Totally Human. How furniture can support the wellbeing of humans in the workplace. Discover insights on how the world of work evolved.

1. TOTALLY
HUMAN:
Furniture Made
for Wellness

2. Human-centered Sustainability
New Realities in the World
New Realities in Asia
New Realities in the Workplace
Beyond Neutral Point :
Moving Towards Optimal Wellness
It’s All About Balance
Product Categories
Task Chair
- Introducing Fern
- Meet Zody
Work Desk
- Intuitive Intuity
Focus
- Focus with IQ Focus Pods
Tables
- Kite Tables Take Collaboration
to New Heights
Soft Seating
- Meet in Cwtch
Storage
- The Hotbox is hot
Wellness: More than Products
References

3. For an office space, sustainability was typically
associated with energy efficiency and high-
performing buildings. Nowadays, the natural
synergies between human wellness and
sustainability are becoming more visible.
Today, real estate / designers / healthcare
providers / hospitality /retail / manufacturers
are beginning to understand that people and
environmental sustainability are inextricably
linked to each other. Moreover, their goals have
become one and the same - talent retention,
improving employee experience, optimising
resources, driving down cost of business and
ultimately preserve our planet and improve
the wellbeing of the humans on it.
Human-centered sustainability in the workplace
is an approach where work environments are
designed to support human psychological
and physiological needs that are essential for
people to do meaningful work. A holistic view
on this approach greatly contributes to a high-
performing, engaged and healthy workforce.
HUMAN-CENTERED
SUSTAINABILITY
The single biggest cost for
businesses is people.
According to a study on the cost
of business over 30-year period,
human capital accounts for
90% of the total cost.

4. It is no surprise that what is
good for humans is good for
the planet and vice versa.
For example, the reason we
consider it environmentally
responsible to curb our toxic
emissions in the atmosphere
is not just because our planet
deserves to be preserved and
respected, it’s also because
we humans deserve and need
fresh, clean and breathable air.
In making furniture for healthy
environments, it is no longer
enough to focus on material
composition and eliminating
harmful chemicals from
products.
In addition to being environmentally
sustainable, furniture can be human-
centered by supporting specific
aspects of wellness from Haworth’s
holistic point of view. This paper will
explore how seemingly innocuous
furniture pieces can improve,
optimise and even possibly extend
your life.
Furniture plays a huge role in the
wellness of people who spend 90% of
time indoors, most of which is in the
office. Our interaction with furniture
during that time is undeniably constant.
The design and use of furniture is
an influencer in creating a culture of
wellness in the workplace.

5. NEW REALITIES
IN THE WORLD
Today’s rapid urbanisation and globalisation of unhealthy lifestyles
are major factors in contributing to Non-communicable diseases
(NCD’s), also known as chronic diseases.
8 out of 10 men and almost
7 out of 10 women will be
overweight or obese by 2020.
They are diseases of long duration but slow in progression.
Interestingly, chronic diseases are mostly preventable with a
healthy lifestyle. In fact, 80% of premature heart disease, stroke
and diabetes can be prevented.
- World Health Organization, 2012
ANNUAL
DEATHS
63%
36MILLION
EACH YEAR
TOBACCO USE
Smoking Cigarettes accounts
for around 6 million deaths
every year (including from the
effects of exposure to second-
hand smoke), and is projected
to increase to 8 million by 2030.
PHYSICAL INACTIVITY
About 3.2 million deaths
annually can be attributed to
insufficient physical activity.
HARMFUL USE
OF ALCOHOL
More than half of the 3.3 million
annual deaths from harmful
drinking are from NCD’s.
Major chronic
diseases that
lead to death
CANCER
HEART
DISEASES
CHRONIC LUNG
DISEASES
DIABETES
4 MAJOR CAUSES
OF CHRONIC DISEASE
- WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
UNHEALTHY DIET
In 2010, 1.7 million annual
deaths from cardiovascular
causes have been
attributed to excess salt
/ sodium intake.

