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This has been greatly appreciated both by ourselves and our members." Club VO2  |
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Would you like healthier staff and significantly less sick days?
Green cleaning delivers this, and the great feeling of knowing their long term health is being looked after too. Make your work life healthy! 1. Exercise. Your brain gets exercise all day, so why not exercise your body? Get your heart pumping by taking the stairs instead of the lift. It's good for your health and saves electricity. 2. Ventilate. Make sure you're getting good air-flow in the office. If you can, open windows and doors - even if it's just for a few minutes - to get some fresh air into the office. Check up on your air conditioning system too. Make sure it meets standards in the New Zealand Building Code, Clause G4, covering Ventilation. 3. Switch to natural non-toxic cleaners. Toxic commercial cleaners can contain a cocktail of chemicals, which leave residues throughout the office. People will react differently, but symptoms might manifest in things like loss of concentration, headaches, dry eyes, dizziness or nausea. Oon a more serious level, chemical cleaners can aggravate asthma, respiratory problems and other allergies. 4. Wash your hands or use ethanol based hand sanitiser. Around 80% of germs are spread through the hands. Make sure you wash your hands or use a natural hand sanitiser to help stop the spread of germs, and common bugs and flu around the office. 5. Take breaks. Skipping lunch might make you look good to your boss, but being cooped up in front of your computer all day is not good for your health. Get some fresh air, or if the weather is pants, take a wander around the office to get your blood moving and reinvigorate your brain. 6. Keep all surfaces clean. Clean surfaces such as sinks, handles, railings and counters, with a strong cleaner, daily if possible. Flu viruses can live for a couple of days on these surfaces. 7. Get fresh fruit delivered. Encourage your staff to eat a healthy diet and get their 5+a day - all good brain food to help boost performance. 8. Have a walking meeting. When meeting one-on-one with a staff member or small group of employees take a stroll and get the creative juices flowing. 9. Get flowers and plants. They can transform the office space and have a positive emotional impact on staff too. Plants also absorb VOCs and help reduce indoor air pollution. 10. Optimise natural light. In healthy doses, sunlight can reduce stress and fatigue and enhance productivity. Position workspaces to make the most of any natural light you have coming into your office. |
How important is it?
Indoor air quality is generally 2-5 times worse than outdoors – and a lot of this is due to VOCs which cause all sorts of issues e.g. eye & skin problems, headaches, asthma, reproductive problems and cancer. A large US study showed housewives getting 55% more incidence of cancer than the average – the researchers suspect that exposure to cleaning products are a key cause of this. It’s not a great thought that your employees, and you as well, are sitting there getting a little toxic cocktail dose all day long! VOCs What's a VOC? We like to think of them as a very offensive culprits but their proper name is Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Actually some VOCs are not too offensive, some are naturally occurring, the problems arise mainly with synthetic VOCs that are concentrated at high levels indoors. They can be found in everything from paints, solvents, adhesives, floor varnishes, printers, photocopiers and commonly in cleaning products. Proper ventilation and air conditioning in your office can help to vent the VOCs and having plants around is a good way to naturally absorb them. Reducing the number of toxic chemicals you use in your office cleaners is also a great step towards a healthier workplace.  |
Fight Asthma with a greener clean
New Zealand has one of the highest incidents of Asthma in the world. One in six Kiwi adults and one in four children experience asthma symptoms (more than 600 000 Kiwis)! This is a staggering number. But it's the relationship between toxic cleaning products and asthma that will really bowl you over. There is growing evidence to prove the link between commonly used cleaning products and indoor air pollution on asthma sufferers.* So much so, in some US states, green cleaning in schools is now mandated. One school in Vermont found a 60% decrease in asthma attacks after moving to a green cleaning programme.  Did you know? It's school janitors that have put the spotlight on cleaning products... they experience the highest rate of occupational asthma - more than twice of any other workers*.
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