Green offices that keep staff healthy and happy are improving productivity & boosting businesses
(October 25, 2016) – Employers, building owners, designers and developers throughout the world are showing that it pays to invest in greener offices that keep their occupants healthy and happy, a report from the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) reveals.
Building the Business Case: Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Green Offices highlights the global momentum behind healthy and green office design and operation, and showcases over 15 buildings that are leading the way.
Simple steps like improving air quality, increasing natural light and introducing greenery - those which typically have environmental benefits such as using less energy – can also have a dramatic impact on the bottom line by improving employee productivity and reducing absenteeism, staff turnover and medical costs. The report is the latest to be released under WorldGBC’s Better Places for People campaign.
Terri Wills, CEO of the World Green Building Council, said: “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. 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.”
Beth Ambrose, Director within the Upstream Sustainability Services team at JLL, and Chair of the WorldGBC Offices Working Group, said: “The business case for healthy buildings is being proven. All over the world, companies, both large and small, are redesigning their offices, changing working practices and trialing new technologies, to improve the wellbeing of their staff, tenants and customers.”
Key case studies in the report include:
New healthy workplace valued at $47 million over 20 years – Delta Development Group and Heerema, Amsterdam, Netherlands
(Green building rating: BREEAM-NL ‘Excellent’)
Delta Development Group’s new 12-story global headquarters for Heerema significantly raised the satisfaction of its 1,100 employees, by improving air quality, increasing thermal comfort and maximising daylight. The marine contractors expect to realise a net present value of €42 million ($47 million) over 20 years in productivity, staff retention and reduced absenteeism, based on a study by KPMG.
Cutting sick days by two thirds – Skanska’s Northern England Hub, Doncaster, UK
(Green building rating: BREEAM-UK ‘Outstanding’)
After Skanska rebuilt its new Northern England hub in Doncaster, UK, it saw 3.5 times fewer building-related sick days than other UK offices, saving the company £28,000 in staff costs in 2015. Improvements to layout and noise, indoor air quality, and a central light well bringing more daylight into the building saw staff satisfaction with their office jump from 58% to 78%.
Doubling call centre productivity – Saint-Gobain, Malvern, PA, US
(Green building rating: LEED Platinum)
Saint-Gobain’s new North American headquarters has a fitness centre, 1.3 miles of walking trails for its 800 staff, more than 100 collaborative workspaces, including some outdoors, and 92% of offices have outdoor views. Call centre staff doubled their productivity after moving in, with a 97% increase in sales-generated leads and 101% increase in leads per call.
More collaboration and less absenteeism – Medibank, Melbourne, Australia
(Green building rating: Six-Star Green Star)
Medibank’s new plant-filled office includes 26 types of workspaces, from tranquil areas to collaborative hubs, 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%.
Building developers and owners are also discovering that it is a smart business move to invest in healthy buildings. In a survey of 200 Canadian building owners, 30% said investment in healthier buildings had a positive impact on the building’s value, 46% said they were easier to lease and 28% said they commanded premium rents.
Eight features that make healthier and greener offices
The World Green Building Council has developed a simple framework to help companies take action. It calls on them to assess 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 eight key factors in creating healthier and greener offices which can impact on the bottom line:
Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation – a well-ventilated office can double cognitive ability;
Thermal Comfort – staff performance can fall 6% if offices are too hot and 4% if they too cold.
Daylighting and Lighting– a study found workers in offices with windows got 46 minutes more sleep a night than workers without them.
Noise and Acoustics – noise distractions led to 66% drop in performance and concentration;
Interior Layout and Active Design – flexible working helps staff feel more in control of workload
and encourages loyalty.
Biophilia and Views – processing time at one call centre improved by 7-12% when staff had a view of nature.
Look and Feel – visual appeal is a major factor in workplace satisfaction.
Location and Access to Amenities – a Dutch cycle to work scheme saved €27m in absenteeism.
(All of the sources referenced above can be found on pages 14 and 15 of the report)
Over twenty national Green Building Councils around the world are championing the cause of healthy green buildings, through certification and rating tools, research and stakeholder engagement to show how organisations all over the world are profiting from increasing the health and wellbeing of the people in their green buildings. Research from organisations such as the International WELL Building Institute and Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, supported by United Technologies (UTC), is transforming the way we understand the interaction between human health and wellbeing and the green workplace.
Colin Powell, Project Manager for Better Places for People at WorldGBC, and Beth Ambrose, JLL, are available for interview.
For more information and to arrange interviews, please contact:
Ed Grattan
(+44) 7817 413792
Bethan Halls
(+44) 7908 683690
Bethan.halls@greenhousepr.co.uk
Rachel Parkes
(+44) 7775 652919
Rachel.parkes@greenhousepr.co.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
Building the Business Case: Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices is the latest report in the WorldGBC’s Better Places for People campaign, which focuses on healthy green buildings. It builds on its previous reports Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices (2014) and Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Retail (2016).
The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) is a global member network of Green Building Councils enabling green building and sustainable communities through leadership and market transformation. WorldGBC aims to make all building and communities sustainable, enabling us to thrive on our planet today and in the future.
Sponsor quotes:
ARUP
Ann-Marie Aguilar, Associate Director, Wellbeing and Sustainability at ARUP, said: “Public health research, access to data and innovative technologies are transforming how we think about the design and performance of the buildings and the environments in which we live and work. This presents tremendous opportunities to enhance design and improve quality of life factors. Arup has a reputation for driving innovative, forward-thinking design projects and our involvement in the Better Places for People Campaign will help to expand the healthy building movement in a large-scale, impactful way.”
Saint-Gobain
Pascal Eveillard, Director of Sustainable Habitat at Saint-Gobain, said: “We cannot build or renovate office buildings the way we did in the past: the Better Places for People Campaign demonstrates how impactful the design quality can be on employees’ health, productivity and wellbeing! For Saint- Gobain, whose mission is to create great living places and to improve daily life, the campaign is a fantastic tool to accelerate the path towards better office buildings.”
Uponor
Ilari Aho, VP New Business Development & CSR at Uponor, said: “Our health, wellbeing, productivity and creativity are all directly related to the quality of our work environment. We at Uponor are committed to creating better indoor environments. To us it is clear that in the building industry this cannot be achieved by anyone alone, but only through collaboration and partnerships. This why we are proud to be contributing to the Better Places for People campaign.”
B+H Architects
Lisa Bate, Regional Managing Principal, North America for B+H Architects, said: “B+H Architects continues to be a global advocate for creating healthy places for people to work, learn, live, heal and play better. By using the latest technology in assessing indoor air quality, we can better understand and improve the wellbeing of all occupants and futureproof for generations to come. During World Green Building Week, B+H launched this technology and we now monitor our offices globally for our staff.”
Skanska
Per Olsson, Commercial Sustainability Officer at Skanska AB, said: “As part of our ambition to enhance the positive impact of what we develop and build, Skanska continues to develop its expertise on green offices that promote occupant health, wellbeing and productivity. Better Places for People brings us together with our peers and partners to develop a powerful business case for investment in healthier, green offices.”
International WELL Building Institute
Dr. Whitney Austin Gray, IWBI Advisory Council Member and WELL Faculty, said: “Opportunities to innovate and create healthy office environments of the future is a critical mission of the WELL Building Standard. As the public health research continues to develop, IWBI is committed to providing access and strategies for workplaces around the world to incorporate health centered design approaches through the WELL Building Standard. The Better Places for People Campaign helps to define that a successful office is a healthy office.”
