A corporate HQ that's good for customers, employees and the planet
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Version 0 of 1. As you drive down the A44 motorway between Amsterdam and The Hague, Avery Dennison’s new European HQ near Oegstgeest is hard to miss. With its glass façade, living green roof and red Avery Dennison logo, the Paul de Ruiter-designed building has more in common with the Corpus Museum next door than the other corporate facilities in the area. But what really sets the building apart is what happens inside. Delivering ‘aha!’ moments The heart of the 130,000-square-foot building is the customer experience center in the building’s atrium. Here, in an interactive experience rich with product demonstrations and multimedia content on Apple iPads, customers can explore Avery Dennison materials and learn about the company’s vision for sustainability. By seeing how products are made and how they work, customers can gain a better understanding of how to apply them in their own businesses. We discovered that it’s much more effective to show rather than tell. “We discovered that it’s much more effective to show rather than tell — to demonstrate our products rather than simply talk about them,” said Rob Verbruggen, director of communications for Avery Dennison Materials Group Europe. “Our experience center gives customers a tactile understanding of our capabilities, products and sustainable innovations. It caters to their curiosity with a fun and engaging experience, while illustrating our position as a global leader in innovative materials solutions.” A customer exploring the experience center might begin at the “legacy table”, which highlights key milestones in Avery Dennison’s history and features videos and news. There’s also a “core capabilities counter” that introduces visitors to the company’s nine core strengths; a “sample table” displaying commercial applications of Avery Dennison products; and various “activation zones” that demonstrate innovations like ClearCut, an adhesive that enables more efficient use and transportation of labeling material, and CleanFlake, a pressure-sensitive label solution that improves the recyclability of plastic bottles. Increasing collaboration and inspiration While customers explore Avery Dennison products downstairs in the atrium, around 350 employees are busy designing the company’s next innovations in the five stories above. The new building brings together personnel from three divisions — label and packaging materials, graphics solutions and reflective solutions — previously housed in separate facilities six miles apart. An open floor plan encourages more collaboration among the teams, while a new 17,000-sq-foot research and development center provides state-of-the-art labs for R&D scientists, making it easier for them to interact with colleagues in other parts of the business. Related: Q&A: Charlie Brown, an Avery Dennison sustainable design ambassador Built-in sustainability In addition to providing a better experience for customers and employees, Avery Dennison’s new building provides a better experience for the planet. It was awarded a “Very Good” BREEAM rating and includes a number of features that reduce consumption of energy and other resources while reducing operating costs. Among them are: “Everything about this building is a testament to what we care about as a company,” said John Marsh, Avery Dennison’s director of project management and facilities. “It is first and foremost an outstanding place for us to collaborate with our customers and with one another. It’s a place that inspires innovation. And it does these things sustainably, both in terms of cost and natural resources. Our new HQ is a symbol of how we’re creating change from the inside out — in our company, our products, our industry, and the world.” Content on this page is provided by Avery Dennison, supporter of the Vital Signs platform. |