Corporate Sustainability: The Role of the Office in Supporting Health and Well-Being
We recently spoke with Raul Velarde, Director of ESG at CP Group, about how flexible workspaces are leading sustainability in the commercial real estate industry.
During our conversation, Raul explored the three main facets of sustainability —people, planet, and prosperity. He delved into how sustainability protects the environment and how it benefits modern organizations.
In a follow-up to that conversation, we tapped into Raul’s expertise to better understand:
The concept of sustainability in terms of employee well-being
Making a business case for wellness and sustainability
The role of the office in supporting sustainability and how worCPlaces helps support the well-being of our members
worCPlaces: You previously shared that sustainability extends to employee well-being and the profitability of organizations. Can you please elaborate on that idea?
Raul Velarde: When we look at sustainability through the lens of people, planet, and prosperity, it is essential to remember the health and wellness of the “people” portion of this equation.
When you look at your workspace, this means thinking more deeply about that environment—you can’t throw people into an office and expect them to work in it. Instead, consider the impact that space has on your people. Ask your people what will aid them in making the most out of their workspace.
You can think of it as the professional equivalent of having a home.
It is crucial to consider how you can provide a workspace where your employees get work done and feel good while they do it. At CP Group, we create spaces that help support employee well-being and improve our members’ bottom lines by extension.
Why should employee well-being be a factor in corporate sustainability strategies, and why is the workplace a key factor in this equation?
There are quantifiable benefits for organizations that ensure they are caring for the well-being of their people, and the workplace plays a significant role.
Right now, it is more challenging than ever to get employees to come into the office, despite the workplace positively impacting employee morale and brand perception.
So, how do you entice people to come back to in-person work?
Having an attractive and healthy workspace is a significant factor.
There is a lot of talk in the commercial real estate sector today about how Class B and Class C buildings are becoming less appealing to commercial tenants.
The Amazons, Googles, and Spotifys of the world want Class A office space— ant premier, healthy, sustainable workspaces that appeal to their people and ensure those employees stay healthy and happy.
If your employees look at their homes and feel these places are better and more productive than their office, it is challenging to make a case for why they should come into the office.
Office environments that prioritize sustainability from the perspective of people and well-being provide organizations with leverage to bring people back to in-person work.
How does the office environment help with sustainability in terms of health and well-being?
There is research that explores the impacts of air quality on cognitive function and productivity. By monitoring and reducing carbon monoxide, ozone, and particulate matter, you can actually help your employees focus better.
This also extends to the physical cleanliness of the space—ensuring the proper procedures are in place to maintain a clean space and reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses has also shown to increase productivity.
We’ve all experienced the start of the school year and how that starts a cycle in which everyone in the office is getting each other sick.
When organizations focus on these environmental factors, they are addressing areas that may impact the health of employees, which leads to reduced absenteeism.
The way offices address employee health can expand to more than the space itself. Offering healthy foods in the office can also help boost productivity and energy levels because it allows people to fuel their workdays effectively rather than foods that leave them tired and uncomfortable. lead them to crash throughout the day.
When you add up all of those small wins, it begins to create significant benefits for your business.
The element of physiological well-being is one piece of this puzzle, but is there a psychological piece as well?
Absolutely.
For one, consider the physical design and layout of your office. Biophilic design in the workspace has proven benefits for the psychological well-being and performance of employees.
Even something as simple as having scenic views—the ability to bring the outdoors inside—can help with this. Allowing daylight to enter the workspace helps employees sync up their circadian rhythms, eliminating that stunned feeling you get when you have been inside for too long.
When your circadian rhythm is out of sync, your body has a hard time figuring out what time of day it is. So when you try to go to bed, it becomes more challenging to fall asleep.
This has a snowball effect: if you do not sleep well, you will be tired the next day. This will impact your productivity which, in turn, will increase stress and anxiety.
Biophilic design also includes having greenery in your workspace rather than bare walls in order to tap into that connection with nature that fuels us.
From a design and layout perspective, you can support better psychological well-being by offering opportunistic spaces where people can work and collaborate when and how it suits them, which helps support better focus and reduce stress.
In flexible offices like worCPlaces, these opportunistic spaces include places where people can lounge, socialize, take a quiet moment, take a break outside, or have a huddle with a colleague.
I was part of a study back in 2020 that examined optimal space allotments and layouts within office spaces. We found that people do want to be together in person—they want to have spaces where they can interact, both for the psychological benefits of socialization but also for optimized workflows.
Employees prefer face time to connecting through a computer when developing ideas and new projects. It helps meetings flow better, and it allows people to interact more freely and without digital inhibitors.
Ultimately, people crave the human element of being in the office.
There are so many important details to consider in your workspace. Even the acoustics within an office space can have an impact on employee well-being. People need areas where they can enjoy peace and quiet to boost focus and reduce anxiety, and this can be achieved with strategically placed sound panels to support noise attenuation.
All of these factors impact people and culture.
Having a workspace people enjoy helps create a sense of pride that extends throughout your entire organization.
On a broader scale, these factors also contribute to your company’s brand perception.
When your organization has a reputation for looking after the well-being of its people and ensuring they are working in a place that supports their physical and mental well-being, this enhances your company’s employee value proposition—a key tool in attracting and retaining outstanding talent.
How has CP Group designed its worCPlaces office line to support the well-being of its members?
The team at CP Group has meticulously crafted office environments in our worCPlaces locations that cater to these needs, focusing on creating better, more flexible work environments.
This is reflected by our portfolio-wide WELL Health-Safety Rating.
We put an emphasis on leveraging sophisticated systems to track the performance of our workspaces and their ability to support greater well-being, and we work meticulously to track and improve on key metrics.
We have already piloted indoor air quality (IAQ) monitors throughout some properties that will notify our management staff when air quality is below optimal performance. The CP Group air quality standard is being guided by the most stringent factors, including guidance from WELL, LEED, Reset, the CogFX (cognitive function) study, ASHRAE, and more.
If you are in search of an innovative workspace where you can immerse yourself in an inspiring community of fellow professionals, we invite you to take a tour of worCPlaces at Lakeside. Contact us today or book a tour now.
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