Real estate office goes green all around

Red Oak Realty in Oakland, California, recently underwent a massive change to its office, according to the Mercury News. Not only has the office incorporated a large amount of greenery, with a "living" wall garden and impressive new furniture and fixtures, but the firm has "gone green" as well, eliminating paperwork and investing in a new document management system to keep costs low and remain environmentally friendly.

According to the news source, the idea for a new look and efforts for the office came after the two partners who run the firm both had children. The new members of their respective families gave them a fresh outlook on environmental concerns, and new ideas on how to do something about them.

Vanessa Bergmark, one of those partners, told the news source that the real estate industry in particular is wasteful of paper. With a vast amount of paper being used every day, and underutilized office space, the firm was simply wasting resources.

In half a year, Red Oak Realty has completely redone its offices, implemented document conversion services and replaced its endless rows of file cabinets with iPads, Smartphones and electronic signature systems.

"It doesn't look like a standard real estate office," Jennifer Ames, an employee at the firm, said.

Even without completely redesigning office space, any business can see savings and become more environmentally friendly with document management solutions. With a new strategy in place, a company will be able to become more productive, waste less resources and provide stronger services to its customers as well, who are growing increasingly technologically-savvy.

Brought to you by Image One Corporation, providing complete information governance since 1994.