It’s World WellBeing Week.
Now in its fourth year, World WellBeing Week provides the opportunity for participants worldwide to celebrate the many aspects of wellbeing, from meaningful, purposeful work to financial security, physical, mental and emotional health, social resilience and empathic corporate and civic leadership, community relations and care for the environment.
Throughout the week there are free online workshops lead by a diverse group of experts who will share their thoughts, advice and insight on how you can make wellbeing inclusive and accessible in your company.
Wednesday’s workshop topic will cover “Sustainability And Bringing Nature Into The Workplace – How To Make It Part Of Your Wellbeing Agenda” – an issue we are particularly passionate about.
For over 25 years, we have pioneered the use of plants for interiors, not only as an eye-catching focal point, but also to promote the natural health benefits that being surrounded by plants can bring.
Known as ‘Biophilic Design’, the use of plants in providing cleaner air and connecting us with nature, when coupled with natural light, certain colours, acoustics, and fragrances has long been proven to have a positive effect on both mental and physical wellbeing.
Despite this, a data gap still exists in the financial impact nature can have on the built environment meaning it continues to be overlooked by many designers. This was made evident in the The Human Spaces report into the Global Impact of Biophilic Design in the Workplace with 47% of employees reporting they have no access to natural light in their workplace, and a further 58% having no live plants.
At the time of writing, we are awaiting results from a landmark research study we recently participated in, The Value of Biophilic Design, which aims to plug this gap.
During an in-house pilot study, 6 participants carried out their daily work at a designated workstation in a 30m2 office space at London based PLP Architecture. Over the course of 8-weeks the environment inside the office was gradually changed from an average office space into a multi-sensory experience. Rich, natural stimuli was introduced to the participants such as lush, green, living planting, as well as access to natural light and outside views, new natural décor, patterns and colours, plus sounds from nature.
We believe the wellbeing and productivity of the participants will closely correlate with the introduction of these natural elements and will therefore allow us to quantify in monetary terms what biophilic design can offer to a business.
By doing this, we hope more designers, business leaders and decision makers will be encouraged to put nature at the forefront of their projects and embrace biophilic design as a strategic priority.
We work with businesses, architects and interior designers across the UK to include biophilic design in their spaces. Get in touch to discuss how we can help to improve the wellbeing of visitors to your space.
