A room with a view, an office with a patio—everyone agrees that these perks would contribute to an amazing workplace environment. Beyond a beautiful location, an outdoor space at the office can do wonders for your employees when it comes to their overall health and well-being. It might even support a healthy bottom line for your company, too. We’ve done some research so you can convince your company to get renovating as soon as humanly possible.

Being Outdoors Reduces Stress

It can be more challenging for stressed employees to produce quality work. To help them perform at their highest levels, encourage your employees to go outside. If your office isn’t close to a park or green space, you’ll need to provide your staff with an readily available option. Access to the outdoors is linked to improved work performance as well as better physical and emotional health. Plus, if that outdoor space is connected to your office, your employees can take more frequent, shorter breaks or even work out of it for optimal performance.

Great Spaces Attract Great Talent

Want the top talent in the city knocking on your door? They just might, if they’ve seen your sweet rooftop deck and have heard about your health-focused office culture. A well-kept outdoor area shows that your company cares about the well-being of your employees, which tends to attract great new hires. In particular, millennial workers value work environments that support emotional, social, and physical health—and an outdoor space promotes all three.

It’s a Fun Way to Be Sustainable

Cultivating plants is good for air quality and for the bees too, so creating a green space positions your company as a sustainable and conscientious business. Fill your deck or patio with lots of flowering plants—this will provide safe places for urban bees to forage.

You can also take advantage of that pollination to grow some veggies in your outdoor space. This will help everyone eat healthy office lunches, and we all know how important it is to feed your team. If you end up growing more than you can eat, send some produce home with your employees or donate it to a local food bank.

You Keep Employees Happy and Engaged

Having an outdoor space for your team to relax and decompress means they’ll be doing that together instead of scattering out in coffee shops across the city. Spending time together in a comfortable environment will help everyone unwind and bond, creating a more engaged and dedicated team. It’s an easy method of encouraging productivity and retaining employees.

Alternatives to an Outdoor Space

If your office is 30 storeys up in a concrete jungle, don’t fret. There are still opportunities for you to cultivate a healthy, natural space:

Use natural light. Shut off those fluorescent lights, and throw the windows open for some good old vitamin D.

Get some plants. Bringing the outdoors inside will improve air quality and make your team happier.

Encourage breaks. Sitting in a desk all day is unhealthy. Get up and leave the building when you can. If it’s an option, have walking meetings with staff members.

Having access to the outdoors while working makes the job—and life in general—better. Keep your office thinking sustainably and working productively by creating a green space close by, such as an office patio, deck, or balcony. You’ll be amazed at what the great outdoors can offer.