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Turning sustainability into an employee experience
An office Farm can make corporate sustainability visible and participatory. At this global telecoms headquarters, a bespoke growing space, harvests and events became part of the company’s sustainability programme—and led to two further installations within 18 months.
The company was already embedding sustainability across its business. The challenge was finding a way to make those ambitions visible and experiential within the workplace.
It also wanted to bring people together in a more considered way. Rather than another passive sustainability initiative, the brief called for something employees could interact with, an environment that would give teams a genuine reason to gather.
The client wanted to:
Make sustainability tangible
Move sustainability from corporate strategy into everyday workplace experience.
Bring teams together
Create a reason for employees from different parts of the business to gather.
Encourage participation
Give employees something they could actively take part in rather than simply observe.
Create flexibility
Develop a space that could support different teams, events and occasions.
Creating a workplace Farm people could use
Square Mile Farms designed a bespoke installation combining a three-metre Farmwall with moveable Farmstands. Together they became known as the Zen Garden.
The moveable Farmstands were an important part of the design because they could be repositioned around the floor depending on the activity, team or occasion.
Employee engagement with an office Farm can extend beyond regular harvests through events, workshops and team activities built around the growing space.
For this client, Square Mile Farms developed a programme of events linked to the company's wider sustainability agenda. That included harvest takeovers and opportunities for individual business units to use the Farm as the setting for team activities.
Employees actually used it
The Farm became a regular setting for team gatherings. During one all-hands event, employees broke into small groups to visit the Farm and harvest basil, thyme, chard and kale. The Head of Department described the activity as “a fantastic hit for my team.”
One Farm became three
Within 18 months of the original installation, the client commissioned two additional Farms on other floors. The Farms became:
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regular settings for team gatherings
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part of the annual sustainability programme
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a resource for local community groups, charities and schools.
Sustainability became something employees could do
Sustainability initiatives can sometimes feel removed from employees' everyday experience. Here, employees could physically participate. They could see food growing, harvest crops, attend activities and use the Farm as a place to gather with colleagues. The installation therefore provided a practical way of connecting a wider corporate sustainability programme with everyday workplace life.
From workplace feature to part of workplace culture
The success of this project wasn't simply that vertical farming could physically work inside a corporate headquarters. It was that people used it.
The original Farm became a setting for team activities. It became part of the company's annual sustainability programme. Community organisations visited it. And within 18 months, demand led to two further installations.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can we get employees involved in workplace sustainability?
Interactive initiatives give employees an opportunity to participate rather than simply receive information about corporate sustainability goals. At this global telecoms company, workplace Farms became the setting for harvests, team activities and events connected to the company's sustainability programme.
Can an office Farm be used for team building?
Yes. At this client, individual business units used the Farm for team activities, while employees at an all-hands event visited in small groups to harvest basil, thyme, chard and kale.
Can an office Farm support a corporate sustainability programme?
An office Farm can provide a visible and participatory element within a wider sustainability programme. At this client, the Farms became a recurring part of the company's annual sustainability programme.
Can an office Farm be moved around?
Some Square Mile Farms installations can be designed with flexibility in mind. For this project, moveable Farmstands were installed alongside a three-metre Farmwall so that elements could be repositioned for different teams and occasions.
Can office Farms be monitored remotely?
Yes. Two Farmwalls at this client's headquarters were upgraded with IoT monitoring, enabling key aspects of system performance to be tracked remotely.
Could a bespoke office Farm work in your project?
This type of installation could be relevant if you're:
A corporate occupier looking for meaningful activities and destinations that bring employees together.
A facilities manager looking for workplace amenities that can be professionally operated and monitored.
An asset manager looking for distinctive amenities that contribute to workplace experience.
Want employees to participate in your sustainability strategy?
Talk to Square Mile Farms about creating an Office Farm and engagement programme that brings growing, harvesting and sustainability activities into everyday workplace life.