WHATZ BLUE
News of human sustainability and wellness.
DELOS goes wide on Wellness in the Built Environment
Oct 1, 2015
When Paul Scialla said, "Why settle for buildings that are just good for the planet, why not make them good for the people who live, work, and play in the them?" those who work with him knew he would never be satisfied with certifying one building at a time. This week Paul took the next logical step in developing a world more completely committed to wellness. From the stage at CGI, Bill Clinton himself go to live.clintonglobalinitiative.org view Closing Plenary session) announced that DELOS and Strategic Property Partners had formed a joint venture to create the world’s first WELL Certified™ city district in Tampa, Florida. Read more >
The Tampa city district will serve as an example to the world that city design can be healthy. Delos will deploy its proven research and development capabilities to identify city-scale development strategies to support public health and wellness. The principles and foundation of the WELL Building Standard - which focuses on seven categories of building performance, including air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind - will be applied to the project. All buildings within the Tampa city district will pursue WELL Certification, including new buildings such as a 400-500 room hotel, a 650,000 square foot signature office tower, the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute, and approximately 200,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space. Additionally, the community itself will become the world’s first WELL Certified city district and will feature design and technology strategies including enhanced walkability, abundant green space including low pollen trees, sound barriers to support acoustic comfort, access to healthy foods, green infrastructure, daily monitoring and reporting of district air quality, and access to the amenities of an urban waterfront – all of which contribute to the wellness and quality of life of the people who live and work in the development. See the full report http://bit.ly/1M40mdU.
What's a Chief Health Officer and why you want one.
Feb 29, 2016
A chief health officer is the majordomo of a company's wellbeing. The CHO sets strategy and policy, hires consultants to create body/mind/spirit fitness programs, and stays out in front of the curve when new opportunities occur.
And the more we learn about wellness-in-the-workplace, the more important having that subject expert seems
Gallup research shows that employees thriving in all elements of well-being are Read more >
- 43% more likely to volunteer
- 36% more likely to report a full recovery after an illness, injury, or hardship
- More than twice as likely to say they always adapt well to change
- Miss 41% less work as a result of poor health
- Are 81% less likely to seek out a new employer in the next year
In short they are engaged, adaptable, resilient… and retained.
But achieving the above goals is not as easy as it might appear. Organizations have tried to achieve higher employee well-being through internal corporate wellness programs; however, many of these programs miss the mark on actually improving well-being and creating positive impacts.
Gallup research also shows that 60% of U.S. employees who work for companies with a wellness program know that the program exists, and only 40% of those who are aware of the program say they actually participate in it -- that's just 24% of employees participating. More importantly, of the employees participating in a company-sponsored wellness program, only 12% strongly agree that they have substantially increased overall well-being because of their employer. In fact, most employees see their job as a negative contributor to their overall well-being.
Clearly, unless well-being programs are headed by a highly competent expert who considers employees' mind/body/spirit fitness, companies are not achieving peak performance metrics. So the CHO is pivotal. With a 30,000 ft. view and able to tap the right resources and set comprehensive strategies, the CHO may be the lynchpin that has been missing, preventing corporate wellness plans from achieving effective results.
"About fifteen years ago, companies with the greatest advances in technology all appointed Chief Technology Officers, and allowed there to be kind of a uniform response to this technology," David Agus (a strong proponent of CHOs told CBS This Morning. "Well, that's happening in health now. We're literally at this transformation in health and so we need to change. Chief health officers is the new way where you can align for the employees, the products, and the mission of the company."
"Much in the way a chief technology officer focuses on the scientific and technological issues within a company, a chief health officer would be charged with staying abreast of the rapid changes in medicine that make it easier to maintain a healthy workforce," Agus wrote, in the Wall Street Journal.
He cites statistics from a recent study from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention showing that 86 percent of U.S. employees are above normal weight or have a chronic health condition, and that they miss an estimated 450 million extra days of work a year compared with healthy workers. This costs American businesses from $150 billion to a little more than $225 billion in lost productivity.
“A chief health officer would be an uncomplicated solution,” Agus said, “to not only help keep workers healthy, but improve the company's bottom line.”
The Tampa city district will serve as an example to the world that city design can be healthy. Delos will deploy its proven research and development capabilities to identify city-scale development strategies to support public health and wellness. The principles and foundation of the WELL Building Standard - which focuses on seven categories of building performance, including air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind - will be applied to the project. All buildings within the Tampa city district will pursue WELL Certification, including new buildings such as a 400-500 room hotel, a 650,000 square foot signature office tower, the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute, and approximately 200,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space. Additionally, the community itself will become the world’s first WELL Certified city district and will feature design and technology strategies including enhanced walkability, abundant green space including low pollen trees, sound barriers to support acoustic comfort, access to healthy foods, green infrastructure, daily monitoring and reporting of district air quality, and access to the amenities of an urban waterfront – all of which contribute to the wellness and quality of life of the people who live and work in the development. See the full report http://bit.ly/1M40mdU .
