G U T
C H E C K
The Green Equation
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Y
ou are what you eat. You’ve heard it before, but what you probably haven’t thought about is that your business is likely only as good as your employees’ last meal, too. I’m gonna call it, for the purposes of this little rant, a “green in-green out” equation. Meaning, the better you eat (some green), the more money you make (also green). A stretch, you say? Impossible, you swoon? Okay, let’s wade in slowly. It’s long proven that a healthy diet can reduce stress and help maintain better levels of concentration, but lesser known is that it can also increase productivity. In fact, for those of you who don’t quite believe me, researcher Ray Merrill was quoted as saying in a recent study, “Total health-related employee productivity loss accounts for 77 percent of all such loss, and costs employers two to three times more than annual healthcare expenses.” The study, which ran in Population Health Management last year, also shows that employees aged 30 to 39 are the most likely to suffer such a loss of productivity. Let’s pit this information against data from the fast food industry, which rakes in $110 billion in annual revenue and serves 50 million Americans daily. Statistics show that these eaters will consume 37 percent of their daily calories in fast food; 14 percent of these eaters will consume fast food three or more times a week. Some industries are more affected by the green equation—say, those in the service or transportation industry. (Not impressed yet? Imagine your IT guy or massage therapist after three Big Macs and no sleep.) So although there is no direct correlation, it’s pretty easy to assume that eating better—not just you, your employees and peers, too—is a better way to go for a productive, stress-free (or as close to it as possible) workplace. It explains why, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, 40 percent of U.S. businesses have policies or practices in place to encourage healthy eating in the workplace. It also explains why a business magazine like Business Black Box would do an entire issue based on the food economy in the Upstate, and the people who are moving the needle in their respective fields—from restaurateurs to local co-ops and food waste reduction. We’ve got a huge food and hospitality industry in the Upstate. These are businesses related to the simplest of decisions—what we choose to put in our mouth. It’s important—in a physical sense, in an environmental sense, and in an economical sense. In the simplest form: it matters. And not just to you.
Editor, Business Black Box
jordana@insideblackbox.com | 864/281-1323 x.1010 twitter.com/jmegonigal | linkedin.com/in/jordanam facebook.com/jordana megonigal Photo by Wayne Culpepper/Fish Eye Studios
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Q3 2013 // Business Black Box