6. Obesity-associated
diseases such
as hypertension,
cardiovascular disease
and diabetes mellitus are
on the rise too.
The prevalence of diabetes in China almost
quadrupled in the last 15 years, making it
home to the largest diabetic population in the
world, with over 92.4 million Chinese diabetics.
In India, urban populations experienced an
increase in coronary heart disease prevalence of
10 times in less than 4 decades.
Overweight and obesity rates in the United States have almost
stabilised in the last five years, while rates are increasing at a faster
pace in the Asian countries. Between 1980 and 2013, China’s
overweight and obesity prevalence in adults rose from 11 %
to 28 % and in individuals below age 20 from 6% to 19 %.
Malaysia saw a three-fold increase in obesity prevalence among
adults. In Vietnam, it more than doubled in 10 years.
Figure 1: Prevalence rates of overweight and obesity in Asia Pacific countries
compared to Australia, UK, New Zealand and USA, 2008
Prevalence(%)
Vietnam
India
IndonesiaJapan
C
hina
PhilippinesSingaporeSouth
KoreaThailand
M
alaysiaA
ustralia
U
K
N
ew
Zealand
U
SA
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
overweight
obesity Source: World Health Organization, 2013
NEW REALITIES IN ASIA
The boom in economic growth continues to transform Asia and as a
result millions of people across the region are adopting lifestyle habits
that put them at risk for a wide range of chronic diseases.
Chronic diseases already disproportionately affect low and middle
income countries and all age groups. In Southeast asia, 62% of deaths
are due to chronic disease. 48% of them are below 70 years of age.
Obesity – Gateway to Chronic Disease
Malaysia has the highest obesity prevalence at 14 % in the South East
Asia region, with Thailand next in line (9 %). These figures fall far behind
those in the Oceanic countries, with 27 % obesity rates in Australia and
28 % in New Zealand. The prevalence of obesity in these countries is
similar to rates seen in the United Kingdom (27 %) and US (33 %).

7. The degree of stress you
feels boils down to what
makes you anxious and
how your body reacts
to what you think. This
instinctive response is
known as ‘fight or flight’.
Our jobs and
everyday activities
alter the health
of our brain and
bodies.
NEW REALITIES IN
THE WORKPLACE
As we continue to see rapid developments in information and
communication technologies, workers today and in the future will be
pressured to do more with much less. Stress-related problems affecting
employee morale and wellness will continue to grow as a result of a fast-
paced and time-pressured environment. According to a recent survey,
millennials ranked ‘time for personal life’ as their number one priority.
Fight / freeze / flight was first noted by Walter Cannon in 1932. He
explained that when an organism experiences a shock or perceives
a threat, it quickly releases hormones that help it to survive.
In humans, as in other animals, these hormones help us to run faster
and fight harder. They increase heart rate and blood pressure, increase
sweating in an effort to cool muscles to help them stay efficient.
These hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the exclusion of
everything else. Breathing is accelerated to supply more oxygen for
conversion to energy. The heart moves into overdrive to supply the
body with more oxygen and nutrients. When this happens, our bodies
will expend an immense amount of energy. This physiological aspect
leaves us viewing the world as a hostile place.
Although it is not possible for us anymore to be hurt by a woolly
mammoth and very unlikely for tigers to snatch our offspring in the
middle of the night, our physiological response to threats remains the
same. Many of our perceived modern everyday stressors (overflowing
email inbox, difficult bosses, tight deadlines, conflicts with colleagues)
may not be life threatening but our bodies still respond in a similar way.
Employees of companies that care
about their wellness are likely to have:
• Increased awareness and
knowledge of ways to improve
their health
• A better (less stressful) workplace
• Increased protection from injury
• Higher morale and greater job
satisfaction
• Increased productivity and
effectiveness at work
• Reduced personal health care costs;
and more relaxed / flexible approach
to health issues

