Laurel Brunner: Fresh Air Thinking

There are many ways printers and publishers can improve staff productivity, some more expensive than others. But if you’ve already exhausted the possibilities of dress down Fridays and booze-it-up Wednesdays, try opening the windows and see if it makes a difference to how well people do their jobs.

According to a study in the US, managing the office ventilation can have a positive effect on staff productivity. This recently published work from Syracuse University in New York state, finds that if you work in an unpolluted environment with proper ventilation, your cognitive abilities improve. The study monitored 24 people under three different environmental conditions and at the end of each day measured their responses to nine tests. Researchers exposed people to different environments: one with an artificially high amounts of CO2 , a conventional office environment with fairly high concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), a green one with low VOCs and one with low VOCs plus enhanced ventilation, dubbed Green+.

It seems that indoor air quality has a profound affect on cognitive function, so improving it could boost peoples’ performance. Such ills as Sick Building Syndrome, which are due to high VOCs, CO2, chemicals and the like in the air, can be mitigated by opening windows from time to time. This may sound silly but it is easy to appreciate how stale atmospheres can develop, especially in buildings that have been rigorously insulated against the weather.

Peoples’ cognitive performance was measured every day and not surprisingly the Green+ environment produced the most impressive improvements. What’s most interesting about the Syracuse study is the extremity of the results. For instance, the Crisis responses of people in the Green+ environment were 131% better than those of the control group. Those in the Green + group also had 288% better strategic thinking. In the Green environment with low VOCs, group responses were 97% and 183% better respectively. The effect of an environment with high concentrations of CO2 was also malign, with reduced cognitive function in seven of the nine areas the researchers tested.

Opening office windows and letting in some fresh air is a good thing for peoples’ productivity. A few drafts whistling around your offices will be beneficial to business performance. So breath deep that outside air, even if it means putting up with whining from those who prefer working subpar in an unhealthy hothouse.

Laurel Brunner