DES Architects + Engineers recognized as an
American Heart Association Start! Fit-Friendly Company

Start! helps companies take steps
 to decrease healthcare expenses, increase productivity

Redwood City, CA, June 6, 2008 – DES Architects + Engineers has been recognized as a Platinum-Level Start! Fit-Friendly Company by the American Heart Association’s Start! movement for helping employees eat better and move more. In addition, DES was also awarded the prestigious “Workplace Fitness Innovation Award” for their creative scavenger Hunt, “Hunt for Health”. This activity incorporated the components of exercise, community awareness, volunteerism and team spirit.

“Physical activity and employee wellness are important priorities at DES Architects + Engineers. We are honored and excited to be recognized by the American Heart Association’s Start! movement as a Platinum-Level Start! Fit-Friendly Company,” said Steve Mincey, CEO of DES. “We’re committed to providing the best workplace environment possible. This will benefit our employees’ health and produce even more positive results for our company overall.”

Platinum-level employers:

• Offer employees physical activity options in the workplace
• Increase healthy eating options at the worksite
• Promote a wellness culture in the workplace
• Implement at least nine criteria outlined by the American Heart Association in the areas of physical activity, nutrition and culture
• Demonstrate measurable outcomes related to workplace wellness

The ongoing program at DES includes a fitness stipend and approximately 50 activities, seminars and events over the course of a year. This ‘something for everyone’ approach is designed to reach the maximum number of employees. The Start! Fit-Friendly Companies Program is a catalyst for positive change in the American workforce by helping companies make their employees’ health and wellness a priority.

American employers face increasing healthcare expenses and health-related losses in productivity that cost an estimated $225.8 billion a year. Many American adults spend most of their waking hours at sedentary jobs. Their lack of physical activity raises their risk for a host of medical problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. Employers face $12.7 billion in annual medical expenses due to obesity alone. Start! helps change corporate cultures by motivating employees to start walking, which has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity.

Recognition is a critical component of the Start! Fit-Friendly Companies Program. Employers that join this program qualify for official recognition by the American Heart Association. They are listed on the program’s national Web site, as well as at the AHA’s annual Greater Bay Area Executive Leadership Luncheon, Start! Heart Walk and more. Qualifying companies also have the right to use the program’s annual recognition seal for internal communications and with external, recruitment-related communications.

Participating companies also get free access to program resources such as the free Start! Walking Program, materials to help promote company wellness programs to employees, internal newsletter templates and consultation on CPR/AED (automated external defibrillator) programs.

Start! also offers MyStart! Online, a free Web-based fitness and nutrition tracker for companies and individuals. A “dashboard” feature lets HR or wellness managers view employee participation in Start!

“The Start! Fit-Friendly Companies Program offers a unique, easy-to-implement opportunity for corporations to increase employees’ physical activity, which will help improve their health – and their employers’ bottom line,” said Melanie Rogers, DES’ Director of Human Resources. “Even people who haven’t exercised regularly until middle age can reap significant benefits by starting a walking program. A study published in 1986 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that individuals could gain two hours of life expectancy for every hour of regular, vigorous exercise they performed.[i]”

Start! is sponsored nationally by SUBWAY® Restaurants, Healthy Choice® and AstraZeneca® and is locally sponsored by Healthnet. For more information about the Start! Fit-Friendly Companies Program and how it is helping to improve the health of Americans by focusing on an activity that is convenient, free and easy, call (650) 259-6802 or visit heart.org/start.     

About the American Heart Association

Founded in 1924, the American Heart Association today is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary health organization dedicated to building healthier lives, free of heart diseases and stroke. These diseases, America’s No. 1 and No. 3 killers, and all other cardiovascular diseases, claim nearly 870,000 lives a year.  In fiscal year 2006–07 the association invested more than $554 million in research, professional and public education, advocacy and community service programs to help all Americans live longer, healthier lives. To learn more, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 or visit americanheart.org.

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[i] Sesso, HD, Paffenbarger, RS, JR, Lee, I-M Physical Activity and Coronary Heart Disease in Men: The Harvard Alumni Health Study.