Greg Chant-Hall discusses how a new standard can improve buildings and raise employee productivity
We spend about 90% of our time in buildings, whether it is our homes, our offices or when we are out socialising. But in some respects life indoors can be more harmful than outdoors. Indeed, the US Environmental Protection Agency has found that concentrations of some pollutants can be two to five times higher inside.
Whose responsibility it is to improve the environment of offices and buildings is a moot point. Whether it is that of facilities managers, the HR department, the sustainability team, or the chief financial officer’s or all or none of these is open to debate. Less vague is the expectation of senior management for staff to be ever-more productive. And this long-term value can be generated by addressing occupant health.
Impairing performance
Take something as prosaic as fluid intake. The Journal of the American College of Nutrition reported in 2012 that being dehydrated by just 2% could impair performance in tasks that require attention, psychomotor and immediate memory skills. Even if you have maintained your fluids, you may wish to ask yourself what was in that cup of water. And, while you are considering this, what about the quality of the air you are breathing?
Research has found that addressing poor buildings and indoor environments and the behaviour of occupants can be beneficial for many reasons, principal among them economic.
- In the US alone, the savings and productivity gains from improved indoor environments were estimated in 2015 by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health at between $25bn and $150bn a year.
- A study of commercial building owners by McGraw Hill Construction in 2014 found that 47% claimed healthcare costs were lower; 66% reported improved employee satisfaction and engagement; 56% lower absenteeism; and 21% higher employee productivity.
- A report from the World Green Building Council, also in 2014, said improving air quality in buildings boosted staff productivity by between 8% and 11%.
- The Heart and Stroke Foundation said in 2015 that healthy workplaces could lead to improved employee productivity, reduced absenteeism and staff turnover and fewer accidents.
Better by design
A healthy and productive workforce makes good sense and this is inextricably linked to the health of the buildings in which people spend most of their time.
The trouble lies in knowing what a healthy building looks and feels like. We cannot see the air quality and can rarely taste the difference in water quality.
One way is to measure the health and wellbeing features, and certify performance to provide a nutrition label for buildings. One such benchmark is the WELL Building Standard, which was launched in 2014. There was only one certified building in the UK at the start of 2017, although this is likely to change soon with a couple more in the running.
the environmentalist reported in January that BRE is reconfiguring a building at its Innovation Park in Watford to create a ‘healthy research’ facility to test the real-world health and wellbeing of occupants. It will align the requirements of BREEAM, BRE’s environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings, with the WELL Building Standard.
For the certification process, the standard uses the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), an organisation spun out of the US Green Building Council (USGBC). There are multiple synergies with the USBGC’s certification programme for buildings LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED-certified buildings are resource-efficient, use less water and energy and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
WELL considers 11 human body systems, and more than 100 features, in the concepts of air, water, nourishment, light, comfort, fitness, and mind. The system is designed to address issues that affect the health, comfort and mental wellbeing of occupants through design, operations and behaviour.
Other options are also available, with further developments expected. One of these is FitWel, a simple, web-based scorecard consisting of more than 60 benchmark criteria, organised by sections of a building from the lobby to the cafeteria. Another tool is Portico, launched in October 2016 by Google and the Healthy Building Network. This is a database of 2,500 products that have satisfied the requirements of Google’s healthy materials’ initiative.
Performance monitoring is an essential element of any healthy building, and should be carried out when possible in a real-time environment. The WELL Building Standard requires performance verification by a qualified assessor every three years to maintain the building’s certification.
Working together
From an environmentalist’s perspective, healthy buildings work harmoniously alongside green buildings. The rating systems are complementary and dual certification delivers both environmental sustainability and human health.
Businesses need buildings to be healthy if they want a thriving workplace. With the cost-base for the workforce averaging 90% of company overheads, compared with 1% for energy, it makes sense to invest in improving facilities to create healthy and sustainable spaces.
