Could Active Travel drive employee health, success, and environmental change?

The way your employees commute to work is having more of an impact on their well-being, performance, and the environment than you may think.?

Inactivity has been shown to cause approximately 3.2 million deaths a year, contributing to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, anxiety and depression, high blood pressure, and the list goes on. Another unwanted gift that COVID-19 brought us was a drop in physical activity by 25% in Australia and 20% less physical activities per week in New Zealand, compared to before the pandemic.?

The links between physical exercise and health are well documented and recognised, including the benefits to health from active transport such as walking and cycling to work. Staying active can also improve concentration, increase energy, reduce fatigue, lower stress and improve mental wellbeing. Basically, employees that are healthier are more alert at work.?

Commuting habits show a strong preference for cars (as a driver). Car commuting is a large contributor to both organisational and national greenhouse gas emissions.?Therefore addressing employee car use, represents an opportunity to make a significant impact in reducing emissions.

Developing and promoting an Active Travel Guide for your employees creates a resource that can be accessed to inform and support employees to take up active transport modes to work. This encourages your employees to make the decision to change up their routine commute and cycle or walk if possible.?

For example, a key aspect of supporting Active Travel is ensuring employees have access to end-of-trip facilities that allow them to get ready for their workday. This can include showers and change rooms, bike storage and lockers to freshen up after an Active Travel commute and to store equipment (e.g. helmets) while at work.?

As part of Findex’s commitment to improving the sustainability and wellbeing of our people, we have developed and launched our first Active Travel Guide. Our Guide provides information, tips and resources for our people to access to help plan and integrate active travel within their commute to the office or within their day if working dynamically – such as walking or cycling as part of school drop-off/pick-up or being active during their lunchtime.?

Throughout the year we will seek to identify new and engaging ways with our people to encourage active travel and investigate and monitor commuting trends to inform our carbon footprint calculations.?

What are you doing to encourage your employees to be more active???

Read the full article on Active Travel and studies behind the impact on your employees, your company, and the environment.??

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the thought or position of Findex (Aust) Pty Ltd.?