Ariel Re is setting the standard for re/insurance companies when it comes to office space.

For the re/insurer, which moved into its new premises in Victoria Place on January 26, occupies two floors of state-of-the-art offices, with everything from electronic wall-mounted booking systems for its meeting rooms to a kitchen-cum-lounge complete with the latest appliances and a flat-screen television.

Ariel Re decided to make the move after outgrowing its former offices at Windsor Place in Queen Street and to give its 68 employees an even more productive and healthy work environment.

However, Brenda Tatem, senior vice-president and human resources director at Ariel Re, said one of the key selling points of the building was its green facilities, a theme which runs throughout the company's offices and which it is keen to promote.

"Our senior management are very conscious of the environment and want to make a difference and contribute to helping make Bermuda green in this way," she said.

"We are also a strong technological company and everything we do is driven by technology, which this building is well-supported by."

The company, which writes Directors & Officers and property insurance and marine and international property reinsurance, puts the emphasis on staff integration and mentorship, with an open plan office for everyone from the president downward, encompassing its 10-strong team of analysts and modellers, re/insurance, administration, IT divisions on the fourth floor. Separate offices are only assigned to the CEO, chairman, HR director and chief legal officer.

"It is an opportunity for people to work right next to more experienced employees and really learn from them," said Ms Tatem.

The fifth floor comprises a reception, seven meeting rooms with video conferencing facilities for presentations and staff meetings with neat features, such as the electronic booking systems which tell you who is in which room, light control sensors which detect motion, sound and body heat and even vertically folding walls to increase space, and a balcony for employees to relax and entertain clients, complete with an executive dining kitchen and bar.

Other nice touches include a lounge with signed rugby shirts from events Ariel Re sponsored across Bermuda adorning the walls and tables tops which slide open to reveal power points to plug laptops into and a kitchen fully furnished with stainless steel appliances like refrigerators and ovens, a dining area and lounge with flat-screen television.

The company, just like the building, which was designed by Peter Terceira and Glyn Quarterly, is moving with the times in a bid to become a good corporate citizen and looking after its staff's welfare on a number of levels, ranging from scrapping the use of plastic bottles for clients and replacing them with water from filtration systems and contained in metal jugs to keep it cool, to encouraging its employees not to eat at their desks by getting away from the work environment through the use of the dining facilities on offer.