Good Health Is Good Business

While others have examined cross-sector work between public health and the private sector in more detail, we are primarily interested in local-level partnerships in which the health department and one or more businesses or the local chamber of commerce collaborate to improve community health. This focus on the business sector spans industry, company size, and tax status because all businesses that have the capacity to partner and make investments in their communities have a role to play in improving community health. Due to the collaborative nature of this work, we also include chambers and other business groups when speaking about businesses or the business sector, and indeed many of the case examples herein involve the local chamber or chamber foundation.

This report highlights examples of these types of partnerships and makes the case that the business community and governmental public health agencies have a vested interest in promoting public health together. By recognizing that improved community health and economic development are interconnected, these partnerships promote community development, health, and wealth. Success of one ultimately requires success of the other. Businesses and public health departments must both invest in cross-sector collaborations that involve the other as partners in this movement to advance community health. They can achieve this through bilateral partnerships or through joint leadership in larger, multisector coalitions.

A first step toward collective action and partnerships across sectors is to clearly state the values shared by business and public health leaders:

• Healthy people—including employees, their spouses and partners, children, neighbors, and other community residents who have healthy lifestyles—avoid preventable diseases, limit their spending on health care services, and live long and productive lives.
• Healthy businesses that attract and retain top talent effectively manage health care spending, limit absenteeism and disability, prevent avoidable safety incidents, achieve high worker productivity, and are viewed by employees, customers, shareholders, and community members as socially responsible.
• Healthy communities that are ranked highly on community health indices have fair wages, good schools, low crime rates, affordable housing, solid infrastructure, clean air and water, green spaces, healthy food options, public transportation, accessible health care services, and admirable scores on quality-of-life and happiness scales.
• Healthy local economies that promote new business investment have low unemployment and a skilled workforce, encourage innovation and small business start-ups, and are competitive.

To address the need to establish the value of a true partnership between businesses or chambers of commerce and local governmental public health agencies, and to prompt immediate action, this report aims to:

• Foster a greater understanding of the importance of community health and well-being to the business sector;
• Propose and reinforce governmental public health agencies as a mutually beneficial partner;
• Share perspectives on the opportunities and obstacles for advancing business collaboration with the governmental public health infrastructure, especially at the local level;
• Present a value proposition to promote an understanding of the shared value generated by these partnerships;
• Provide case examples of successful public-private collaborations that are leading to improved community health; and
• Offer specific recommendations on ways to develop effective long-term partnerships between the business community and local governmental public health agencies.