We Love Our Community. Here Are 4 Ways We Support It [And How You Can Support Yours Too].
If you ask us, coworking spaces that don’t contribute to their local communities are a little bit of a let-down.
Maybe that’s because we’re so passionate about ours. Hampden, and the city of Baltimore at large, are in the DNA of our business.
Or maybe it’s because we believe so strongly in the ability of coworking spaces to help make things better in the communities they operate in.
Here are four ways we contribute to our community – and how other coworking spaces can contribute to theirs.
Looking After the Environment
As a coworking space with dozens, if not hundreds, of members, the potential for waste is significant.
One of the first things to consider as a coworking space is how you can minimize your environmental footprint and minimize waste in your community.
At Co-Balt Workspace, we do this in a few ways.
Eliminating the Use of K-Cups for Coffee
Rather than keeping K-Cups in our space, we offer fresh-made coffee for our members and guests in our cafe. This way, we can eliminate one-off plastic being thrown away.
Having a Dishwasher to Avoid Disposable Items
Our kitchen area is fully stocked, including a dishwasher, cutlery, plates, and glasses. This way, our members don’t need to use disposable knives, forks, plates, and cups. They can simply bring their food in Tupperware containers, use real plates and cutlery, and leave it for us to wash at the end of the day.
Keeping House-Made Sparkling Water on Tap
At Co-Balt, we’ve got in-house beer taps pouring straight from the keg. Our keg system has two taps. One we use for beer, and the other we have hooked up to a modified soda container that we can pressurize to create our own house-made sparkling water.
We make it a priority to avoid filling up landfills and minimizing our environmental impact.
Supporting Local Businesses
If you want to support your community, the best way to do it is by spending your dollars on the local businesses around you.
Rather than ordering from big corporations, we go directly to local artisans and businesses to source some of the most commonly-used goods in our space.
This includes sourcing all of our beer from local breweries and purchasing all of our coffee from a local manufacturer.
We even have a 10-foot by 10-foot refurbished shipping container at the side of our Co-Balt building where we host local businesses. This allows them to gain greater visibility within the community and expand their retail footprint in order to secure more business, all the while allowing us to provide a popular value-added service for our members.
With the COVID-19 pandemic taking a drastic toll on our local businesses, going above and beyond to support the professionals and businesses in your community is more important now than ever.
Hosting Professional Development Sessions That Help Local Businesses Grow
As a hyperlocal coworking space, the vast majority of our members are Hampden or Baltimore-based.
This means that the more successful they are, the greater their contributions to the local community and the city at large will be.
That’s why we do everything possible to equip them for success, including:
- Facilitating lunch and learns that will help them grow their businesses
- Professional networking opportunities that create valuable connections between local businesses and pro
- Guest speaker seminars
- Zoom meetings with specialized professionals during COVID-19
Our events include everything from seminars teaching our members how to market themselves to accounting tutorials that help members get the most out of their financial practices.
Throwing Community Events
One of the keys to engaging our community at large is to do things that benefit not only our members but also the businesses and citizens in Hampden as well.
While we sadly can’t do it during the current pandemic, we love to host and participate in community events.
One of the events we put on is our Christmas Maker Markets. In addition to being a community-wide event, we also host local artisans so that they can sell their goods.
We also love to participate in the annual Hampdenfest because it allows us to connect directly with the people and businesses in our neighborhood.
We can’t wait until we’re able to get out and get together with our community again.
Everything we do is for the community of Hampden and the city of Baltimore. For coworking spaces, it’s important to understand the significant opportunity you have to contribute to your community and make things better.
Outsourcing work can be a great option for entrepreneurs, solo professionals, and small- to mid-sized businesses. Take your time, get organized, and be diligent and you’ll be able to find a partner who makes your life a lot easier.
Looking for an Inspiring Office Space for Your Business?
To learn more about Co-Balt Workspace or if you’d like to book a tour of the space, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
