A good working environment will help to provide the user with a good sense of well-being,inspiration and comfort. The main advantages of good environments is in terms of reducedupgrading investment, reduced sickness absence, an optimum level of productivity andimproved overall satisfaction. Individuals respond very differently to their environments andresearch suggests a correlation between worker productivity and well-being, environmental,social and organizational factors.

The prevalence of SBS-symptoms is commonly used to characterize the indoor air quality ofbuildings. For economical analysis in building refurbishment and improvements of indoorenvironment, it would be very useful if we could quantitatively relate the prevalence orintensity of SBS-symptoms to productivity. The purpose of this study was to summarize thelinks between the SBS-symptoms and productivity, and demonstrate with a case study howthis information can be applied to a case building to evaluate the economical value of lowerprevalence of symptoms with a selected remedial measure.

We conducted an epidemiological study to examine the associations between indoor climate and office workers’ health and working efficiency. We investigated four office buildings in Massachusetts, USA, beginning May 1997 over 1 year. Ninety-eight participa

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of building characteristics on selfreportedproductivity using the Building Assessment Survey Evaluation (BASE) dataset. Ofthe respondents surveyed, 28% reported one or more lost workdays over the last month due tobuilding-related symptoms, and 40% reported reduced ability to work.

Subjective experiments were conducted in a climatic chamber to evaluate the effect ofindividual control of air velocity on productivity. For the condition of constant air velocity(CAV) subjects were not allowed to control air velocity and for the condition of preferred airvelocity (PAV) they were allowed to control it. The chamber was conditioned at airtemperatures of 31C, mean radiant temperature of 31C, and relative humidity of 50%. Severalcomputer tasks were given to the subjects to evaluate task performance.

A 2 × 2 replicated field intervention experiment was conducted in a call-centre providing a national public telephone directory service: outdoor air supply rate was adjusted to be 8 or 80% of the total airflow of 430 l/s (3.5 h-1); and the supply air filt

A new derivation of productivity calculation model based on pollution loads and contaminantremoval effectiveness is applied and the effect of the improved ventilation efficiency onproductivity is estimated. The findings show that the proportion dissatisfied could be asuitable predictor of productivity loss due to indoor air quality in different kinds of officework. The proportion dissatisfied is possible to calculate from olf and decipol units. In a caseof one person per 10 m2 (0.1 olf/m2) and low-emitted material (0.1 olf/m2), the total sensorypollution load is 0.2 olf/m2.

A method has been developed to investigate the comfort in office buildings. It is based onboth measurements and a questionnaire. The measurement apparatus, the so-calledAmbiometer, can record both the main comfort parameters, such as temperature, humidity,noise, light and odours, and the occupant's perceived comfort. Information regarding theindoor climate and the working environment is noted on the questionnaire.Experiments were conducted on about 50 offices in France.

A blind intervention study in which air temperature and the outside air supply rate were changed in a 2 × 2 design was carried out in a call centre in Singapore. The reported intensity of headache and difficulty in concentrating were reduced by 19.5% (P

The goal of the present study was to examine the influence of CO2 concentration in the air ofindoor spaces on human well-being and intensity of mental work. Ten experimental subjectswere used in four experimental conditions with different CO2 concentrations (600, 1500,3000, 4000 ppm). Microclimatic parameters (CO2 concentration, temperature and relativehumidity of the air, surface temperature of walls) were measured.