Embedding Sustainable Well-being in the Workplace

Location
Online
Dates
Wednesday 4 May 2022 (16:00-17:30)
Contact

For all enquiries please contact Hannah Stretton: h.stretton@bham.ac.uk

The concept of sustainable well-being focuses on how we can achieve enhancements to individual well-being which are correlated with improvements to the well-being of other members of society and the natural environment. 

Organised in collaboration between the University of Birmingham’s Work Inclusivity Research Centre and Centre for Urban Well-being, this event will explore the application of sustainable well-being to the workplace, considering how we can achieve enhancements to employee and organizational well-being while at the same time effectively responding to the sustainability agenda, ranging from the application of flexible working routines, to civic engagement and social entrepreneurship, and rethinking the physical working environment. 

This event is part of FestiWell, a Festival of Well-being taking place between 2 to 13 May 2022. FestiWell is organised by the partners of EUniWell, the European University for Well-being: Universities of  Birmingham, Cologne, Florence, Leiden, Linnaeus, Nantes and Semmelweis. To join this event please register for FestiWell via our Zoom events platform. This will give you access to the Well-being in the Workplace session, along with all other FestiWell sessions.

Chair: Dr Daniel Wheatley

Daniel Wheatley is Reader in the Department of Management. He is the Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes in Birmingham Business School. Dan’s research focuses on workplace well-being including the quality of work, work-life balance and flexible working arrangements, spatial dimensions of work including work-related travel, and extending to other aspects of time-use including use of leisure time and the household division of labour.

Dan is author of  Well-being and the Quality of Working Lives (2022) and Time Well Spent: Subjective Well-being and the Organization of Time (2017), and editor of the IGI Global Handbook of Research on Remote Work and Worker Well-Being in the Post-COVID-19 Era (2021) and Edward Elgar Handbook of Research Methods on the Quality of Working Lives (2019).

Speakers

Title: Changing Central Business Districts: Insights from Birmingham 
Presenter: Anne Green, City-REDI, University of Birmingham
Outline: ‘Zoomshock’ in response to the Covid-19 pandemic meant many workers abandoned their offices. Drawing on developments in Birmingham, this contribution explores what now commonplace ‘hybrid’ working patterns mean for mobility patterns, public transport viability and the future health of central business districts, and what connecting and collaborating activities taking precedence in offices mean for workplace and broader urban design.

Title: Rad Enterprise - skateboarders, social entrepreneurship and spaces for community wellbeing, case studies from the UK, Finland and Jamaica
Presenter: Chris Lawton, Skateboard GB
Outline: This paper focuses on four skate activism projects in the UK, Finland and Jamaica. It contextualises each project within the socio-economic context of each city or region, helping to understand the extent and nature of challenges associated with personal wellbeing in those areas, before summarising the experiences of the projects' founders - the objectives initially set, how far they feel this has been achieved, and the impacts this social entrepreneurship had on wellbeing, work-life balance and career satisfaction.

Title: Can Houseplants Reduce Indoor Air Pollution?
Presenter: Christian Pfrang, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham
Outline: Humans spend approximately 90% of their time indoors, so that air quality within homes, workplaces, amenities and leisure settings is of critical importance for exposure to air pollution and public health. I will present research led by the University of Birmingham in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society that probes if potted houseplants can potentially make a significant contribution to reducing indoor air pollution.

Title: Understanding the workplace using millimetre-wave radar
Presenter: Khalid Rajab, NodeNs Medical Ltd
Outline: Millimetre-wave radar is a powerful tool which enables extremely precise measurements of occupants in a room. In this talk we describe how the NodeNs mmWave sensors are used to build a real-time picture of a person’s activities – without the use of intrusive cameras – for a better understanding of how space is used.

Please register via the EUniWell website 

Accessibility information for this event

Online Event