Yes, No, Maybe So? "What's been missing is a way to objectively quantify the impact of the office environment on organizational productivity, especially where green buildings are concerned."

Marc Petock, Chief Communications Officer, Vice President, Marketing Lynxspring & Connexx Energy Contributing Editor

There seems to be a lot of chatter lately about the impact of the health and wellbeing within the built environment and how it relates to today’s high-performance buildings, individual productivity, and effectiveness outcomes.

Common sense says, temperature, air quality, natural light and so on when maintained at optimal levels, does contribute to satisfaction and productivity outcomes. Now don’t get me wrong, I see the common sense behind it, but if we are to add this to our value propositions and outcome deliverables for building owners and operators, our customers are still going to be looking for more tangible evidence and analysis that suggests there is a connection between a building's operational environment and measurable occupant productivity to convenience me to jump in with both feet.

The good news is the discussion about this topic is increasing. There are also studies that have recently come out and more on the way. For example, according to Trevor Nightingale, Program Leader of NRC's High-performance Buildings program, "There is a long history of research, including a lot that was done here at NRC, establishing linkages between the office environment and how it affects employees' ability to do their work." "What's been missing is a way to objectively quantify the impact of the office environment on organizational productivity, especially where green buildings are concerned."(http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/achievements/highlights/2017/nrc_rbc.html?utm_campaign=construction&utm_source=comm_prod_eng&utm_medium=redirect_eng)

[an error occurred while processing this directive]As our industry continues to transform how we manage and operate our buildings, are we far off from asking during an exit interview of someone leaving an organization, did your office comfort satisfaction have any bearing on your decision to leave the company?  And do we begin to add --We’re XYZ Company we work in a comfortable and natural light environment” to job wanted opportunities?

Where are you on this subject? Let Ken know.