Impact of sustainable office buildings on occupant's comfort and productivity

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to research the impact of sustainable office buildings on occupant's comfort and self-assessed performance and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach -The research consists in an empirical study of 18 office buildings and is based on survey data from almost 1,500 employees. Findings -The study shows that the building itself has a clear impact on the comfort level of the building user. Also, the positive impact of certain features, such as operable windows and the absence of air conditioning, can be clearly identified. While productivity is not directly correlated to comfort levels, work engagement is. Generally, the analysis shows that specific building aspects seem to have an influence on user comfort and with that, also an impact on productivity; however, this impact appears to be limited. Originality/value -This is a very important insight since this shows the connection between employee and company and thus demonstrates that a high user comfort can reduce the turnover rate of employees. Therefore, additional planning towards user comfort and social sustainability can be shown to yield real returns.

The impact of the ambient environment and building configuration on occupant productivity in open-plan commercial offices

“…As noted by Feige et al (2013) measuring performance and productivity in the commercial office environment can be challenging and often indirect measures such as absenteeism, staff turnover etc. may be used, alternatively self-reported productivity (occupant survey) may be employed.…”

“…According to Feige et al, (2013) worker performance can be linked to productivity, but both are rarely measured in the workplace, which can prove especially difficult where there is no universally accepted measure of office productivity (Haynes, 2008a). It is instead suggested that measuring self-reported subjective productivity through questionnaires may be appropriate (Haynes, 2008b;Feige et al, 2013).…”

“…According to Feige et al, (2013) worker performance can be linked to productivity, but both are rarely measured in the workplace, which can prove especially difficult where there is no universally accepted measure of office productivity (Haynes, 2008a). It is instead suggested that measuring self-reported subjective productivity through questionnaires may be appropriate (Haynes, 2008b;Feige et al, 2013). Measuring productivity gains in an office environment remains difficult and there would appear to be a lack of consensus in the literature about the potential magnitude of such gains with, for instance, Clements-Croome (2013) suggesting 4-10% gains, while Gensler (2005) notes 19% gains.…”

“…Most studies in this field take a cross sectional or comparative office type approach (Bodin Danielsson & Bodin, 2009;Lee, 2010;Feige et al, 2013; or focus on specific factors such as natural and artificial lighting, noise, control or the ambient environment (Wyon, 2004;Lee and Brand, 2005;Lan et al, 2011;Haans, 2014;Seddigh et al, 2015;Lamb & Kwok, 2016. Haynes (2007 argues that behavioural aspects are also of importance but not widely considered, although more recently behaviour change studies in relation to energy savings have become more prevalent Tetlow et al 2013;Gulbinas & Taylor, 2014).…”

Energy-related standards and UK speculative office development

“…To give two examples of over-provision to satisfy assumed needs, firstly there is the almost universal use of use of four-pipe fan-coil unit air-conditioning systems in 'Grade A' offices (see below) to deal with large imagined potential cooling needs. This was not justified primarily in terms of ventilation and its link with productivity (lower-energy ventilation systems can anyway deliver adequate fresh air; Cao et al, 2014;Feige, Wallbaum, Janser, & Windlinger, 2013), but in terms of it providing 'flexibility' to unknown and therefore potentially high 'needs'. Secondly, the provision of capacity for occupiers to extract large amounts of 'small power' (the UK term for plug loads, or power demanded by occupiers' appliances and devices; Menezes, Cripps, Buswell, Wright, & Bouchlaghem, 2014) exceeds the loads regulated under the building's EPC ratings (Arup, 2013), and has consistently exceeded users' empirical needs (British Council for Offices, 2009, 2014).…”