From Norwich to Edinburgh!

As part of our well-being focus, our mental Health Support Team wanted to put a spring in our step by encouraging colleagues to be more active and spend time outdoors, both of which are proven to improve sleep, mood, and overall mental health. The response of our Digital and Design teams within the Pb Studio was to create a web-based step-counter, a friendly competition that would replicate walking the distance between Norwich and Edinburgh.

To ensure the initiative was inclusive, we offered a range of activities beyond just walking options like cycling, netball, dancing, and even gardening was available, allowing everyone to find an exercise that suited their preferences.

The step counter had three key features. First, an input page where colleagues could log their chosen activity. Second, a leaderboard to track progress and highlight weekly winners. And third, an interactive map that traced the route from our Norwich branch to our Edinburgh branch. As everyone logged their steps, we could see the collective progress we were making toward our destination.

Initially, we set a goal to cover 750,000 steps (about 350 miles), which we thought would take at least a couple of weeks. To our surprise, we hit that target just two days after the step counter went live. We quickly expanded the challenge with a second route—double the distance—and completed it within the first week. By the end of the month, we had developed a third route spanning multiple European countries, totalling 10 million steps, which we achieved in the final days of March.

Across the month we saw teams going outside together for walking meetings, at lunch time to walk in the sunshine together and new bonds formed through competition and discussions of what entries had been made that week. Overall, it had a really positive impact on the Pb team and in total, we had 860 entries, reached approximately 10.5 million steps, and participated in 19 different activities. It was an amazing month of teamwork, fitness, and fun!