Abstract
Thirty years of public health research have demonstrated that improved indoor environmental quality is associated with better health outcomes. Recent research has demonstrated an impact of the indoor environment on cognitive function. We recruited 109 participants from 10 high-performing buildings (i.e. buildings surpassing the ASHRAE Standard 62.1–2010 ventilation requirement and with low total volatile organic compound concentrations) in five U.S. cities. In each city, buildings were matched by week of assessment, tenant, type of worker and work functions. A key distinction between the matched buildings was whether they had achieved green certification. Workers were administered a cognitive function test of higher order decision-making performance twice during the same week while indoor environmental quality parameters were monitored. Workers in green certified buildings scored 26.4% (95% CI: [12.8%, 39.7%]) higher on cognitive function tests, controlling for annual earnings, job category and level of schooling, and had 30% fewer sick building symptoms than those in non-certified buildings. These outcomes may be partially explained by IEQ factors, including thermal conditions and lighting, but the findings suggest that the benefits of green certification standards go beyond measureable IEQ factors. We describe a holistic “buildingomics” approach for examining the complexity of factors in a building that influence human health.
Highlights
Thirty years of public health science and building science have demonstrated that buildings play a key role in shaping our health [1,2,3,4,5]
We looked at buildings that are high-performing across these indicators of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and investigated the potential for additional benefits of green certification on cognitive function, environmental perceptions, and health
Our findings show that in high-performing buildings additional benefits to health and productivity may be obtained through green certification
Summary
Thirty years of public health science and building science have demonstrated that buildings play a key role in shaping our health [1,2,3,4,5]. The scientific literature around buildings and health has identified the foundations of a healthy building including factors such as ventilation, air quality, thermal comfort, noise and lighting, and this body of research has served as the basis for green certification standards to define their indoor environmental quality (IEQ) guidelines. All of the rating systems offer credits for thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ) and lighting; all but LEED NC 2009 have credits for acoustics; and Green STAR v3 and LEED NC 2009 have credits for ventilation. Of the reviewed rating systems, only LEED NC 2009 has mandatory IEQ credits, for minimum IAQ performance and environmental tobacco smoke control [17]
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