After leaving adidas in 2019, Eric Liedtke has continued to make an impact in the industry. He is currently serving as a Senior Advisor to the private equity firm Advent International, where he provides strategic guidance and support for investments in the consumer, retail, and leisure sectors. He is also a board member of several companies, including the outdoor apparel brand Arc’teryx and the fitness technology company Hydrow.

Outshining these accomplishments is one crown jewel, Unless Collective.  A company of innovative thinkers dedicated to the development of the first athletic shoe (The Degenerative) that is completely plastic-free. They rose to the challenge and solved for every issue, right down to the tip of the shoelace that keeps it from fraying (called an “aglet” – you are welcome, trivia fans.)

The Making of a Degenerative Disrupter

garten CEO Michael Heinrich recently sat down with Eric where the two connected on a shared passion for a regenerative world and Eric shared some wisdom on his personal wellness philosophy.

After 25 years in the corporate world, Eric wanted to take back his time – his mantra was “zero wasted hours”.  With every decision he asks himself, “Am I helping myself, my friend, my family or my world?”  All his decisions are based on that one question.  “This gives me peace of mind and 100% satisfaction.” 

Eric has been a vegan for the last 7-8 years and practices intermittent fasting.  He does yoga every morning with his wife (and sometimes the kids).  He gets a workout in at lunchtime and finds that working up a sweat midday kicks him into a productive, energetic afternoon.  He also has personal aspirations to continue surfing, constantly improving his game and connecting with his deep love for the ocean. 

He recently renovated a house, making sure to incorporate a sauna, and cold plunge pool.. Trying to go plastic-free in household goods, textiles, and furniture has been a bit more of a challenge, but if he can find a natural solution for an athlete shoe… the hunt may be on for a plastic-free mattress soon!  We wouldn’t put it past him. 

Watch the full conversation at garten.co/infinity.

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Smart employers realize the same is true in the workplace. They are seeing that a small investment to improve the food employees consume at work is a contributing factor to the success of the company. It’s common sense that higher quality food allows people to operate at a higher level, but it’s been hard to track. 

You need proof an investment will work before you pull the trigger. 

The proof is in. 

Why Higher Quality Food At Work Is An Important Strategy

This meta-analysis shows that both medical and absenteeism-related costs decrease (by $3.27 and $2.73 respectively) for every dollar spent on wellness programs. 

That information is amazing. It shows how powerful the health of your workforce is. 

Providing or subsidizing higher-quality food for employees isn’t only a great way to attract and retain top talent, or to be kind to your employees, or even to become a more sustainable company, it also makes you more profitable. 

Tracking The Proof For Your Company

You need to see that your investment is working so we developed an industry-first, proprietary Nutrition Dashboard. You get real-time data of what your workforce is choosing. This allows you to watch how people will migrate toward healthier foods when there are delicious options to choose from. In short, you have objective evidence of how the program is working at your fingertips. 

Tracking this data is amazing for employees to correlate how they are feeling and performing with the data of their team’s consumption. 

At the same time, leadership is able to more accurately track the ROI of prioritizing their team’s wellbeing. 

Real Results, Real Return

One of the top American cloud-based software companies based in San Francisco found an interesting result with the Nutrition Dashboard. 

Everyone knows how negative sugar is for health, but it’s not easy to eat less of it. With garten Kitchen, employees chose foods that cut the daily intake of added sugar in half over three months. The positive effects from this lower sugar intake will include increased productivity without the afternoon crash, clearer decision-making, and health improvements. 

The Nutrition Dashboard gives you the insight to correlate the nutrition of your workforce and objective ROI. This tool allows you to create an environment that supports your employee’s own desires for wellbeing. 

Forbes points out that employees’ feeling cared for by their company is, “a necessary business strategy for gaining competitive advantage on multiple levels”. The Nutrition Dashboard gives you the data to see that the strategy is working. 

Workplace wellbeing really is a sustainable competitive advantage. 

Get the whole case study here. 

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