By: Amber Sambo, Social Media Manager and Content Creator at Decusatio
As the climate-change discussion peaks and people gain more knowledge, there is increasing pressure on employers to not only protect the planet but to also ensure that the health and wellness needs of their workforces are met by providing environmentally healthy workspaces for them.
Here’s why and how adopting greener and more sustainable approaches can improve the health and overall well-being of your workforce.
The why
Sustainable workspaces are healthy workspaces with optimum air temperatures, humidity levels, noise levels and enhanced air quality can help improve the physical and mental health of your employees. Improving the environments of workforces has proven to substantially increase productivity and the quality of their work. A Singaporean study found that employees who work in energy efficient buildings experience headaches, fatigue and skin irritations less often. Improving environmental elements such as insulating, heating and ventilation systems improves air quality and reduces the effects of allergies and respiratory and cardiovascular conditions as well as contributes to considerable and continuous improvements in mental health.
The how
Work from home
As the implications of Covid-19 start easing up and businesses prepare to move their workforces back on premises, allowing workforces to continue to work from home on some days is an inexpensive alternative to contribute to their health and wellness while going green and being more energy efficient.
O2’s recent research revealed that a staggering 14.3 megatonne of Carbon dioxide equivalent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be seen if employees were allowed to work from home at least two times in a week.
Many if not all businesses were caught off guard by Covid-19 and the rush to set up their workforces to work from home as a result but for most employers it proved that workforces can still function productively even when not in the office.
This approach does not only help businesses decrease their carbon footprint but contributes to improving the overall health and wellness of their employees by offering work-life flexibility.
Green Ergonomics
The idea of businesses creating value through environmental and social impact not only for the planetary health but for their workforces is gaining traction. There’s a clear connection between sustainability and ergonomics with focal points for both being the people’s health, comfort, safety and well-being.
Sustainability is all about making sure that elements such as lighting are safe and contribute to planetary health while ergonomics ensures that this lighting is safe and conducive to the health of the people who consume it.
When we care for our health and wellness as a people, we are able to better care for our environment. If employers first focus on ergonomics, the approaches to create a more sustainable workspace for their workforce will show itself because practicing healthy and safe habits ultimately brings one to reevaluating their surroundings to make sure that they fit into those habits.
Rather than viewing ergonomics and sustainability as separate approaches to workforce health and well-being, businesses should use both as an integrated approach to the health and wellness of the planet and of the people in it.
A Culture of Kindness
The golden rule has been advocated by many philosophers and what it explains is a culture of kindness and not only treating those around us as we would want them to treat us but to care for the planet as we would like to be cared for by it.
As Mahatma Gandhi put it, “What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another”, the environment that employers create for their workforces is a reflection of how they not only treat and care for their own health and well-being but of their workforces and the planet.
Kindness is contagious and fostering a culture of kindness goes beyond the workplace and the personal lives of employees. Showing kindness to the people around us leads to kindness to the environment around us. When employees receive kindness at the workplace, they are able to go out into the world and give kindness no matter how toxic their environments may be.
As human beings we are directly affected by the state of health of the environments we find ourselves in. It is the employer’s role and responsibility to create a safe and healthy working environment for employees. Dynamic Body Technology is a local wellness company that specializes in happy, healthy and productive workforces. If you are interested in investing in the health and wellness of your workforce and creating a healthy work environment for them, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
Photo Credit: Author cottonbro: Pexels