8. BEYOND NEUTRAL
POINT : MOVING
TOWARDS OPTIMAL
WELLNESS
We’ve been accustomed to think
that the neutral point (free of disease)
means we are “doing ok” for wellness
purposes. The illness-wellness
continuum developed by American /
Australian physician John Travis shows
that there are degrees of wellness
as there are degrees of illness. It has
been used to highlight that even in the
absence of illness, one can still suffer
from stress and anxiety.
Conventional medicine
typically treats injuries,
disabilities and symptoms to
bring us or keep us at neutral
point but a holistic approach
moves us further towards
optimal high-level wellness.
HOLISTIC
WELLNESS
Most of us see physical
health as a way to measure
a person’s overall wellness.
This is misleading and even
dangerous. To know the real
state of our health, we need
to look deeper than
what is obvious.
What creates and supports our current
state of health is a lot more than our
physical selves. Science has clearly
demonstrated that both our conscious
and unconscious can impact our
mental and physical health.
ILLNESS NEUTRAL POINT
(NOILLNESS)
HIGH
LEVELWELLNESS

9. We find that there are major
contributors and influencers to
our achieving optimal wellness.
These are physical, career &
financial, social, community.
It’s All About
BALANCE
As an example:
If we focus too much on our CAREER (career & financial
wellness), we could end up reducing the time to be
spent with our dear ones, FAMILY AND FRIENDS (social
wellness).
It is easy to neglect our PHYSICAL fitness (physical
wellness) being so tired at the end of the day and
lacking in energy.
We fail to appreciate the PEOPLE AROUND US (social
wellness) and share human connections necessary for
HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS (community wellness).
Without an outlet for our stresses, stress can negatively
impact our decisions and productivity at work.

10. All aspects should be equally
important to us and achieving
this balance is key. Excessively
focusing on one may cause
lack or even damage to your
holistic health.
66%OF PEOPLE ARE DOING
WELL IN AT LEAST ONE
OF THESE AREA
It is how these aspects
connect & interact with
each other that makes all
the difference.
We are not getting the
most out of our lives unless
we are living effectively in all
aspects.
On average, 1 in every 10
people is thriving in all
four areas, the rest are
struggling in one
or more areas.

11. PRODUCT
CATEGORIES

12. TASK CHAIR
In earlier times, our circumstances dictate what we
ate and our physical activities in a day. From an
evolutionary perspective, our bodies were designed
to hunt for food and live in the natural environment.
This is what we needed to survive. Our days were
naturally designed to be self-sustaining, our diets
were simple and the ultimate goal in life was survival.
Today what we need to survive has evolved. Our
hunting skills have become sedentary days of sitting,
our food is heavily processed and mass produced. In
the past few centuries we have been sitting to survive.
We spend an average of 9.5
hours sitting (more than most
of us sleep). A lot of dangers
have been attributed to sitting.
Some say ‘ sitting is the new
smoking’, but the truth is that
it is more about a dangerous
sedentary lifestyle or lack of
movement rather than sitting
itself. In other words, the chair
is not the enemy, WE ARE!
The gym will not
counter what happens
to your body when you
sit for hours without
interruption, but routine
bits of movement will.
A regiment of continuous
variation in movement is
better than short periods
of gym workouts after a
long day of very minimal
movement.

13. In our quest for a
competitive edge and
enhanced performance,
humanity, well-being,
and sense of purpose
should be at the center.
Increasingly, employees want work
that fits their lives, not the other way
around. This balanced approach to
workplace strategy and design takes a
three-pronged approach to wellness—
physical, mental, and emotional.
Getting there requires a shift in strategy.
It means moving beyond previous
drivers like worker efficiency and
reduction in real estate cost, and toward
the source of all business success—
people. The more we know about
keeping them comfortable, focused
and healthy, the more we stand to gain.
Introducing the Fern task chair, the
world’s first chair with Dimensional
Suspension. Inspired by nature,
Fern provides new levels of balance,
flexibility, and performance. Designed
from the center, it puts the person at the
center of work.
Fern’s Wave Suspension™ system is
the heart of the chair and the key to its
back comfort and flexibility. From all
appearances, the back looks simple.
But inside is a high level of science,
engineering, and innovation that
enables Fern to work with you, not
against you.
INTRODUCING FERN®

