This paper discusses whether the design of the indoor environment and its related systems can enhance or is detrimental to the productivity of its occupants. A complete analysis of the indoor environmental quality should take into consideration more than indoor air quality and thermal comfort. It should include the quality of lighting, sound levels, layout of individual work spaces, color schemes, building materials, indoor CO2 concentrations, radiation and electromagnetic fields, dust levels, and biological contaminants. This paper focuses on the relationship between productivity and the indoor environment in offices and accounts for the fact that productivity depends on other factors by using an “occupational stress indicator” (Cooper 1988) that was developed to include an environmental dimension (Li 1996a,b; Clements-Croome and Li 1995). The modified occupational stress indicator (EPOSI) has been used in the design of a questionnaire to gather information on the occupants in the surveyed buildings. This method of self-assessment provides valuable information on individuals, as well as collective responses. In this research a number of environmental surveys have been carried out to gather data on occupant responses on productivity, as well as office physical environmental criteria including air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, quantity and quality of light, noise levels, radiation and electromagnetic fields around work spaces, indoor CO2 concentrations, and thermal comfort indices.

Paper from IAQ 1997 -- Design, Construction, and Operation of Healthy Buildings: Solutions to Global and Regional Concerns