How MEC’s new head office encourages employees to stay active

In October, some 300 employees of Mountain Equipment Co-op moved from their old head office in a converted auto shop to a just-finished LEED platinum building in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats. Not only is the $28-million, four-storey office one of the greenest in Canada, but it’s also been designed to encourage the active, healthy lifestyles one would expect from the staff of an outdoor sports clothing and equipment retailer. Freshly installed in his new office, CEO David Labistour gave us a tour.

Employing dividers just a metre high, the workspace for general staff is a cross between cubicle farm and open plan. Each workstation’s keyboard and monitor is adjustable for sitting or standing. No employee is more than on e desk-length removed from daylight and windows that open.