ARK Coworking
Key facts about ARK's building
| Building type | Historic Church |
| Built | Late 1930's with 1960s extension |
| Size | 306 sqm |
| Occupancy | up to 65 people |
| Tenure and use | Leasehold, mixed use including office space |
| Sector | Real estate |
Based in Islington, ARK offers coworking space for creatives, remote workers, social enterprises and start-ups. The business was founded out of an old Victorian apartment building in 2016, but moved in 2022 to a restored church hall in the heart of King’s Cross.
The Islington Sustainability Network connected ARK to the Mayor’s Business Climate Challenge (BCC), which offered its leaders a pathway to pursue their business’s environmental goals as they restored their new building.
ARK was excited to participate to identify high-impact energy saving measures and build support for grant funding applications to undertake those improvements.
Business Climate Challenge journey
Sustainability, a core tenet of ARK’s business
Before joining the Business Climate Challenge, ARK had taken action on environmentally-friendly business practices. For example, the company collaborated with the Zero Emissions Network to make workspace improvements including LED lightbulbs, radiator reflectors, and draught proofing.
ARK also conducted a travel survey and initiated a pool bike system to encourage members to walk and cycle to work. In 2019, ARK became a Certified B Corporation, signifying the business had met high standards of environmental performance. ARK had also previously disconnected their gas supply and moved to exclusively using electric energy.
Energy and building improvements
ARK found several aspects of the programme valuable, particularly the energy audit and recommendations, knowledge sharing, and guidance on smart heat sensors and half hourly meter reads.
ARK’s report has already driven action. Guided by the audit and with support from the BCC team, ARK applied for funding through the Islington Community Energy Fund and London Community Energy Fund to install 52 solar panels.
The panels will generate 50 to 60 per cent of ARK’s annual energy consumption, and the business will be able to feed back to the grid in summer months. Gavin Turnbull, ARK’s co-founder, said that input from the BCC and the report’s specifics on expected carbon and cost savings helped their applications stand out in a very competitive funding cycle.
Business Climate Challenge priority recommendations
- Align HVAC and other controls to usage patterns.
- Install sensors for low-occupancy spaces.
- Add secondary glazing to single-glazed windows.
- Insulate roof.
- Install rooftop solar PV array.
- Infuse sustainability into procurement policies.
Total potential energy savings: 97 per cent.
It wasn’t just us saying we needed solar. We put everything the [BCC experts] said in that application…explaining that [solar] offered the biggest potential impact, and that it was going to save tons of CO2.
Next steps
The process continues, to extract maximum savings and impact from all the potential measures:
- Implementing audit report recommendations to upgrade windows and add secondary glazing.
- Reviewing the gas and electricity contract to potentially shift to a more environmentally-conscious supplier.
- Leveraging the BCC experience and network to attract environmentally-minded customers to their space.
- Expanding their footprint by repurposing churches in older buildings, with plans to make energy efficiency improvements to those structures.
It’s such a win-win that you almost feel guilty. You get to do something for the environment that’s really positive and impactful, and we get to save that percentage of our energy.