Many employers across the country are wondering about return-to-office rates, how they can encourage workers to come back to the office, and how to improve the sustainability of their workplaces. Facilities Management Advisor recently held a webinar called “Is Your Water Cooler the Key to Workplace Happiness? A Conversation with Bevi CEO Sean Grundy” to address those issues.
Grundy said that Bevi hopes to make the beverage industry sustainable by eliminating single-use water bottles as people return to the office and hopes employers increase their sustainability efforts.
Beverage Industry
The beverage industry is “the most wasteful industry today in terms of plastic pollution. Five of the ten top plastic polluters globally across industries are beverage companies and basically, the biggest beverage brands are the biggest plastic polluters worldwide,” Grundy said.
He explained that more than 100 billion plastic bottles are produced each year, less than one-third of them are recycled, and nearly as much energy is used to transport beverage bottles as to produce them.
According to Grundy, with over 5,000 customers, Bevi improves sustainability by transforming tap water into flavored, bubbly water via Internet-connected machines employees can customize, eliminating the need for plastic bottles.
Comparing Usage Levels
Data collected from these machines allowed Grundy to analyze return-to-office trends after the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the United States in March 2020.
In 2021, the usage level was 50% less than the pre-COVID average in 2019. In 2022, usage was about 55% of the 2019 level. While Grundy believes 2023 usage could increase to 60% of the 2019 level, he doesn’t expect future increases.
Regional Differences
There are some differences in return-to-office rates across various parts of the country when looking at machine use from 2019–2022:
- Southeast: 61%
- Midwest: 54%
- Northeast: 49%
- West Coast: 45%
Usage Rates Over Time
Over time, Grundy mentioned workers were steadily going back to the office after COVID started, with the only jumps occurring in June 2021, when vaccines were widely available, and March 2022, when the number of cases significantly decreased and people felt safer.
“None of them corresponded to the return to the office mandates,” Grundy explained, adding that those mandates took place in fall 2020, summer 2021, fall 2021, and January 2023. He also noted some workers will find ways around the mandates.
Grundy said to get people back to the office, they need to feel safe, be provided with incentives, and ultimately decide they want to go back.
Return-to-Work Hesitancy
Grundy said he believes the main reasons people are hesitant to go back to the office now are commuting time, flexibility with family care, commuting costs, and carbon footprint.
Sustainability Benefits
Employers can show employees how returning to the office is actually more sustainable than working from home:
- Energy efficiency—It results in less of an environmental impact. For example, less electricity is used when 50 people in a room use 1 large air conditioner than when 50 people in separate homes use small air conditioner units.
- Waste reduction and recycling—Use less packaging through free communal lunches, which can be popular among employees and provide the ability to compost waste.
- Sustainable procurement—Facilities management staff can help decide what kinds of sustainable materials to purchase and network with other companies.
- Sustainable commuting—Provide incentives to employees who use public transportation or carpool, or provide them with bikes and bike docking stations.
- Plants—Greenery like living green walls and roofs and in-office plants can improve indoor air quality.
Learn More
To learn more about return-to-office trends and how to encourage employees to return to work, watch the entire webinar on demand by clicking here.