One aspect of a green office isn’t in the office at all – it’s on the way there and heading home. A fun activity is taking stock of yours and your fellow employees’ commutes. How many people drive? Take public transit? Bike? Walk? What is the average number of miles travelled? Average time?
Besides being interesting, this information can help when scouting a new office location, as peoples’ happiness and productivity are influenced by how they start and finish the workday. Secondly, knowing employees’ travel patterns can help companies improve commutes (and therefore productivity) in the form of carpool incentives, flexible workdays, telecommuting, bike storage, and public transit incentives. These are all known as commuter benefits.
If you think your workplace already has the commuter benefits thing down pat, check out www.bestworkplaces.org/ to become a designated Best Workplace for Commuters.