Engaging your team in nature improves health and wellbeing
Nature regeneration activities like planting days, river clean ups and litter pick ups are healthy, outdoor pursuits that can have a range of great benefits for you and your team.
Studies have also demonstrated that access to nature has direct benefits to health and well-being. For example, views of green space, including trees, have been shown to encourage and hasten hospital patient recovery. Access to nature reduces stress and improves mental health.
This means that simply interacting with nature, especially with a purpose, is likely to yield such benefits for you and your team.
According to a global report by Deloitte in 2018, “well-being, reputation for ethical behaviour and opportunities to volunteer to make a difference in the community” all featured in the top job priorities for millennials. And according to Colmar Brunton, 72% of those aged 13-17 say it’s important that their future employer is socially and environmentally responsible.
These benefits can be most powerfully felt where they form a key part of your organisational culture. This should include having plants in the office, promoting and supporting walking and cycling to work, as well as other outdoor activities. Also keep in mind opportunities to work out in nature, even if your normal work is in the office or at home. This can include ‘walking meetings’, taking and making calls outside or strategy away days in a natural setting.
