"We're more targeted to see what works and what doesn't," said Marcy Zauha, director of health and safety for the company.
Sprint and other companies say they have not put a dollar figure on getting employees to lose weight; they are reacting to research that shows that pedestrian-friendly places tend to promote healthier weights.
"It's, if you will, a forced wellness program," said Dan Jeakins, an architect in Dallas who has designed office buildings that encourage walking and stair-climbing. "We've had fitness centers, but that varies on who really uses those things."
The new Sprint campus, designed to look something like a college, demanded culture change.
The neighborhood around it belongs to barbecue and cars; the driveway is off a six-lane road, a bank in a mall off that road has six drive-through windows. Kansas City consistently turns up on lists of the nation's fattest cities.
Officials eased the transition, welcoming employees with big red and white umbrellas to lessen fears about walking in the rain. They ran a trolley between the buildings and parking garages for those who preferred riding.
There are signs of change. A year ago, employees would wait for the trolley even if it would have taken less time to walk. In the last few months, however, demand for the trolley dropped so much that the company stopped running it.
"Just to walk to lunch and to my car I'm walking more than I was," said Brenda Gudenkauf, 36, walking from her building on one end of the campus to a gift shop in the middle. "I was dreading moving here because I thought I'd be walking more. The garages looked like they were blocks away. I thought I'd be very unhappy. I'm very pleasantly surprised."
The stairs have proven especially popular. "If you're not going to four or above, you just walk," Turner, a 44-year-old marketing manager, said of the elevators.
Still, even small changes come hard.
Over a lunch of meat and potatoes, Tim Eschleman described watching some colleagues drive rings around the parking garage, hoping that a space would open up closer to the exit.
"Even if they're not finding anything, you see them just circle and circle around," Eschleman said, "looking for that space that's just two feet closer."
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