To redesign your office space, you don’t necessarily need a complete design overhaul. Often times simple, inexpensive design solutions have the power to transform your office environment significantly.
If you’re looking for an easy way to boost your employees’ productivity, reduce your team’s stress, and keep your office space healthy and clean, consider adding greenery to your space. Plants are not only beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, but they’re natural air purifiers and stress reducers—and it’s no surprise that we’re raving about office greenery as one of 2014’s coolest office design trends.
Plants improve air quality.
Potted plants are natural air purifiers. They improve the air quality of your office space and reduce the amount of bacteria, mold, and pollution that may be floating in the air. Dangerous chemicals can easily sneak their way into your office space through wall paint, plastics, insulation, carpets, and other materials, but plants will naturally filter out these particles.
Plants are constantly cycling through photosynthesis, which converts carbon dioxide into fresh, clean oxygen. By adding just a couple plants to workstations, your reception or welcome area, or your break rooms and recreational spaces, your team will breathe more easily and your energy costs can be greatly reduced.
Improved air quality means that your team is more focused, less stressed, and healthier. Cleaner air prevents headaches and migraines and promotes a more relaxing work environment.
Lower your team’s stress, boost their health, increase their creativity.
Humans are naturally drawn to nature and prefer to be surrounded by these types of environments, regardless of the types of work they’re executing. Plants neutralize artificial lighting, balance humidity, and regulate temperatures, making your office a more suitable environment for your team to accomplish tasks and projects.
Studies have proven that cleaner work environments increase the amount of fresh, new, innovative ideas that teams create. Plants make people feel comfortable and relaxed, allowing for your employees to think clearly, more creatively, and more quickly with greater self-motivation and drive.
By providing a natural space that your employees will want to work in every day, they can accomplish more, give themselves more time to get creative, and make time to interact with their colleagues. When your team is more productive and works in an environment that supports their needs, they’re happier, more satisfied, and more engaged.
Think about adding potted plants, flowers, and even green walls—walls covered with mosses, vines, and other flowering plants—to your office space. Not only will your office be more aesthetically pleasing and impressive to all who visit, but it will also improve your team’s morale, contribute to healthier lifestyles, and help create a cleaner, greener, more environmentally conscious world.
