ADVICE & OPINION
COMMENT
GREEN ROOM
As COVID-19 restrictions li , many businesses
are starting to consider welcoming sta back
into the o ice. These workers need to be in an
environment where health and wellbeing are
prioritised, but a er getting used to working
at home, many may find the o ice experience
daunting, away from all that has become familiar.
Alongside this, there’s no mistaking that the
world is a di erent place as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic, especially when it comes to
the way we work on a daily basis.
Now that o ices are cautiously beginning to
reopen, it’s important to consider what employees
need and expect from a post-pandemic working
environment. The positive e ects of workplace
design on teams have been documented for a
number of years. What is perhaps di erent now is
that the various COVID-19 lockdowns have made
people appreciate nature more and the health
benefits that plants can bring. This is where plant
displays can be a significant building block in
creating a welcoming o ice interior.
GARDENING LEAVE
In fact, a report published in the Financial Times in
September 2020 suggested that gardening was the
second most-popular lockdown activity, ahead of
exercising and reading, and a second article in the
Guardian reported surging sales of house plants as
people strived to find a way of easing their anxieties
12 JULY 2021
about what was happening in the world.
To a degree, this is what makes o ice interior
plants so important. Simply being around plants,
which release oxygen, has been shown to li mood
and reduce fatigue by as much as 25 per cent, while
also improving the air quality in a room by removing
dust and bacteria.
More than anything, interior o ice plants enable
workers to have a connection to nature, which may
have been lacking with the amount of time they
have had to spend indoors due to the nationwide
lockdowns. Green, or living, walls are particularly
e ective at bringing a small piece of the natural
world into the workplace environment, improving
the visual aesthetic of the o ice and improving the
overall wellbeing of sta in the process.
LIVING WALLS
Living walls have been particularly beneficial to
headquarters in urban areas where it is next to
impossible to take time out of the day to sit in a
park on a bright day. Being in heavily urbanised or
populated areas may also cause worries about being
unable to maintain physical distancing and make
workers more likely to want to remain inside during
their lunch break. Providing refuge away from the
daily grind without having to confront crowds eases
these anxieties and will make the transition back
into o ice working smoother.
Inevitably, this transition will a ect each sta
member di erently. Some may find it an easy return,
whilst others will need more support. According to
Bupa, more than a quarter of employees are fearful
of the better work-life balance many have had as a
result of working from home. However, the adverse
e ect of this are burnout and fatigue, as a result of
losing the separation between the two worlds.
Physical distancing measures will need to remain
in place, at least for the short-term, however, using
plant displays to partition desks ensures teams
are suitably spaced apart yet still connected in an
upli ing, vibrant setting.
GREEN SPACE
COVID-19 has, without question, a ected how
businesses use their available space. Flexible
o ice space is becoming more of an expectation
from employees, with nearly half of UK businesses
planning to include greater use of coworking space.
Similarly, 63 per cent expect a greater focus to be on
their o ice designs post- COVID-19.
The right combination of o ice plants and open
space which paves the way for agile collaboration
and flexibility will be integral to adapting the
workplaces of the post-pandemic world. Though
remote working has its benefits, such as removing
stressful commutes and not having to spend hardearned
wages on transport or fuel, 80 per cent of
employees missed the daily, face-to-face interaction
with colleagues.
As we at Nurture Landscapes have frequently
noticed with our clients, plant displays are becoming
more of an important factor in how businesses
want to portray themselves to sta and customers.
Demonstrating a focus on being ‘green’, sustainable,
and an organisation which cares about sta
wellbeing enhances reputation and sta morale, and
workers who may be feeling apprehensive about a
return to a physical o ice may feel more assured that
their company is taking steps to support them.
Of course, o ice plants are no substitute for the
COVID-19 safety measures we have been accustomed
to, but they do, at least, make the workplaces of
the new world areas where people can once again
connect with each other, and a place that they feel
proud to return to.
Matt Monckton, Regional Manager from Nurture Landscapes explains how
interior plants can help create a healthy, thriving oƝ ce in the postC29,D era