Harvard Study: We are Smarter in Green Buildings- Cognitive Scores Are 101 Percent Higher in Enhanced Green Building

Posted by: YijunW

Researchers from Harvard University's Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have investigated how green buildings positively affect health and cognitive function. The research simulated indoor environmental conditions in green and conventional buildings with a goal of evaluating the impacts on an objective measure of human performance—cognitive function. The research concludes that cognitive function scores are better in green building conditions compared to the conventional building conditions across nine functional domains, including crisis response, strategy, and focused activity level. The result shows that average cognitive scores are 61 percent higher in green building conditions and 101 percent higher in enhanced green building conditions. In addition, CO2, VOCs, and ventilation rate all had significant, independent impacts on cognitive function. Because simulated conditions commonly experienced by large numbers of people every day, the study has huge implications to worker productivity and student learning. I guess now we can be convinced that it is meaningful to build green -- not only for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, but also for our own consciousness and mindfulness. To read more, please visit: https://bit.ly/2ujq9S1