You sit more than you sleep.

We love creating great spaces, and making the world a better space to live in. Community service is a critical aspect of our company’s DNA. We started Continental Cares over a decade ago because we wanted to make a deeper impact and get our whole team involved in initiatives together.

On average, we spend 90% of our time in the built environment today. In a strange twist of fate, it has become our natural habitat. But we need things like natural light and materials, indoor plants, views of landscapes, and access to the outdoors to feel and do our best work.

Many jobs today require us to sit for prolonged periods of time. Science tells us that sitting all day isn’t the healthiest choice when it comes to doing our work, but sometimes it's inevitable. Research suggests that people who sit excessively have increased risk for obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a cascade of other health ills. The human body is made to move, but global studies show we sit nearly 8 hours a day on average.

With the increased use of technology in the workplace, the need to sit for prolonged periods of time has increased as well. While technology was designed to make our lives easier, instead the toll of sitting has made it more difficult, at least on our bodies. This new phenomena leads back to employee wellness, and impacts us as organizations not only through sick time and missed work, but also in employee happiness and productivity.  

Wellness, it's become a buzz word we are quite familiar with today. Especially as it relates to the workplace. Why do employers care so much about what seemingly used to be done in our "off-time" outside of the office? They care because, according to the US Department of Labor, an "epidemic of lifestyle diseases has developed in the US." Unhealthy lifestyles have driven up the prevalence of chronic disease. Things like diabetes, heart disease, and chronic pulmonary conditions have become a major concern leading to decreased quality of life, premature death, and disability, not to mention increased healthcare costs and decreased productivity in the office.