Build a Healthy Office Space
Your office spaces is a physical manifestation of your company’s values. What does your office say about your company?
Top three reasons why you should evaluate your office space and implement healthy building strategies:
Employees (current and future) are looking for office spaces that align with their values; and they are willing to leave jobs that don’t demonstrate value alignment and are more likely to return to office spaces that support their health and wellness.
Healthy building strategies can improve both cognitive performance and support overall wellness.
Healthy buildings incorporate inclusive design strategies, with align with broader equity, diversity and inclusion work and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics.
Why does this matter? Why focus on the physical office space?
Pre-pandemic, Americans spent an average of 90% of their time indoors (and one-half to one-third of their waking hours in office spaces), where the levels of common pollutants can be two to five times higher than outdoors. We are an “indoor species,” and the buildings where we spend so much time have significant impacts on our health and performance, yet - to our detriment - we put very little thought into these spaces. Commercial office spaces are no exception.
The bottom line: everyone deserves the opportunity to do their best work, yet “traditional” office spaces do not support all users, and that needs to change.
Thankfully, the number of support services available to help employees manage these stressors are steadily increasing. However, these stressors are exacerbated by office spaces that do not support health and wellness: bright, flickering lights; very cold temperatures; poor acoustics; nowhere to go if you need a few minutes of privacy; gendered restrooms that simply don’t work for many users. The impact of office design is often overlooked, yet there are many health and wellness strategies that can be delivered directly through the physical office space.
What do you mean by healthy building strategies and why are they important?
Your office space matters because we spend so much time indoors but put so little thought, attention and resources into the quality of indoor environments. Yet the research is clear that indoor environments significantly impacts our health, wellness and even cognitive performance. Here’s one quick example that demonstrates the positive impacts of improved air quality.
For many companies, the most valuable asset is employee time; time spent focused on the task at hand. Corporate leaders should pay close attention to air quality as the latest research demonstrates how improved air quality translates to quantifiable cognitive benefits. One commonly cited study is known as the COGfx study. You can read the full study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, here.
As a summary, when compared to a “traditional” office spaces, there were two key findings:
Visual explanation of the results of the COGfx study
When researchers reduced the levels of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) one of the most common indoor pollutants, cognitive scores increased by 61%.
When the VOC levels were reduced, and ventilation rates increased (i.e. more fresh air was brought in), these scores increased by 101%.
What’s even more important is that the largest increases in cognitive scores were in the following areas: crisis response, information usage and strategy. For any business leaders who want to set their employees up for success, or employees who want the chance to do their best work, air quality should be at the top of the list! And air quality is just one aspect of a healthy office space. There are many other aspects that can be explored and improved, including: thermal conditions, on-site nutrition, natural daylighting, biophiliic design (bringing natural elements indoors), water quality, cleaning products, acoustics, lighting, inclusive design, and many more. For a deeper dive on many of these topics, check out the short videos, below.
Do I have to redesign my entire office to get the benefits?
No - we work with a range of clients: some who are building new offices and want our support from the start; and some who have existing offices, are looking to start with some basic strategies and build from there. As with many things, there are low cost, low impact strategies and higher cost, higher impact strategies (and everything in between), to be considered - we help you choose which strategies meet your company’s needs. The important point is to start somewhere, even if your company’s healthy building work begins with seemingly small strategies, the important point is to start somewhere; the scope and scale of strategies can always be expanded at a later time.
We ground our recommendations in the latest research, and guide our clients to make design decisions that have the greatest impact and add the most value. We would be happy to begin our conversation with an assessment of your space.
And if you are trying to get your employees “back to the office,” healthy building strategies should be a key part of those conversations.
If your office is a safe, welcoming and inclusive space where employees feel valued (because their health and wellness is prioritized), drawing them back in the office will be much easier.
What sets Sustainable Strategies apart?
We were awarded Educator of the Year by the International WELL Building Institute.
At Sustainable Strategies, we are healthy building experts. We were early adopters of The WELL Building Standard - the leading tool to assess health and wellness in the built environment - and our founder is a WELL Accredited Professional (AP) and Faculty. She was also recognized by the International WELL Building Institute as 2022 Educator of the Year.
Our founder, Nicole DeNamur, explaining how healthy building strategies are a key to fostering more inclusive office spaces.
Specific to our law firm clients, Sustainable Strategies’ founder is also a lawyer who spent most of her career litigating construction and insurance coverage matters. As a result, we know first-hand the challenges and stressors faced by law firms. We also understand how law firms work and the various constraints upon their business. We have authored numerous articles and presented to various bar associations and legal industry groups including Wellbeing Week in Law, Michigan State Bar Podcast, LawCare UK, LGBTQ+ Bar, Mother Attorneys Mentoring Association (MAMAs) Seattle, Seattle Area Legal Recruiting Administrators, New York State Bar, and others.
Who do we work with?
While much of our work focuses on law firms, we also work with technology and biotech clients, as well as other organizations that are looking to support their people, support their broader DEI work, and communicate to their employees why returning to the office at least part time makes sense.
We welcome your inquiries and look forward to supporting you on your journey to create a safe and inclusive office that supports health and wellness!
Also check out our online course, designed to support law firms, but that includes strategies that benefit all office types. Access our online course, at this link. Many clients find our online course a great entry point to learn more about how to create an office space that supports health and wellness.