The benefits of greening your building

Green buildings are good for your people and good for the bottom line too!

A growing body of evidence is showing that greener work spaces reduce absenteeism and use of sick leave, increase the profits of the business, and work-environment survey results improve, reduces respiratory allergies, asthma, depression and improve productivity.

Don't believe me?  Here is some research to support greening your building: 

• Effects of Green Buildings on Employee Health and Productivity
• Greener Buildings, Better Places, Healthier People
• Employee Productivity in a Sustainable Building

What can you do to improve your building?

1.  Make the stairs more inviting so people are encouraged to walk them - art, plants
2.  Double glaze windows
3.  Use a dehumidifier
4.  Create living walls/displays
5.  Frame natural settings outside through windows.  If a ground floor window looks out onto a waste land, consider what you can do to to make it a nicer view.  This might involve changing the layout of a room or doing something creative outside the window. 
6.  Create an inviting rest area for staff and a separate one for clients who need to wait around a bit.
7.  Maximise natural light. This makes people feel better. 

I am sure you can think of many more. 

Most people feel good about creating a better space so why not encourage the creativity of your staff - run a competition to improve the green characterisitcs of spaces in your building.  Give each team a small budget to help with it and then give the winning team a bigger prize.