Preliminary Study Supports LEED Productivity Benefits

A new peer-reviewed study from Michigan State University researchers lends rare quantitative support to the idea that green building can lead to greater worker health and productivity. The study has several limitations, however, and the researchers characterized its results as “preliminary.”

Researchers focused on the approximately 250 employees of two different Lansing, Michigan, companies that were in the process of relocating from older, conventional offices to new, LEED-certified headquarters (one Platinum, one Silver). Employees answered questions about their perceived productivity, absenteeism, health, and overall well-being in two rounds of Web surveys, one pre-move and one post-move. (One of the study’s limitations is that for one building, the “pre-move” survey was conducted three months after the move, with subjects asked to recollect life in the old building. For this survey, data was removed for respondents who gave a poor rating to their own confidence in their recollections.)