After finding an affordable and convenient warehouse space in the industrial section of Santa Ana, Orange County, local printing company MVP decided to turn part of their premises into an office space. The warehouse wasn’t equipped to accommodate private offices, and the company felt that keeping the whole space climate-controlled would be wasteful, so they decided to group 10 20-foot shipping containers inside the warehouse to act as offices. The warehouse’s new industrial-chic workspaces proved to be an affordable option that continues to save the company on energy bills.
The bright red pods are grouped around a central courtyard with potted trees. They’ve cut out walls, added sliding glass doors, porthole windows, and individual A/C units. One of the containers was even turned into akitchen (pictured above). Each office space was configured and furnished for a cost of about $3,000 to $4,000 each.
One benefit that has come from the new shipping container office space is a big reduction in the company’s electricity bills. “Our energy costs have dropped about three grand a month for heat and air conditioning,” saidKeith Flanigan, owner of the company. “If everybody is not in the office, if they go to lunch, or they’re sick for a day, then the unit is turned off.” The new office pods put an end to the constant climate control skirmish. Now each office’s temperature can be individually controlled, and the savings are stacking up.
Although the warehouse offers limited natural daylight, we think the offices looks pretty hip to work in. Not to mention, the office pods are proving the feasibility and success of building green. As more attention is given to environmentally-sensitive materials, creative re-use of existing materials will prove to be beneficial to companies seeking to lighten their carbon footprint and reduce their expenses. We hope that other companies, like this one, will ask “what can we do differently with what we have, rather than going out and building a brand new building?”
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