Member Judith Heerwagen has contributed a paper on building sustainability: Green Buildings, Organizational Success and Occupant Productivity.
The paper examines these questions: What are the key green building features and attributes? How do these physical elements affect the physiological, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning of building occupants? Can green buildings affect high-level organizational outcomes, such as profitability, customer satisfaction, and innovation? If so, what are the linkages?
Heerwagen explores the wider context of sustainable design, integrating work form organizational effectiveness and human factors to suggest that 'green' buildings provide economic and organizational benefits for business.
Among her findings:
- The quality of the indoor environment affects work performance. Temperature, humidity, ventilation, air quality, and lighting, as well as personal control over them are key components of the indoor environment affecting work performance.
- Sustainable buildings contribute to the strategic performance of companies in several ways: improved employee retention, reduced absenteeism, improved organizational productivity, reduced building operating costs, and promoting the organization’s image.
- Most of the studies that she reviewed did not objective measured changes in productivity due to changes in the indoor environment. They relied instead on occupant self-assessment.
Heerwagen's paper originally appeared in a special issue of the journal, Building Research & Information, Vol. 28, Issue 5/6, 2000.
