that often goes unnoticed. The reforms are repeated every few years, and each cycle involves demolishing partitions, replacing pavements, ceilings and furniture, and generating waste that largely ends up in landfill. All of this is built-in carbon that could be avoided.

The strategies to reduce it are concrete and proven: planning the distribution to minimize the necessary material, prioritizing modular and removable elements, reusing furniture and partitions, and choosing finishes with recycled or reused content. Several international projects have achieved embodied carbon reductions of between 30% and 50% just by rethinking the design and selection of materials, without sacrificing the quality of the space.

For a company that wants truly sustainable offices, the first step is to measure the embodied carbon of the renovation and set reduction targets from the project. It is also the basis for accessing environmental certifications (LEED, BREEAM, VERDE) that the real estate market is increasingly valuing in the rental and sale of spaces.