Building upon its commitment to promote active work styles and lifestyles, Ergotron, Inc., a Nortek Company and global leader in the sit-stand workplace and classroom revolution, today announces the launch of FitForward™, a program designed to leverage the successes of the Ergotron WorkFit product sales by in turn donating LearnFit® Adjustable Standing Desks to schools. Now when organizations invest in sit-stand furniture for their employees, they are playing a part in extending the same benefits of movement to classrooms across North America.
Corporations across the U.S. are beginning to understand the influence of employee health and wellness on company performance. Research has linked a sedentary lifestyle with harmful impacts to physical and emotional wellbeing, and as such, progressive organizations are converting sedentary workplaces into ones that encourage frequent movement with products like WorkFit.
Employees aren’t the only ones at risk. Today’s students often spend long periods sitting at desks and struggle to reach physical activity guidelines—however, research increasingly shows that a combination of sit-stand activity delivers long-term benefits with positive impacts on student health, classroom engagement and academic performance.
“In recent years, much has been said about the risks of sedentary behavior in corporate workers. While more organizations are taking note and integrating sit-stand solutions in the workplace, Ergotron recognizes that intervening at the K-12 level can instill healthy behaviors early on,” said Betsey Banker, CWWPM, CWWS, Ergotron’s vertical market manager, wellness. “By adding these dynamic solutions to the K-12 environment through the FitForward program, we can motivate students, teachers and administrators to change their mindset around sitting, just like employers and employees are doing in corporate America. Employees are often parents, too, and it’s meaningful to know that choosing WorkFit solutions at the office can help pass along the same lessons and values to children in classrooms.”
As WorkFit sales grow, Ergotron will correspondingly grow donations. Strong WorkFit sales have opened up the opportunity for Ergotron to donate over $1M in LearnFits to classrooms since 2014. The company looks forward to donating even more in the years to come to support active learning environments.
"We are continuously investing in research to better understand the wellness implications of a sedentary lifestyle, and use that to create affordable interventions,” said Pete Segar, Ergotron CEO. “Our goal with this initiative is to dramatically impact student health and learning outcomes by making sit to stand desks and active classrooms the standard learning environment. By donating LearnFit desks, we allow the teachers to test this new environment, and create their own superior spaces. And we will learn from them how to enhance the next generation of products."
