I’ve talked before about how HOK is committed to continuing education, and also about the company’s commitment to health (on thegreenworkplace.com).  Yesterday, the DC office tied the two together with a fabulous presentation by Steelcase: the movement toward wellness in the workplace. 

This presentation was not your typical lecture on traditional ergonomics (monitor height, seat position, etc)….it went quite a bit further and discussed how wellness in the office relies on a combination of human resources policies and facility management solutions (good furniture!). 

The presenters discussed how movement is a critical element for the body and mind, and also for collaboration.  Movement keeps us refreshed, focused, and energized…and we need our workspaces to support that!  We also need workspaces that support different types of work.

Some of the interesting factoids shared during the presentation:

• 84,000 worker days are lost to muscular-skeletal pain
• 2/3 of today’s workforce is considered overweight; 1/3 is obese
• Back pain is twice as common today as in 1950
• Obesity has a cost of $93 Billion dollars/year
• 34% of deep vein thrombosis is related to sitting in the office (not an airplane!)

That said, sit, stand, walk! 

Check out Steelcase’s ergonomics work or a cool video about a teacher that uses the sit/stand theory in her classroom.