You open social media, you join a conference or you decide to read a strategy of an organization and you found that everything is likely to go greener these days?! The simple reason is that the mother earth can no longer take it, and just like the earth the employees as well deserve a greener, cleaner, and more aesthetically appealing workspace for their productivity to bloom.
Do you ever wonder where most people spend most of their time in a day? If you guessed the workplace, you're right! An office is a place where employees spend more than eight hours per day and that's why everyone deserves a satisfactorily and aesthetically appealing office, and not just that, we also need a healthy workspace and by choosing to have plants we automatically are choosing better air quality. Plants are great for filtering the air and providing cleaner air with optimal humidity, and purified oxygen, which is why integrating them indoors is very important. Bringing nature into the workplace and getting more plants and flowers makes the office more pleasant and consequently, it will decrease the people's stress. When a person's physiological stress is lowered their work efficiency improves.
Probably we all know that feeling after spending a full day outdoors, somewhere on a mountain, and what we feel is a sense of calm and ease. Studies have shown that an indoor environment full of plants can give you the same feelings. Even big-name companies like Facebook and Amazon are now bringing the natural outdoors into their office with innovative green workspace designs.
Research that involved academics from the University of Exeter; the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, and the University of Queensland, Australia said that enriching an office with plants served to increase productivity by 15% because eco-friendly offices lead to happier, healthier, and more efficient employees. The management team should always identify ways to have a more enjoyable, more comfortable working space, and that for sure will make more profitable outcomes.
The paycheck is not the only reward for workers, having a healthy work environment is top of the things that a job should provide. And by adding plants, the management is already contributing to the health of the employees and not only the physical health but the mental health as well because plants have a relaxing impact on people and they have to be more present, especially in the relaxation areas.
Atlanta is home to nearly 6 million people and more than 150,000 businesses, the office spaces in Atlanta are very promising to transform into green offices, because as the studies show, Atlanta ranked 11th in the country for the percentage of green office space – 37.77% at the close of 2020 and with those founds by the research it is promising that the percentage will increase day by day. Because as the mayor said lately “Atlanta is honored … to be recognized as a leader for showing the way forward for a more sustainable future”.
There's no doubt that being united makes us stronger and that’s why in every workplace the workers should join the forces, prioritize and get serious about sustainability. They can start with easy steps like creating a green culture, and making green rules to later be developed into a green agenda. Eco-friendly practices from employees of companies as well as the management team with some green rules are what the future should contain, the rules can be simple, for example, turn off every electronic device when everyone finished their work schedule, reduce paper waste, and don't forget to recycle, the importance is to be as sustainable as we can.
By having a biophilic design in the workspace the efficiency of employees will increase, and their better well-being in the office will improve. Greenery helps make offices look more like a creative, collective space for employees rather than feeling stuck in an enclosed place. A green office means a sustainable place with a sustainable strategy so not only plants will contribute in that direction but as well as other small acts with bigger impacts. Having a green culture at work will help pass the culture to our home, to our streets, city, and to our country and that is the chain that will make our world better. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If you can't fly then run if you can't run then walk if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
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