New paper: a 45-minute forest break can boost employee wellbeing and workplace motivation

Our new paper, "Forest breaks improve employees' health and attitudes towards work" has been published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.

Urban office workers face unprecedented levels of chronic stress. Our study asked a simple question: could a lunch break spent in a forest meaningfully improve health and attitudes toward work? The results suggest it can.

In a 45-minute lunchtime forest intervention in Zurich, employees returned to work in a noticeably better mood than after time spent in the city, showed reduced physiological stress via a drop in cortisol and improved immune function, with salivary IgA, a frontline defence against respiratory pathogens, increasing. Employees also felt more motivated, more prepared and more eager to tackle challenging tasks after the forest visit compared with the city control.

The intervention was short, accessible and ecologically valid, designed to fit within a standard lunch break and conducted in a forest only minutes from the city centre. These aren't laboratory conditions; they're insights directly relevant to organisations looking to support healthier, more motivated teams.

Huge thanks to our interdisciplinary team, and to EF Education First and EF Educational Tours for supporting this work.

You can read the full paper here.