April 17, 2023

Greening Your Business: The Environmental Benefits of Moving Downtown

| By Mari Hall |

 

Earth Week is here once again, spurring individuals and businesses across the globe to consider their environmental impact and counter climate change.

Implementing environmentally friendly practices can be a daunting task, especially if you’re starting or operating your own business.

Article after article on how to be an eco-conscious company touts making changes like using biodegradable packaging, eliminating single-use items, and buying carbon offsets. These are all attainable steps, but there’s a big piece missing from this strategy: choosing where to locate your business.

Whether you’re looking for a space to set up a new business or planning a relocation, consider these aspects of a move to downtown Fargo that can minimize your business’s carbon footprint.

 

Infrastructure

According to the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, “One of the heftiest environmental costs of a building isn’t the energy required to keep it running, but what’s created before its construction and during its demolition: greenhouse gas emissions that result from mining, manufacturing, transporting, installing and disposing of building materials. Known as ‘embodied carbon,’ it accounts for 11% of the world’s carbon footprint and is a prime target in the fight against global warming.”

Locating your business in a building that already exists in an area where public infrastructure already exists can counteract a sizeable environmental price tag. New neighborhoods require the construction of all new roads, water mains, electric grids, etc., an undertaking that generates serious ecological impact.

By comparison, choosing to put your office or retail space in an established city center like downtown Fargo maximizes the use of existing infrastructure, where that environmental price tag has been spread out across many years and businesses.

 

 

Walkable Neighborhood

Downtown Fargo is the most walkable district in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area. With a Walk Score® of 94, it’s a community filled with pedestrians. For retail businesses and restaurants, this means more foot traffic walking by—and entering through—your front door.

Additionally, your clients and customers are more likely to stop at multiple businesses without needing to drive from place to place. For you and your employees, it could also mean that grabbing lunch or running an errand can be done without driving, too. Choosing a location that reduces reliance on cars for you, your team, and your customer base is a big way you can cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

 

 

Employees As Neighbors

With a higher density mixed-use neighborhood comes an increased likelihood that company employees will live nearby. In downtown Fargo, where the community is projected to gain another 5,000 residents within the next decade, you’re putting your business among a large number of potential employees who can walk or bike to work rather than drive. Fewer people driving to you means a lower carbon footprint regardless of the size of your business.

 

 

Connection

Part of the magic of downtown Fargo is the ability to create and foster all kinds of connections, especially within the business community. Fargo’s passion for entrepreneurship and collaboration are on full display here. Joining the neighborhood allows you to tap into the kind of synergy that helps your company flourish.

But what does that have to do with the environment?

It means that the people you might want to work with are already here. You might meet them on the street, sparking new ideas right on the sidewalk. You can meet for coffee at a shop you and your collaborators didn’t need to drive to. You can network at amazing spaces like the Prairie Den or at insightful events like CreativeMornings Fargo. You can do it all in this community that becomes an extension of your workspace when you put your business in downtown Fargo.

 

We invite you to make a business decision that will reduce your carbon footprint for the long-term. Contact our commercial realtors today to find the perfect space in downtown Fargo.

Contact our commercial realtors today to find the perfect space in downtown Fargo.

📞 701.289.7000

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