This blog is authored by Michael Rubino of HqOS Marketplace partner Ridy
As commercial real estate (CRE) owners and property teams prepare for a returning workforce, one of the biggest shifts we are noticing is that the purpose of the office is no longer about just getting work done. Instead, the office is becoming a destination that is key for social interactions, collaboration, creativity, and happiness amongst employees.
At a time where offices are working at a fever-pitch pace to meet the evolving needs of their employees and tenants, determining what is important for employees can be a challenge.
One thing that’s uniform across the workplace experience is that the historical menu of office perks aren’t necessarily fitting the needs of today’s tenants and their employees. For the foreseeable future, tenant experiences will be paramount to reimagining the future of work. The negative consequences of remote work that we’ve seen in the past year, such as feeling isolated and burnt out, can be addressed in the office through delivering amenities and perks that focus on health, happiness, and wellbeing.
As tenant experiences evolve and new habits at the office emerge, another component that’s changing is how people move around and get to their destinations. Trips traditionally taken in a car, bus, or train are being replaced with pedal bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters. In 2019 alone, 136 million riders chose micromobility to help them get somewhere in a meaningful way. Usage of open-air transportation has skyrocketed during the pandemic and is poised to drive higher adoption and demand going forward. Making these trips accessible and sustainable for tenants will have a direct impact on their wellbeing moving forward.
Outdoors and Neighborhood Amenities Improve Happiness and Wellbeing
According to Gensler, a fresh approach to wellbeing and happiness in the office considers how employees interact with the outdoors and the surrounding area. Outdoor space provides mental relief, and opens up new corners of the neighborhood where collaboration can occur. Thinking about time away from your desk now becomes an opportunity to reignite the creative spirit, which in turn leads to increased productivity.
Modern offices are equipped with rooftops offering sweeping panoramic views and floor-to-ceiling windows that provide plenty of natural light. However, common outdoor office spaces may have occupancy limits, making it a challenge for all tenants and employees of the building to enjoy. Increasingly, many landlords and designers believe the office of tomorrow can creatively blend together with their surrounding outdoor space. However, adding outdoor office space is not feasible for every office. Outdoor space requires a tremendous amount of design, input, planning, time, and significant capital investment.
Providing expedient access to the outdoors and the surrounding community isn’t only good for health and wellbeing, but it’s also the fastest, easiest, and most affordable choice. On-site micromobility is easy to add to any office without any modifications to the property, in a significantly faster timeframe, at a small fraction of the cost. Having a free on-site micromobility rideshare option helps employees explore the outdoors and neighborhood amenities using open-air transportation. Employees can use bikes or scooters to run errands, head to a meeting, go for a ride with colleagues to grab coffee or food, or simply ride outside to take a break and get some fresh air.
At Ridy, wellbeing and sustainability are the core of our mission. We provide full-service on-site micromobiltiy for corporations, commercial, and residential real estate. With a variety of device choices like standard pedal bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters, we believe every office can provide an on-site micromobility service that fits their needs based on their respective location, size, and budget.
Micromobility Reduces Employee CO2 Emissions by 67%
According to GreenBiz’s State of Green Business 2021 Report, “Companies around the world are developing sustainable mobility offerings for employees..and attracting and retaining employees is a byproduct of corporate sustainability goals.” Transportation is the single largest source of greenhouse gasses in the U.S. To translate how that can relate to trips around the office, roughly 50% of all rides in the U.S. are 1-3 miles long. A lot of those short-range trips happen at the office. We help replace those car trips, while simultaneously reducing emissions to help buildings meet their sustainability goals and improve the health and wellbeing of employees.
What’s the environmental impact if we can help employees replace short-range car trips at work? According to a recent Oxford study, if an employee were to replace just one trip each day taken by a car with a bike or scooter, they could reduce their personal carbon emissions footprint by 67%. This is a monumental reduction in CO2 emissions and tells us that people can have an immediate positive impact on our planet with small micromobility devices. As sustainability is a key objective for many organizations, we believe that on-site micromobility that reduces CO2 emissions everyday while increasing workplace happiness and wellbeing can play a major role in meeting those objectives.
Another key ingredient in meeting sustainability objectives is measurability. Having on-site micromobility devices equipped with GPS and smart technology means organizations can have insightful data and reports on the total number of Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) in cars that were replaced by more eco-friendly bikes or scooters.
The Workplace Experience and Convenient Transportation
Having a fleet of on-site shared vehicles (bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters) means tenants and employees have the freedom to take a trip whenever they want, wherever they want, and on their terms. Employees don’t have to use their productive office time waiting for an Uber or Lyft, or spend time searching for public bikes, e-bikes, or dockless scooters. More specifically, on-site micromobilty is exclusively for the tenants and employees of the office.
The benefits of dedicated on-site micromobilty for employees are as follows:
- Convenient and easy transportation for trips under 3 miles
- Enhanced neighborhood experience
- More opportunities and spaces for collaboration: teams can now collaborate anywhere in the neighborhood in addition to office conference rooms
- Increase in tenant/employee engagement and satisfaction
Additionally, the benefits of on-site micromobility perks for office owners and operators are:
- Increased office experience zone: parks, trails, neighborhood coffee, and dining spots within the same area of the office are now accessible within minutes
- Advantages in recruiting top talent and tenants
- Increase in asset value
- Elevates corporate reputation
- Meet environmental and sustainability objectives
According to a recent report by Urban Land Institute that studies the value micromobility trends can bring to real estate, micromobility makes cities “more accessible, less congested, and less polluted. These attributes create an attractive environment for retail, restaurants, and living and working.” In other words, on-site micromobility can help revitalize local businesses as well!
At Ridy, wellbeing and sustainability are at the core of our mission. We provide full-service on-site micromobiltiy for corporations, commercial, and residential real estate. We help create an enhanced workplace experience for tenants and employees that will have a compounding effect on their wellbeing, the surrounding community, and the environment. With our tailored micromobilty offerings, RIDY provides actionable insights and reports that showcase how much CO2 we’re reducing from the environment. Providing these reports help offices and employees understand the impact of their actions and will help to develop long-term, sustainable habits. These reports further help corporations, landlords and tenants measure and achieve their environmental and sustainability goals.
We’re always looking for new offices to partner with, and we’re proud to be the first micromobiltiy company on HqO’s platform to solve the challenges of tomorrow. Speak to your HqO account representative about enabling the Ridy platform in your office, or reach out directly to [email protected] to get the conversation started!
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