“We know green buildings conserve natural resources, minimize environmental impacts and improve the indoor environment,” says John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer with United Technologies, which provided primary support for the study. “These results show they can also become important human resource tools for all indoor environments where cognitive abilities are critical to productivity, learning and safety.”
Researchers tested 24 participants’ cognitive performance in nine functional domains (i.e., basic, applied and focused activity levels; task orientation; crisis response; information seeking; information usage; breadth of approach; and strategy). Laboratory conditions simulated conventional and green buildings, as well as green buildings with enhanced ventilation.
Cognitive test scores showed the largest improvements in crisis response, information usage and strategy:
- Crisis response scores were 97% higher for the green environment and 131% higher for the green environment with enhanced ventilation and lower CO levels compared to the conventional environment.
- Information usage scores for green and enhanced green environments were 172% and 299% higher than in the conventional environment, respectively.
- For strategy, green and enhanced green scores were 183% and 288% higher than the conventional environment.