Social projects strengthen creativity

The company 1508 works with municipalities etc. on rehabilitation projects. The good cause motivates employees and creates job satisfaction.

At the City of Frederiksberg's Health Centre, they have been working to make the treatment of people with emphysema more effective. Until now, the rehabilitation offered to the City of Frederiksberg's 780 citizens suffering from emphysema or mild COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, has been sporadic. COPD patients often have to leave the labour market prematurely.

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Help with self-help
The City of Frederiksberg's Health Centre has therefore joined forces with the design company 1508 to develop the concept 'Heltens Rejse' (The Hero’s Journey), a rehabilitation process aimed, among other things, at keeping COPD patients in work. It is estimated that the public sector will achieve annual savings of EUR 40-52 million through the implementation of 'Heltens Rejse' at the health centre.

This calculation assumes that all 780 citizens with COPD remain in work as a result of the new rehabilitation process. The main saving for the public sector comes in the form of tax income from the 780 patients, typically aged 55-65. It will cost the health centre EUR 1.3 million to implement the rehabilitation process.

The project in Frederiksberg was completed in January 2009, and the City of Frederiksberg is considering whether to implement the proposed solution. Following the completion of the project, Local Government Denmark and several municipalities have shown interest in the project process.

Major media interest
In addition to the turnover generated by projects addressing social issues, 1508 has identified a number of business advantages to working with CSR-driven innovation. 1508 stresses the importance of pursuing CSR-driven innovation projects, as they make for impassioned employees, greater job satisfaction and stimulate creativity.

The latter is particularly important to 1508, as creativity is the company's business foundation and lifeblood. Furthermore, 1508 uses CSR-driven innovation projects as an important marketing tool as the projects have generated major media interest.

1508 shows how a service can give patients a higher quality of life at the same time as having high social and economic value. 1508's solution points in the direction of things to come in the health system of the future – a system which focuses on prevention rather than cure, and on the development of self-help tools rather than simply dishing out help.