14. Standing the whole
time does not cut it too.
We need intervals of
sit-stand periods. When
we do sit, we need the
correct lumbar support
for us to be comfortable
and safe.
MEET ZODY®
Ergonomic standards and
guidelines recommend several
working postures – sitting while
reclining, upright, or in forward
tilt; standing or alternating
between sitting and standing –
recognizing that no one posture
should be used for a long
period of time.
A good ergonomic chair allows users to sit in
these different postures and provides features
and adjustments with the ability to enhance
the comfort, productivity, and overall well-
being of the user.
In addition, constant fine-tuning of the chair’s
adjustments will yield the greatest benefits
because movement is the key to a healthy
and ergonomically sound office environment.
If sitting is the new smoking,
then smoke responsibly.

15. WORK DESK
Some things that harm
us are invisible to the
human eye. Many of
us are oblivious to the
indoor air quality of the
buildings we occupy.
We are unaware of
how easy it is for
harmful chemicals
found in many common
everyday things to
pollute the air we
breathe.
VOC’s are volatile organic
compounds that are harmful and
considered as human carcinogens.
The effects may include burning
of the eyes, tightness in the chest,
headaches, and trigger asthmatic
attacks and depression.
VOCs are readily found in cabinets,
bookcases, textiles, carpets and anywhere
that particle or pressboard is found as a
binding agent to hold the wood chips or
fibers together. Worktops in offices are
commonly laminated wood. As long as you
are using your desk, you may be exposed to
this wood.
Your exposure to this wood is as long as you
are using any desk. Using certified safe and
responsibly sourced wood is not only healthy
for planet earth, it is healthy for people too.
Poor indoor air quality
increases our susceptibility
to and even cause diseases.
Formaldehyde is one the
most common VOC’s.
What you don’t see can kill you.
This time, ignorance is not bliss
and knowledge is power.

16. INTUITIVE
INTUITY®
An Integrated Kit of Parts
Workplaces today need a system that
can cope with evolving user demands
and work styles. Intuity is designed
with a long-term outlook; it enables
businesses to make the most of real
estate through a comprehensive kit of
parts that can be integrated into any
number of possibilities.
As a future-focused platform, Intuity’s
modular system allows you to recycle
and reuse components to create new
workspace solutions and to redefine
environments.
Responsible Manufacturing
Intuity is produced in Haworth’s ISO
14001 Certified and Zero Landfill
manufacturing plant in Shanghai. All
painted surfaces are powder-coated
with no dangerous VOC emissions
that pollute the air you breathe. No
ozone depleting substances (ODSs)
are used in the manufacturing process
and the electricity used to assemble
Intuity components in Haworth plants
is offset by renewable energy credits.
The energy used to make Intuity is
renewed elsewhere for others to
benefit from.
Taking Wood Without Harming Forests
Intuity’s HPL worktops are made from FSC
Certified wood (Forest Stewardship Council). In
our continuing support of sustainable forestry
through responsible purchasing, Haworth offers
Intuity HPL tops with FSC as a standard option.

17. Getting information off the
Internet is like taking a drink
from a fire hydrant.
- Mitchell Kapor
FOCUS
Information Overload
The average human brain can consciously
process about 40 pieces of information per
second. Our subconscious can take about
11 million per second.
That means that in just 1 second, an average
human can have 11,000,040 pieces of
information going through one’s mind.
Technology is not helping either.
Open offices can become a den
of distractions. Collaboration is
essential to innovative thinking
but research shows that individual
focus work still remains to take up
40% to 60% of our daily work life.

