So many of the written words about business focus on productivity. From the anecdotal musings on Steve Jobs and his ability to say no and stay focused, to the countless lists of tips and tricks regularly regurgitated in professional publications (hold meetings standing up, stop multitasking etc), the business world is rightly obsessed with being productive.
Indeed, if the title of this article has led you here, then it likely means you’re interested in productivity and have read one (probably many more) of the anecdotes or articles alluded to. In which case, this one will be a breath of fresh air. Literally.
A Window of Opportunity
Spend a long day driving, and as tiredness kicks in, one of the most common reactions is to open the window. The influx of oxygen (usually cold) awakens the senses and provides a quick reinvigoration, and you can carry on driving for a little while longer.
When you board an aeroplane, it’s not uncommon to immediately feel a little tired. Planes rarely have their ventilation systems on when docked at a gate. So the air you breathe as you enter is likely a little stale, with slightly elevated carbon dioxide levels and reduced oxygen levels. It’s not dangerous. But it will make you feel drowsy.
Both of the above examples have an obvious correlation. Introduce fresh air and feel more awake. Remove fresh air and feel drowsy. By now you’ll have worked it out, we're going to say fresh air, and therefore good ventilation, helps with productivity. That shouldn’t come as a shock. But what might come as a surprise is the fact that better ventilation could lead to increased revenue and reduced health costs to such an extent that it outweighs any cost benefits from energy efficiency efforts. Because that’s exactly what we’re going to suggest.
Healthy Buildings, Healthy Business
The link between the health of a building and the health of its occupants is undeniable. The impending A1/HS1 regulation changes came about because of the desperate need to improve the quality of housing stock in New Zealand. Too damp, and with black mould, buildings are making people sick. Of course, there are energy efficiency gains from better insulation and healthier homes too. We can’t lose sight of the importance of that.
Yet, this is one of those rare win-win-win scenarios. If we construct healthier buildings, then we get healthier people inside them, whilst also making the world a little healthier by reducing the energy burden placed upon it. But what if we can go further than that?
There is a point where health science, building science and business science, all come together to a point Joseph G Allen and John D Macomber call the “the greatest untapped business and health opportunity of our time” (Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Driver Performance and Productivity, Harvard University Press, 2020). And they make a very good point, all backed with exhaustive research.
The reason behind the bold claim is because of how widespread the benefits are. Build healthier buildings, with increased intake of fresh air, and everyone benefits:
Business Leaders. The cost of attracting the best talent, then getting that talent to perform to maximum potential is sizable. What if the secret to unlocking the full potential of your team is not in a series of expensive workshops but in using your building as a human resources tool? There’d be some real benefit there.
Employees. The average person will spend at least 90,000 hours of their life at work. The working environment will have a considerable impact on an employee's health and a responsible employer will want to ensure that health remains good, for altruistic reasons as well as counting the cost of sick days and lost productivity.
Investors & Developers. Healthy Buildings can command a higher resale price, or higher rents, with a better quality of tenant. Not to mention they appeal to a growing number of ethical and sustainability aware investors and fund managers.
Healthy Buildings have some decent benefits for the environment too. In places like New York City, close to 80% of the energy consumed comes from building use. Just think of the gains for the planet if that could be reduced to 40%, which is about the amount of energy from fossil fuel that buildings use on average in other cities.
This is the central tenet of the claim; increasing fresh air as part of Healthy Buildings has such an effect on productivity that everyone benefits. There are no losers, only winners. But is it true?
The Case for Increasing Fresh Air
In the ‘COGfx Study’, researchers from Harvard University examined the effect of air quality on cognitive function. The hypothesis is that cognitive function is a prime indicator of productivity in employees. For the study, office workers were to spend six days in a highly controlled, simulated office environment. Everything else was as per normal. Employees had their normal work hours and were asked to perform the usual tasks. Only their location was changed.
What the employees didn’t know was that each day, the air quality in the office was subtly manipulated. Air quality was changed by dialling up, or down, the levels of ventilation, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon dioxide. Then, at the end of each day, employees were asked to complete a cognitive function test which covered areas of performance commonly related to employees in general:
Basic activity level
Applied activity level
Focused activity level
Task orientation
Crisis response
Information seeking
Information usage
Breadth of approach
Strategy
The tests found a dramatic improvement in high-order cognitive functions across all of the above listed 9 domains - simply by increasing the amount of air coming into the office (increased ventilation rates, low VOCs, low CO2).
That may sound obvious but linking the results to business is not something done naturally. For a start, think back to all those articles about productivity. They are usually followed by meetings, workshops and maybe even enterprise-wide system implementation to try and eke out a few percentage points of productivity gains. They are expensive and take time. Whilst you can hit a button, increase the ventilation rate and get a better gain in an instant. It might cost an extra few $ in energy. But that’s it.
The other point to note here is that the ventilation rate increases took them above the ‘acceptable’ level for buildings, from the standard in the US (20 cubic feet per minute per person) to double, at 40 cfm.
The Bottom Line
The tricky part is quantifying how all of this translates to an improvement on the bottom line. To do this, the researchers created a fictional 40 person company and did some accounts. Pulling in other research, such as that from the University of Maryland, which showed healthier buildings were associated with 1.6 fewer days of absenteeism due to sickness each year, it was possible to calculate the impact better ventilation had on the payroll.
Adding to the reduction in lost time, was the productivity boost. Improved cognitive function, hence improved productivity, is estimated to increase from anywhere between 2% and 10% directly from better indoor air quality. In the example, the lowest figure was used. With all other company assumptions remaining constant, simply decreasing sick days by 1% and boosting productivity by 2%, was enough to add 9% to the bottom line.
Adding in the increased energy costs from doubling the air intake (there is a cost to better ventilation after all) reduced the gains to 7.1%. But think about that for a second. Imagine you could add 7.1% to the bottom line at the press of a button. That’s exactly what might be possible. Sure, results will differ and every business has their own unique set of variables, but what the research showed was, beyond doubt, increasing the fresh air intake had an instant and dramatic effect on the businesses’ bottom line. That’s pretty hard to ignore.
We have to accept there is an energy increase and that is generally frowned upon. However, if the source of that energy is not fossil fuel, then it’s less of a concern. The gains from increasing productivity through better air quality could certainly fund sustainability efforts elsewhere though.
Fresh Air Increases Productivity
We know this is one study and questions will always be raised about the validity of a single study. Yet it is not an outlier in opinion when it comes to other studies and the conclusions are reinforced when considering:
Cognitive testing of students shows a 5% decrease in attention in poorly ventilated classrooms
A study of 3000 students showed they had higher maths, reading and sciences scores in classrooms with better ventilation rates.
The Ministry of Education supports the need for better air quality in their whitepaper; “Designing Quality Indoor Learning Spaces: Indoor Air Quality & Thermal Comfort”.
Fresh air really is that good. The productivity gains derived from increased ventilation might be the quickest, easiest and most impactful change a business can make today. There is no real risk and it all comes at a very small cost.
We also need to note it comes with another very big benefit. We’ll be keeping employees healthier.
And in case any final convincing was required…for building owners and investors - the research showed you could ask 10% more in rent. You’d have healthier tenants (physically and financially) who can afford to pay it.
If you’d like more information or to discuss how introducing more fresh air through better ventilation might work for you, please contact us.
