Building4Change : US study finds green buildings cut absenteeism

Here's a crazy thought.  If we spend money on making green buildings, and as the report below states, people are healthier, then we'd spend less money on health care.  If you don't want the government to spend money on health care, but you're an architect with no business and the government requires LEED buildings, you'd have business and be making money.  If those LEED buildings required BIM, then we'd spend less on construction costs.  If we have no government involvement in healthcare or LEED, then more people would get sick, we'd have no design pipeline and buildings wouldn't be more energy efficient, making us dependent on foreign oil.  Last thought.  You own an architecture firm, get money to do green buildings so you can afford to pay your employees health care and can hire people again, thus taking them off unemployment.  Left clickers and Right clickers must be going crazy with all of this.  Healthcare, stimulus money, government mandated green buildings and foreign oil all tied together through Revit, BIM, LEED and IPD.  Those are your choices and like it or not, somethings got to change.  What works best for you?

Repost: http://www.building4change.com/page.jsp?id=124



10/12/2009

Researchers say green buildings can deliver benefits in health and productivity.

Workers in some green buildings take almost 3 days less sick leave than the average, an academic study in the US has found. The research looked at 154 US office buildings containing more than 2,000 tenants, all of which were managed by CBRE. All of the buildings were rated to either the LEED or Energy Star green assessment systems.
The study was carried out by a team headed by Dr Norman Miller of the University of San Diego's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate charted absenteeism and tenant perceptions. It found:

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  45% of tenants found workers were taking less sick leave, with absenteeism being reduced by almost 3 days.
  
  
  
• 12% of tenants strongly agreed that workers were more productive, and 45% agreed.

The study noted that new buildings were not necessarily healthy: "Some new buildings are extremely unhealthy as chemicals leach out into the air from glues, carpets, concrete and paint. There is no reason this must be the case. The cost to provide healthier environments is modest compared to the benefits."
It continued: "We now have some evidence that there is an economic pay-off to tenants who pay attention to space quality."
For more on the study, go to www.sandiego.edu/business/centers/real_estate.

Source: Building4Change : US study finds green buildings cut absenteeism