EcoLocalizer

The weird things you discover while following random links online: apparently there’s a small but growing trend of people walking on treadmills — dubbed Walkstations — while they work.

The New York Times wrote last week about how companies like Humana, Mutual of Omaha, GlaxoSmithKline and Best Buy have been buying these Walkstations — a total of 335 since last November — to help their employees stay fit while they work. Credit for the concept goes to James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic who’s big on the benefits of exercise.

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Levine himself not only works at a standing desk while walking on a treadmill, but takes “walking meetings” with his colleagues using a two-lane track that circles his Rochester, Minnesota, office space.

The idea of walking while working resonated with Boulder, Colorado-based options trader Jay Buster, who not only blogs about his treadmill desk but is now undertaking a virtual “Walk Across America.” He’s tracking his journey via Google Earth. As of this month, he’s made it from New York City to well past Boulder (losing 18 pounds along the way) for a total of 1,883 miles. That leaves him 682 miles to walk to meet his goal of “reaching” Santa Monica Beach in California by April 1 of next year.

While I agree it’s great to improve your health and fitness, I’d like to see the “work-walkers” take the concept one step further and connect their treadmills to kinetic chargers that could generate electricity. That could reduce their environmental footprint — literally and figuratively — even more.

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