Sustainable Coworking Spaces in London: Paddington Works, Paddington Basin

Located in the Paddington Basin -just a few minutes walk from the station -is Paddington Works, a high tech coworking space with a strong focus on the health and wellbeing of both its members and the environment.

As part of our feature highlighting the best sustainable coworking spaces in London, we chatted to the lovely team at Paddington Works about their journey to becoming one of the most sustainable coworking spaces in London.

Could you tell us a bit about Paddington Works?

Since its inception, Paddington Works has been focused on being a workspace where health, wellness and sustainability are paramount. It’s a purpose-built co-working space that houses a mix of areas, including private studios, co-working, meeting rooms, a multi-purpose auditorium and high spec podcast studios — all arranged over two storeys.

How do you keep your members engaged in health and wellness?

We’ve incorporated wellness principles into the architecture of our building to create healthier and happier environments for our startups and small businesses to flourish. Members are encouraged to utilise the ergonomic smart desks and chairs provided to help make sure they’re keeping a healthy posture while they grow their businesses.

Light plays an important role in people’s health & productivity, that’s why our intelligent LEDs shift their hue to adjust the colour temperature of the light throughout the day to suit our members’ circadian rhythms. This keeps our member’s minds and bodies in sync with their natural body clock. It helps to prevent them feeling that midday dip in energy, thus staying focused and more productive for longer!

Our building is also adjoined by new revolutionary fitness gym, RETRA. With RETRA, you only have to commit 30 minutes at a time to your workout. And because each exercise is arranged station-by-station, you're able to work out flexibly, on your own terms, on your schedule. As one of our health & wellness partners, members of our co-working community are able to get a discounted membership. RETRA are here for a 'lunch-break pump' or an 'afterwork crunch'!

It’s important for people to take that break, to feel like they can socialise at work. The co-working areas are divided throughout the building into their own pods to allow communities to form within the workspace. Each area has its meeting rooms and breakout spaces, organised around a social space and kitchen.

We love Paddington Works so much! Could you tell us a bit more about the building design and its green credentials?

Of course! Our co-working space is being powered by 100% certified renewable energy from our friends at Good Energy. Paddington Works was designed at core level with a range of health-conscious building services, designed to promote productivity and well-being in all our members. We run an air circulation system that filters clean air into our studios every 18 minutes! This bespoke system delivers 50% more fresh air than building regulations. Our spaces and meeting rooms are filled with natural light and our building is home to banks of flourishing green plants – we know the health benefits of being close to nature! We also have ample space for bike storage to encourage our members to stay moving and cycle to work.

For our events, we use local small businesses for catering to reduce food miles & support these businesses. Even our “Thirsty Thursday” drinks have sustainable drinks with cocktails from studio holders, “MOTH:” who make recyclable canned cocktails.

What is one thing that would surprise us about the space that the team has done to make it more sustainable?

One of our most innovative initiatives is probably the zero-mile crops grown in our V-farm. We plant the seeds in the vertical farm and the hydraulic system keeps the water flowing. When they’re ready, we harvest and give away the plants, herbs, veggies to members to either plant at home or use.

We haven’t heard of anywhere else that does this.

What do you think are the main benefits of working in a sustainable, purpose-driven space?

The people. The best thing about a shared space like ours is the company collaboration. Internal networking between brands and startups — members build lasting relationships with other businesses that share the same values. There’s a real sense of community in a space like this where everyone’s success is shared.

Where is your favourite spot in Paddington Works to work from?

I would say our corner break out space. It’s filled with plants & natural light. It’s great for impromptu meetings or just getting through some overdue emails!

Thanks so much to Henry and the Paddington Works team for sharing more about their sustainability journey! Paddington Works is the perfect spot for anyone looking to work from a sustainable coworking space in London.

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And if you are looking for a coworking space in West London - check out this article.