BSRIA launches White Paper on wearables & wellbeing in buildings

BSRIA launches White Paper on wearables & wellbeing in buildings - the story so far

BSRIA is delighted to have launched its White Paper on wearables & wellbeing in buildings - the story so far. As a leading international industry body concerned with building services, BSRIA has always taken a keen interest in “new and emerging technologies” and their potential impact on the built environment.

The general consensus emerging from the White Paper was that, while there was substantial potential for the deployment of wearables, there were also significant technical, social and legal challenges raised. It was also clear that there was little evidence of any practical solutions linking wearables to HVAC or building systems in general that were already in operation, apart from in “niche areas” such as wearable security fobs. This paper looked at the kinds of wearable technologies currently available and at what needs to happen in order to bring viable solutions to market that link wearables and building systems in a “useful way”. It focuses on comfort in buildings.

There is growing evidence to support the common sense view that people who are healthier and happier are likely to be more productive and that this can feed into a positive financial return. There is also evidence that buildings can affect wellbeing positively or negatively both through their design and through the functionality and efficiency of the systems running to heat, cool and ventilate and light the building.

Concluding: There needs to be a means of collecting, calibrating and analysing data from a lot of different wearable devices.

This immediately raises issues of consent, privacy and data security, as data relating to physical health is likely to be highly sensitive and data relating to mental states even more so. People in buildings, whether employees, customers or visitors, need a motive to share their data. Ironically, when it comes to emerging technology of this kind, one thing that the past has taught us is that some of the most important and far reaching applications for wearables, both inside and outside buildings, are likely to be ones that we have not even thought of yet.”

Wearables & wellbeing in buildings – the story so far White Paper published in 2018 is available (as a free copy) in combination with the purchase of additional BSRIA studies.

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