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We want to help people to find their life's purpose

“We want to help people to find their life’s purpose – and part of our social impact programme in EMEA is to create inclusive opportunities for underserved communities, including female founders, the refugee population and the BAME community.”

Please tell us about your background and role at WeWork

I am a chartered energy manager and a degree qualified mechanical engineer with 13 years’ experience in retail energy and sustainability management. In 2016, I was awarded a royal honour by the Prince of Wales for my services to the energy sector.

My role at WeWork is to ensure that the impact that we have on the environment is minimised in the cities we operate in. We strive to provide inspiring workspaces that also promote health and wellbeing for our employees and members.

WeWork’s ‘superpower’ is designing and occupying incredible buildings with a diverse member community who share our sustainability and social impact values.

 

How does WeWork promote social value around its locations?

We want to help people to find their life’s purpose – and part of our social impact programme in EMEA is to create inclusive opportunities for underserved communities, including female founders, the refugee population and the BAME community.

We support companies and individuals by providing them with WeWork space and connecting them to other members working from that same building, who might then offer their own skills to help or even provide business or employment opportunities.

We work with organisations like Generation, which prepares, places and supports people into life-changing careers, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and the Entrepreneurial Refugee Network. They help us to run impactful programmes for us to work together on and we agree on set targets and outcomes. 

Working with these organisations is one reason why our employees and members join us at WeWork, as we create opportunities for them to get involved in the programmes.

 

How does WeWork support sustainability?

WeWork brings more people to local neighbourhoods, creating economic activity for local businesses. Research from our 2019 Global Impact Report shows that 70% of our members globally did not work in the neighbourhood prior to joining our location, bringing more prosperity to those places.

From the report research we also found that 76% of WeWork members walk, bike or use public transport to get to work, and 40% of members who used to drive alone to work switched to a more sustainable form of transport. Some of our buildings also provide bicycle storage racks and showering facilities to encourage members and employees to cycle.

How we operate our locations is also a significant part of how we can minimise our sustainability impact. A lot of effort goes into maximising the efficiency of our heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. We also install LED lighting, metering and movement detection sensors – it’s the basics of energy management but applied across the portfolio to deliver the best possible performance.

 

What has WeWork done to ‘go the extra mile’?

We are committed to being fully carbon neutral by 2025 – this means addressing our carbon emissions through energy efficiency, purchasing renewable energy and credible carbon offsets and helping our suppliers do the same.

We have also worked to remove single-use plastic items from our daily buildings operations and have brought back reusable milk bottles in London, saving over 400,000 single-use plastic bottles from being used.

 

How did WeWork tackle the COVID-19 pandemic?

We have put in place extensive measures to help to create safe and comfortable environments in our spaces, to meet member expectations around social distancing and sanitisation.

In March 2020 we launched WeWork for Good to support members and local communities during the pandemic. We realised that we are in a unique position to help non-profit organisations and government agencies on the front line of the pandemic who needed short-term workspace. Organisations we helped included cancer charity Marie Curie in Manchester, Paris hospital trust operator AP-HP and FareShare UK in London – the charity fighting hunger and food waste.

Publication
Real Estate Reset Report
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Jaz Rabadia MBE

Jaz Rabadia MBE

Sustainability & Social Impact Director | WeWork Europe | Middle East and Africa