18. Office workers spend up to a
quarter of their day affected and
trying to recover from audible
interruptions and distractions.
A study found that a typical office worker gets
only 11 minutes before being interrupted. This
interruption may be in the form of a person,
technology, social media, etc. It then takes an
average of 25 minutes to return to the original task.
Effective focus spaces provide enough barriers to
allow the user some privacy. This can be in the form
of visual and auditory barriers. Visual barriers signals
to other people the user’s need for privacy. Auditory
barrier quality highly depends on the materials used
to absorb sound.
These barriers are not intended to reach a point
of complete silence. Instead, it is about masking
sounds enough to make them inaudible. When our
brains cannot comprehend the words around us,
they stop trying to decode this information hence
reducing the mental distraction.
FOCUS WITH
IQ FOCUS PODS®
Focus Pods are a destination to
enable occupants to mitigate
environmental influences
common in open workspaces.
They use nanofibre as an
acoustic substrate designed
to enhance the absorptive
features of the soft walls. Using
thousands of layers of nanofibre
in a proprietary composite,
the unit improves passive
acoustic performance in the mid
frequency ranges associated
with voice related sounds..

19. Proximity Matters
Your entire people network affects your
health, habits and wellness. Having a work
environment that allows us to create genuine
friendships built on trust and respect with the
people around us is important for a thriving
social wellbeing. It goes both ways- much as
the people around you influence your wellness,
so do you play a part in other’s wellness too.
Not All Meetings Need Four Walls
The clever use of tables is one way
of creating planned or ad-hoc social
interactions. Being able to reconfigure tables
also boosts creativity and teamwork. Moving
and unfolding furniture is an opportunity to
integrate movement into a typical day.
30% of employees have
a best friend at work and
they are 7x more likely to
be engaged in their jobs.
Ad-hoc, face-to-face
chats may actually be
valuable to productivity.
TABLES
Collaborative soft seating
coupled with fixed and
mobile desks are instrumental
in creating agile workspaces.
These work settings are
essential in doing work as well
as bringing people together
to collaborate.
A thriving social wellbeing
needs 6 hours of social time
(this includes time at home,
work, on telephone, talking
to friends, sending email and
other communication).

20. Research shows that the
ability to create a room to
suit the particular needs
of the groups increases
participation and therefore
the quality of the interaction.
Different arrangements
can promote formality or
informality or emphasise
hierarchy and status.
Optimal Meeting Room Arrangement
The optimal shape for a meeting room table
is one that allows participants to make direct
eye contact with every individual at the table.
This greatly promotes cooperation and
communication among the group and therefore
increase the effectiveness of interactions. Having
furniture that is easily reconfigurable allows the
users to set up the room to facilitate the specific
intent and format of interactions.
Kite adapts to big and small changes.
So you can add tables to expand when
needed, rearrange them when called
for, even store them out of the way when
circumstances require it. Not to mention, a
little physical activity before a meeting will
refresh your mind to tackle the topics at
hand better.
When given the option, people naturally tend to sit at right
angles to each other when they wish to cooperate. The
optimal arrangement for collaboration is at a 90 degree
angle, with the respective parties sitting approximately
1.3 metres apart. Research also shows that sitting side-
by-side or face-to-face, as opposed to at 90 degrees, is
detrimental to conversation and communication. In small
groups, achieving the optimum working arrangement can
be relatively easily solved with round or square tables.
However, creating this scenario becomes more difficult as
the number of participants increases.
KITE® TABLES TAKE
COLLABORATION TO
NEW HEIGHTS
The right seating
arrangements for a
particular size and style of
meeting can facilitate more
effective communication
between participants.

