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Study: Green buildings increase productivity

The Daily Transcript -- Employees working in green buildings phone in sick to work less frequently and are more productive than their counterparts who work in non-green buildings, according to a recent study by University of San Diego’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate and commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis

The study suggests buildings that bear the LEED-certified or Energy Star label are more valuable as office space because of the increase in productivity, said Norm Miller, academic director for USD’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate.

Indoor air quality, natural light and ventilation were cited as reasons employees perform better when working in green buildings.

“People like natural light, they like clean air,” Miller said, whether the effects be on health, morale or psychological.

Conducted by Miller and David Pogue, national director of sustainability for CB Richard Ellis, the study surveyed 534 tenants of 154 green buildings nationwide. (Full Story)