Eight features for greener and healthier offices

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has revealed its business case for healthy buildings, identifying eight factors and showcasing 15 case studies for creating healthier and greener offices which can impact on the bottom line.

‘Building the Business Case: Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Green Offices’ calls on companies to assess the key environmental factors which affect health and wellbeing, survey employees to find out how they experience them and measure the economic factors they influence, such as productivity, absenteeism and medical costs. The report identifies these factors as follows:

1. Indoor air quality and ventilation — a well-ventilated office can double cognitive ability.
2. Thermal comfort — staff performance can fall 6% if offices are too hot and 4% if they too cold.
3. Daylighting and lighting — a study found workers in offices with windows got 46 minutes more sleep a night than workers without them.
4. Noise and acoustics — noise distractions led to 66% drop in performance and concentration.
5. Interior layout and active design — flexible working helps staff feel more in control of workload and encourages loyalty.
6. Biophilia and views — processing time at one call centre improved by 7–12% when staff had a view of nature.
7. Look and feel — visual appeal is a major factor in workplace satisfaction.
8. Location and access to amenities — a Dutch cycle to work scheme saved €27m in absenteeism.

The report also highlights the global momentum behind healthy and green office design through a series of case studies, one of which centres around Medibank’s new office in Melbourne. The plant-filled building includes 26 types of workspaces, from tranquil areas to collaborative hubs, with fireplaces on every floor, edible gardens and sports facilities. Two in three staff feel healthier, 80% are working more collaboratively and absenteeism is down 5%.

Other case studies include:

• Skanska, UK, cut sick days by two-thirds by improving layout, noise, indoor air quality and lighting. This saved the company £28,000 in staff costs.
• Heerema Marine Contractors, Amsterdam, expects to realise a net present value of €42 million over 20 years of productivity, staff retention and reduced absenteeism.
• Saint-Gobain, US, saw its call centre staff double their productivity after moving into the new building, with a 97% increase in sales-generated leads.

“While our earlier work presented the overwhelming evidence between office design and improved health and wellbeing of workers, this report breaks new ground by demonstrating tangible action businesses are taking to improve their workspaces,” said WorldGBC CEO Terri Wills. “The results are clear — putting both health and wellbeing, and the environment, at the heart of buildings is a no-brainer for businesses’ employees and the bottom line.”