Solutions to Boost Wellness and Productivity in the Workplace 12%-20% 
  • Circadian Lighting – Retrofit and Consulting Read More
  • Biophilic Baselines and Integrations Read More
  • Human Factors – Evidence Based Research and Applications of Environmental Psychology Read More
  • Surveys – Post Occupant Evaluations (POE) Read More
  • Occupant Health – In Vivo Workplace Research Read More
  • Native Gardens – Indoor and Outdoor Restorative Gardens

The Facts:

In a typical company, employee’s salaries and benefits account for nearly 90% of a company’s budget.

Employees work harder, faster, and smarter when they are happy and engaged. A 700-person study conducted by the Social Market Foundation showed that when people feel harmonized at work, productivity levels increase 12%-20%…a staggering number when you consider that an increase in economic growth of 3% is large.

Edifice Rx recognizes that employees are a company’s most valuable and expensive asset, and we have designed services to help occupant’s mental health and well being through a series of wellness and biophilic design integrations.

Lighting

Levels

Lighting levels serve as an important productivity factor to workplace performance, learning, and health.   Studies show how performance decreases when lighting levels are too dim, bright, glaring, or extreme in various other ways. Even just a few minutes of inadequate lighting can diminish worker productivity.

Proper lighting levels have been proven to encourage better learning in students, faster healing in patients, and higher performance levels in workers.  Verification of acceptable task and ambient light levels, as recommended by the UCLA Ergonomics Department, is completed by taking real-time measurements.

Circadian Lighting

The Human Body Functions in a Natural Cycle that Corresponds Directly to the Natural Changes in Daylight.

Edifice Rx provides circadian lighting solutions that work with you not against you. Sunlight is an important external cue for our biological clock. Circadian rhythms, which regulate the release of the hormones cortisol (released during the day), melatonin (released during the night), and many other physiological processes, operate on a 24-hour clock. With 90% of our time spent inside under conventional lighting, most are deprived of sunlight’s benefits to increase focus, mood, and activity level during the day. At night exposure to blue light waves (from LED bulbs and other electronics) causes stress on the body, sleep problems, and may be detrimental to our overall health. Our biological clocks are compromised.

The increasing prevalence of fixed high color temperature LED lighting (4000K & 5000K) means we are exposed to more blue light at night than ever before (see graphic below comparing light source type color spectrums). This is not a good thing… Studies from Harvard Medical School, Thomas Jefferson University, the University of Toronto and others continue to show the adverse health effects and risks associated with the blue light exposure at night and the suppression of melatonin caused by both interior and exterior 4000K and 5000K LEDs. Examples include difficulty sleeping, less sleep, chronic sleep disorders, contribution to the causation of cancers, increased risk for diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. However, simply installing 2,700K LEDs inside is not the answer, as they do not support circadian rhythm wellness during the day where blue light is crucial for promoting the body’s release of the hormone, cortisol.

Want the best of both worlds? Circadian lighting combine the energy saving benefits of LED retrofitting with a tunable white LED lighting system that supports circadian rhythm wellness during both the day and night. Circadian lighting follows the sun’s schedule, creating exposure to artificial sunlight deep inside buildings during the day, then becoming warmer and protecting occupants from blue light exposure in the evening and nighttime hours. Let Edifice Rx guide your next lighting project, the healthy way.

Source: http://housecraft.ca/eco-friendly-lighting-colour-rendering-index-and-colour-temperature/
Biophilic Baselines and Integrations

Dr. Stephen Kellert, expert in biophilic design, developed basic principles for achieving effective biophilic design practices.

  1. Biophilic design requires repeated and sustained engagement with nature
  2. Biophilic design focuses on human adaptations to the natural works that over evolutionary time have advanced people’s health and fitness
  3. Biophilic design emphasizes an emotional attachment to settings and places
  4. Biophilic design promotes positive interactions between people and nature that expand our understanding of community to include both humans and nature
  5. Biophilic design encourages ecologically connected, mutual reinforcing, and integrated design solutions.

The five overarching principles are achieved through integrating nature’s experiences:

  1. Direct experience of nature is achieved by integrating light, air, water, plants, etc. into your interior space.
  2. Indirect experience of nature is achieved by integrating imagines of nature, natural materials, natural colors, and other forms of art brought in.
  3. The experience of space and place is achieved through developing spaces that have prospect and refugee, organized complexity, transitional spaces, etc.

Biophilic elements include, but are not limited to the following: art, plants, lighting, layout, nature patterns, and many other biophilic components. Biophilic management includes an evaluation of existing biophilic components and recommendations for improvement. There is clear evidence linking biophilic practices to workplace output, showing that employees who worked in a biophilic environment showed 15% increase in productivity over a three-month period. (Cardiff University, 2014).  For example, buildings with interior horticulture also have shown a consistent reduction in health complaints. Interior plants can reduce noise and air pollution if properly used.

1. Biophilia I – Qualitative, outdoor and indoor biophilic applications. Development of a Policy and Plan for introduction and location of biophilic items/practices.

2. Biophilia II – Quantitative, outdoor and indoor biophilic applications. Measures biophilic items as a percentage of occupied space.

Benefits of biophilic integration benefit virtually all industry segments, showing an especially significant benefit in the healthcare industry. Economic benefits range from $1,000 per employee depending on the size of the organization (Terrapin Bright Green, 2012).  Target your best practices for sustainability and wellness using the Edifice Rx occupant-building-environment nest strategies.

Human Factors
Occupant Views

Longer distance views beyond computer screens and documents allows eyes to adjust and re-focus which reduces likelihood of headaches, strain on eyes, and fatigue.  Research has proven that having access to natural views for less than a minute can boost “multiple networks of attention” and reduce employee attention deficits.  Edifice Rx will help you provide biophilic views for as large a percent of your employee population as you choose.

In Vivo Research

Evaluation of existing building operation characteristics to address occupant work deficits and satisfaction. Research strategy devised based on on-going problems and/or results of BODA survey.  Tap into the hive of productivity enhancement that can transform your workplace and your bottom line.

Support building occupants who work deep in a building, far from exterior windows.  Edifice Rx can provide sunlight healthy full spectrum light to as deep a location as a hundred yards into the building.

Step 1: ID Building Human Factor(s) Needing Improvement

Step 2: Identify interior Human Factor Solutions

Step 3: Innovative Installations

Step 4: Occupant Evaluations & Feedback

BODA & POE

Occupant surveys designed to determine productivity, comfort, and health baselines and bases for follow up data.

OSV – Optimum Space Verifications (OSV)

Facilities, occupant baselines, and extended surveys determine opportunities for productivity and healthy gains.