Impact of sustainable office buildings on occupant's comfort and productivity

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to research the impact of sustainable office buildings on occupant's comfort and self-assessed performance and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach - The research consists in an empirical study of 18 office buildings and is based on survey data from almost 1,500 employees. Findings - The study shows that the building itself has a clear impact on the comfort level of the building user. Also, the positive impact of certain features, such as operable windows and the absence of air conditioning, can be clearly identified. While productivity is not directly correlated to comfort levels, work engagement is. Generally, the analysis shows that specific building aspects seem to have an influence on user comfort and with that, also an impact on productivity; however, this impact appears to be limited. Originality/value - This is a very important insight since this shows the connection between employee and company and thus demonstrates that a high user comfort can reduce the turnover rate of employees. Therefore, additional planning towards user comfort and social sustainability can be shown to yield real returns.