The hottest trend in corporate building design is green spaces, and for good reason. High-performing living spaces and office buildings alike are noticing the powerful impact that greenery can have on health, property values, and productivity.
Take, for example, the new Amazon headquarters in Seattle, where vines drape across workspaces and employees can sit under a willow with their laptops in order to get work done. Most large businesses are following the trend, incorporating green spaces into their workspaces, and making offices look closer to greenhouses than the concrete cubicle-farms of days of yore.
According to a study by the University of Twente, these spaces lead to higher morale and fewer headaches, as well as an increased level of focus and productivity. Here are 5 specific benefits of green office spaces:
1: Less Sick Days
Green spaces can have a marked effect on our health and well-being while we’re in the space, but it can also carry on to affect how we feel at home. After all, we’re at work upwards of 8 hours a day. The environment there, whether positive or negative to our health, will significantly impact how we feel. A Harvard study revealed that green-certified offices experience a 30% reduction in sick days taken by employees.
2: Better Office Cooperation
One of the great miracles of green spaces is that they can fuel positive interactions. One landmark study found that, even accounting for differences in socioeconomic status, families that were closer to trees and open green spaces had less reports of interpersonal conflict. The same thing can happen in a workplace. The reduction in stress helps us to have more positive relationship-building moments with the people around us.
3: More Focus
Greenery has a powerful effect on cognition. Numerous studies have found that having plants in view improves mental focus and memory. It can also decrease self-referential thoughts that often lead to self-reprimanding and depression. Workplaces lose volumes of manpower every day due to disengagement–when workers are there physically, but mentally checked out. When workers feel more empowered, focused, and positive, they’re able to give their best work.
4: Energy Savings and the Environment
Green spaces in the office also have an immediately practical application, since plants’ respiration naturally contribute to the air quality, temperature, and humidity levels in an area. Many plants naturally purify the air. A significant amount of greenery in an area can reduce the temperature naturally by as much as 10 degrees, which means that you save on temperature regulation.
5: Curb Appeal
Whether you’re concerned about finding enough renters for your office spaces, or you’re more worried about employee turnover, the benefits of greenery in the office are the same: people want to be there. That means that they’re more likely to take the job, enter into a rental agreement, or buy the property for a higher value. Talk to us about ways that you can incorporate green spaces into your office design.
