You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2.
Healthy Buildings, Productive People
A
Have you felt tired at your desk lately? According to new research, some often overlooked environmental factors within buildings — the degree or type of ventilation, airborne contaminants, lighting and noise levels, for example — can play a surprisingly large role in how good or bad you feel, and even how well you think. It is estimated that we spend more than 90 percent of our time inside, but builders in general have paid little attention to the health aspects of indoor spaces, instead focusing on superficial design features and on meeting minimum environmental standards to keep costs down.
B
Researchers at Harvard University in the US looked at the effects of indoor air quality on workers' cognitive performance — important both for health and for companies' bottom lines, says Joseph Allen, assistant professor of environmental health and principal investigator of the studies. 'The true cost of running our buildings should take into account the health and productivity of people in those buildings,' Allen says. In fact, an analysis by the team showed that the cost of making alterations that could boost cognitive performance significantly was minuscule compared with the related increase in productivity — about $40 per person, per year, compared with a $6,500 increase in employee productivity.
C
The team's first study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, was conducted at the Syracuse Center of Excellence, a US research organization devoted to studying and developing sustainability. The center houses a laboratory that allows researchers to test a wide range of indoor air quality factors using sophisticated ventilation. Each day, the indoor environment was controlled with a ventilation system which included small amounts of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs — the toxic by-products of office supplies commonly found in the workplace. The office workers were blinded to the conditions. For six days over two weeks, 24 office workers with administrative, technical, professional or managerial jobs came to the lab and performed their regular work under minimal supervision, as well as participating in an hour and a half of cognitive testing at the end of the day. The cognitive tasks used in the study had participants respond to online scenarios that mimic real-life situations, such as running a city as a mayor. The findings are remarkable for showing in a well-controlled study, that indoor air quality can significantly lower cognitive performance in buildings that would otherwise meet current building standards, notes environmental psychologist Craig Zimring, director of Georgia Tech University's SimTigrate Design Lab in the US. 'If these findings are replicated in other labs and in real-world work environments,' he says, 'they could lead to designs that provide much more outside air through mechanical ventilation or operable windows, for example' — in turn, promoting better health and performance.
D
In a second study, reported in Building and Environment, the Harvard–Syracuse team moved from the lab to the real world. Using the same methodology, they compared test scores of 109 people working in 10 buildings — about 12 people per site — in two buildings in each of five cities. When the team examined the buildings for differences, they found that certified buildings had lower humidity levels and brighter light than the non-certified buildings. That said, the differences in humidity and lighting didn't entirely explain the differing cognitive function scores of people on the job. This has led researchers to believe that other factors, such as how someone feels about their working environment, may also play a part, notes Harvard research fellow Piers MacNaughton, who led the study.
E
A recently constructed building on the Washington University campus in St. Louis, US, is providing another opportunity to examine how green building design can affect health and behavior. Hillman Hall was designed with the highest environmental and energy standards available, as well as design elements intended to foster more collaboration and physical activity, says Amy Eyler, associate professor and assistant dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University. The design includes easy access to stairways, plenty of natural light, generous spaces for collaboration, desks that allow people to sit or stand up, and inviting places to walk. Unlike traditional hallways designed as long corridors with private offices to either side, for example, these hallways include classrooms, offices and spaces to sit, so they are multi-use — 'you have many reasons to walk them,' says Eyler. To test how the building might affect people's behavior, Eyler conducted a pre-test before people moved in, and a post-test one year later. Her team collected data on the three main features the designers were attempting to foster: physical activity, collaboration and sustainable practices. Results showed that people were more likely to take part in spontaneous collaborations in the new space than in the older ones, and to be physically active.
F
Like other researchers in this growing field, Eyler sees multidisciplinary collaboration as the key to success. Administrators, public health faculty and architects worked together to create a building that captured the university's vision for a space that fosters collegial work and health for faculty, staff and students — a shared goal evidenced by the fact that the architecture firm that designed the building also funded part of the research. 'Complex projects like this one need teams of people with varied backgrounds and expertise in order to solve them,' Eyler says.