Sometimes building owners and managers resist an opportunity to save energy and water costs using the thinking that it’s not worth the hassle, given savings of only hundreds of dollars per month of costs. However, a growing body of research demonstrates that upgrades, such as improving lighting, temperature control, and ventilation will improve workers’ productivity, reduce sick time, and even put them in a better mood. Since most companies are what their workers produce, this can mean cost savings orders of magnitude greater than the direct utility cost savings, and increases in revenue and reputation, too.

A science has been started by engineers and architects on how to incorporate improvements to the office that will improve the health, alertness, and productivity of workers. In fact, this past January, the International Well Building Institute issued its first set of standards for a healthy building, called the Well Building Standard. See

https://www.wellcertified.com/system/files/WELL%20Building%20Standard_v1%20with%20January%202017%20addenda%20.pdf

These initial WELL standards for a “healthy” building overlaps with several LEED standards, although LEED standards cover more than healthy, productive workers.

The WELL Building Standards includes many requirements to improve the air, water, light, noise, temperature, nutrition, and other factors in a building. WELL has 100 standards for new and existing buildings with listed “optimizations” for them. Like LEED, one can be Silver, Gold, or Platinum, and must meet certain pre-requisite, as well achieve a certain percentage of the standard optimizations.

Demonstrating this is different from LEED, there standards focus on worker health and comfort only and not on reducing environmental impacts, although many will result in that. For example, there is a WELL standard of having lighting mimic the color and intensity of sunlight and change as the day progresses to imitate circadian rhythms. Not found in LEED, another WELL standard covers only healthy foods in vending machines.

According to the IWBI, there are currently over 300 ongoing projects of buildings trying to reach a WELL certification around the world. Their estimate is that the cost of a typical upgrade meeting WELL certification in office buildings costs about $100 per employee. Given projected improvements in productivity as a result of the changes, reducing sick days and stress in the office and improving alertness and comfort, this is a bargain compared to the likely financial gain these improvements would bring. This being version 1 of the WELL standards, it is likely that in the future standards will be modified and methods to achieve made more efficient to bring down this cost.

Based on research, WELL standards encourage the use of indirect lighting, reducing stress from glare, and using lights that are more blue-enriched which mimics sunlight and results in better sleep quality, improving performance in cognitive tests.

WELL standards encourage greater ventilation of outdoor air based on research that shows reduces both absenteeism and the minor complaints that affect work efficiency (headaches, fatigue, “sick building” syndrome) and improves productivity on tasks.

These are just a couple of the many WELL standards, which have these positive results, but may also upset the office culture, such as taking away the “candy jar”. In addition, some workers have remarked upon entering a new or refurbished building meeting WELL standards that it does not have that “new building smell”, which many people are used to or expect. This means that the carpeting, paint, and furniture that typically create these smells were produced VOC-free.

In addition, WELL standards call for space to be used for items, not typically found in an office, such as showers to encourage people to bike to work or exercise at lunchtime. This raises the cost of space in dollars/employee. In addition, normal procedures are modified, such as the way the office is cleaned, raising costs. However, WELL argues that these changes cause greater financial gains in productivity.

It will be interesting as the first buildings meet WELL certification, exactly how much productivity and worker health will improve.

CCES has the experts to assist you in designing an office upgrade project to meet LEED or WELL standards or just to improve your workers’ productivity and reduce your environmental footprint. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.