World Environment Day | 5 June 2026
Every year on World Environment Day, the conversation turns to what we can do differently — the products we swap, the habits we change, the pledges we make. But in cities like London, one of the most powerful environmental actions isn’t about what we buy or discard. It’s about what we choose to see differently: the spaces already around us.
At Affordable Workspace Partnership (AWP), repurposing existing space isn’t a trend or a talking point. It’s the very foundation of what we do.
Building New Has a Cost We Often Forget
Construction is one of the most resource-intensive industries on the planet. Every new development demands raw materials, energy, water, and land – and generates significant carbon emissions before a single person steps through the door. The embodied carbon locked into a new building – the carbon used to produce its bricks, steel, glass and concrete — is already spent by the time it opens.
When a perfectly serviceable building is instead brought back to life, that carbon expenditure is avoided. The structure is already there. The foundations, the walls, the bones of the place — all of it preserved, and all of it a reason not to build again from scratch.
This is the quiet environmental logic behind everything AWP does.
Meanwhile Space: Making the Gaps Count, London is full of gaps – buildings between uses, sites awaiting planning permission, retail units left empty by shifting high streets. These spaces are often dismissed as problems to be solved by demolition and redevelopment. AWP sees them differently.
Through our meanwhile space programme, we work with developers and local authorities to activate underused buildings and sites for productive, affordable use while they await their long-term future. A vacant ground floor becomes a studio. A dormant warehouse becomes a creative centre. A forgotten corner of a borough becomes a home for a small business that couldn’t otherwise afford to exist in London.
This isn’t just socially valuable – it’s environmentally responsible. Every month a building is occupied and maintained rather than left empty or torn down is a month in which that building’s existing carbon investment continues to earn its keep.
The S106 Connection: Planning With Purpose
AWP works closely with developers and London boroughs through the S106 planning process the mechanism by which new developments contribute to the communities around them. One of the most impactful ways this works in practice is through the negotiation of affordable workspace within new or refurbished buildings.
Rather than entirely new structures being built solely for commercial use, S106 agreements can secure portions of existing or planned developments as permanently affordable workspace. This means that the drive to expand London’s stock of creative and business space doesn’t have to come at a purely additive environmental cost. We can grow opportunity within the footprint of what already exists – or what is already being built.
What Happens Inside Matters Too
Repurposing a building is the start, not the end, of the environmental story. AWP is committed to maintaining green, sustainable buildings that reduce the consumption of energy, water, and other resources across all our Creative Centres.
From New Cross Gate to Queens Park, from Blackfriars Road to South Tottenham, our centres are managed with sustainability in mind – because the communities of small businesses ― makers, and entrepreneurs who call them home deserve spaces that reflect their values as much as their ambitions.
A City of Makers, A City That Lasts
There’s something fitting about the businesses that fill AWP’s Creative Centres. The photographers, the designers, the craftspeople, the tech founders, the wellness practitioners – these are people who, by nature, understand the value of resourcefulness. Many of them build businesses precisely around making things well, making things last, or making the most of what’s already there.
In that sense, AWP’s Creative Centres aren’t just workspaces. They are a physical expression of the same values: use well what you have, make it accessible, make it last, and make it count for the community around it.
This World Environment Day
As we mark World Environment Day 2026, we’re proud to be part of a model of urban development that asks: before we build new, can we make better use of what already exists? It’s a question that every developer, every borough, and every business occupier can ask. And it’s one that AWP is committed to answering – one repurposed studio, one activated meanwhile space, one affordable lease at a time.
Affordable Workspace Partnership provides affordable creative studios and business support to micro and small businesses across London. We work with developers, house builders, and London boroughs to deliver social value through smart placemaking — and we’re proud to be on the approved workspace provider lists of multiple London boroughs. If you’re a developer, local authority, or entrepreneur interested in what we do, get in touch.
