At home you’re isolated, working for days or weeks without human contact. At the coffee shop, you’re jostled by screaming kids, glared at by other customers waiting for a table and obligated to buy drinks in return for your long stay. What’s a mobile worker to do? Head to one of the many green coworking spaces that are popping up across the world, especially office/cafe hybrids that not only provide a welcoming workspace, shared equipment and pooled resources but drinks and snacks to boot. Green coworking spaces save both energy and cash and put you in touch with like-minded professionals.
Bureaux, Melbourne, Australia
(images via: bureaux.com)
Bureaux is a group of coworking spaces located in five cities across Australia – Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Noosa. Each location offers not just elegant, relaxing workspace environments including conference rooms and private workstations, but staffed coffee bars serving up caffeinated beverages, sandwiches and snacks to keep workers going all day long.
Betahouse, Berlin, Germany
(images via: betahaus.de)
One of the largest coworking spaces in Germany, Betahaus is going for an atmosphere that hovers between “a Vienna cafe, library, internet cafe, home office and campus.” Accordingly, in their stripped-down modern space they have not just desks and meeting rooms but quiet areas with sofas to rest on and – temptingly – an espresso bar from which you can order your drink via e-mail.
Urban Station, Buenos Aires, Argentina
(images via: urbanstation.com)
Bright and cheerful, Urban Station in Buenos Aires, Argentina definitely looks conducive to both work and relaxation. Have a seat in a wingback chair and enjoy a coffee, or bring in a group of colleagues for a meeting at a conference table. Whether you’re there to drink, to surf the internet or to hone a business plan, Urban Station is a welcoming destination.
Shelter, Dubai, UAE
(images via: shelter)
Mobile workers in Dubai can head over to ‘Shelter’ for networking, pooled resources or just a quiet place to concentrate. Shelter is packed not only with loft offices and meeting spaces, but also a cafe, library, store – even a cinema and a Zen garden. Starbucks who?
The Works Cafe, Crawfordville, Florida
(image via: the works)
Floridians in the Crawfordville area flock to The Works Cafe for scratch-made baked goods, cappuccinos – oh yeah, and a hip place to work outside the office. It’s a basic co-working space where lingerers on laptops are more than welcome, but a lot of people frequent The Works for the tastiness of its edible offerings.
Backspace, Portland, Oregon
(image via: backspace.bz)
By day, Portland’s Backspace is a coworking hub, offering not just free wireless and computers-for-rent but a big bright open space where chatty coffee drinkers and focused workers can coexist in peace. At night, it transforms into a venue for music and poetry. The all-vegetarian menu gets rave reviews, as well.
CitizenSpace, San Francisco, California
(image via: steve rhodes)
After a recent expansion, CitizenSpace now occupies two floors and has more room than ever in which to be your most productive and get some creative thinking done. They rent out desks for a monthly fee, but if you want to stop by and check it out or just spend an afternoon every now and then, it’s free. Yes, there is coffee, but you have to make it yourself – probably a small price to pay for all the other cool amenities.
Green Spaces, New York, New York
(images via: greenspacesny.com)
Green Spaces in New York – which has another location in Colorado – is an eco-friendly office, clubhouse and event venue that has also expanded to include full-service support for green businesses and social entrepreneurship. The offices use 100% wind power, compost all food scraps, a passive heating and cooling system and an eco-friendly Xerox Colorcube printer. All companies wishing to use Green Spaces must sign a pledge promising to work as green as possible while at Green Spaces, including using minimal paper products.
New Living, Houston, Texas
(images via: forest design build)
Houston’s green building and home store, New Living, has more to offer than just paints, bedding and other green goodies for your home. They also offer a green coworking hub to eco-professionals, giving them a space to network, share resources and ideas, and grow their businesses together.
Green Desk, Brooklyn, New York
(images via: green-desk.com)
In Brooklyn, Green Desk offers two sustainable coworking spaces that not only offer bright, open offices-for-rent and shared office equipment but is also green in and of itself with energy-efficient lighting, recycled paper products, shared bicycles, power from renewable resources and recycled or recyclable furniture. They also plant five trees for every new member.