21. SOFT SEATING
Some meetings are
better done outside rooms.
Meetings that are more about socializing and catching up are better
off outside an enclosed space. Socializing tends to be unplanned and
in shorter durations. Some types of tactical execution and brainstorming
can benefit from informal and more home-like, comfortable feel that can
be achieved with the use of different type of soft seating.
Depending on your activity,
where your meetings are
held can affect how effective
your meeting becomes.
Why We Meet
Social scientists have identified a variety of
reasons for meeting but generally speaking,
they can be distilled into four categories:
Tactical execution
of work tasks with
clearly defined
objectives.
Presentations, including
public speeches, staff
meetings, or other events in
which one person imparts
information to others.
Strategic thinking
and problem solving
through brainstorming
or negotiation — while
the product may not be
clearly defined, the goal
or aspirations often are.
Socializing and
interacting informally,
such as a receptions or
team-building events.

22. MEET IN CWTCH®
Cwtch is a versatile sofa system
that can host a number of
social interactions. These social
clusters may be configured
according to comfort for the type
of work and a level of privacy.
This can be achieved by layout
arrangements, height of backrest
and stiffness of the interior lining.
A semi-enclosed space for small tactical
meetings of more than an hour will most
likely need two-seater high-back Cwtchs
facing each other with a less soft lining
for long-term support. On the other hand,
casual lounges for ad hoc interactions will
benefit from softer Cwtchs in low back and
more open in arrangement.

23. Mobility
With more open and
unassigned spaces come
more centralised types
of storages. As workers
become more mobile,
storage technology has
kept up with the pace.
Multiple Uses
Filing and organising are the main
activities involved with storage spaces.
Opportunities in storage areas can
surface when we think of them as ‘social
touch points’ instead of just a space to
store work tools in.
Storages cabinets can serve multiple functions. For
example, add a cushion on a low cabinet to convert it to a
cushioned seat for those ad hoc brain storming sessions.
Add a table top to a standing height freestanding storage
unit to create an ad hoc standing meeting spaces. Different
postures such as sitting, leaning, standing encourages
movement to discourage a sedentary lifestyle in the office.
Cloud storage has become the norm and
the need for physical copies is sometimes
born from the psychological need rather
than an actual requirement. It is time that
physical storage spaces evolve with the
changing technology and people’s mindset.
Logical and intuitive storage
systems that support an efficient
filing system can reduce stress
caused by disarray. It also ensures
efficiency and continuity of the
system even as new members join.
STORAGE

24. THE HOTBOX®
IS HOT
A hotbox is an unique, flexible,
secure and portable storage unit.
It is bright, light and personal
for the agile worker, designed
to let you personalise a shared
work environment with your own
personal style.
Hang it on a Intuity bag hook
or carry it around with you.
Two ergonomic handles allow
easy transfer and lifting.
A combination lock is
designed for security plus
flexible interior dividers help
you organise your space.

25. REFERENCES
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Le Galès-Camus , C. (2005). Preventing Chronic Disease: a vital investment [Online]. Available: http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_
disease_report/full_report.pdf
World Health Organization. (2011). WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011. Geneva: World Health Organization, [Online].
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iris/bitstream/10665/148114/1/9789241564854_eng.pdf
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file/590/
Faye Hugo. Haworth Knowledge & Research Team. Collaborative Spaces.
WELLNESS:
MORE THAN PRODUCTS
Products that support wellness are not limited to safe material
composition, proper ergonomics and height adjustability of desks.
Furniture and design that truly support wellness are a combination
of all those mentioned plus the design of work settings and the
ability to influence behavior to inspire positive change.
Furniture that has a human-centered holistic
approach means that the manufacturer is involved
in the full cycle including design, manufacturing,
installation, maintenance, ongoing upgrades
through innovation and the ability to positively
influence human behavior.
Haworth has both the privilege
and opportunity to create office
environments that have the
potential to help today’s workers
live better, longer lives. The
human users are the very essence
of great furniture and the story
of wellness only begins in design
and manufacturing. People and
behaviour make up the most
critical elements of a wellness
ecosystem.
For that, we are preparing another
paper which we will publish soon.

26. Haworth is a registered trademark of Haworth, Inc.
© Haworth Asia Pacific 2016
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