Will you ever step into a crowded lift without hesitation again? You can grab a doorknob (or glove) without hesitation.

The easing of social distancing may reopen some businesses, but the experience of working in an office will likely not be “normal” as long as people are still remembering COVID-19.

Before the pandemic, there were many reasons to worry about the air quality and ventilation of the buildings in which we work and live. Healthy indoor environments not only keep us healthy but also improve our cognitive performance.

“OFFICES with a leading health story will get the premium rent and attract tenants, while those offices with a lagging health story will lag.”

To help managers understand the benefits of the healthy building movement, John D. Macomber, a senior lecturer from Harvard Business School, wrote a new book, Health Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity. It will be published on April 21.

Macomber explains that although facility managers may think they are saving money by using air filters and electricity, there is no need to cut back on airflow. It’s not logical. It’s an inexpensive way to make people healthier.”

With co-author Joseph G. Allen, Harvard T.H. Macomber, a professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explores the “nine foundations of a healthy building,” and studies how simple changes to improve air quality and flow can have dramatic impacts on workers.

John Macomber with Joseph Allen during a recent Books@Baker Event. But the economic benefits don’t stop there. Macomber expects that a growing public focus on health measures will drive major changes across a variety of industries, but especially in travel and hospitality. Increasingly, Macomber postulates that savvy business leaders and landlords will begin to leverage healthier indoor spaces as recruitment tools and sources of competitive advantage. Anxieties over COVID-19 are likely to accelerate these trends, he says.

He says, “I believe awareness is increased, and there will be a decrease in demand for office space and apartments in this economy.” “These two things combined, I believe that the offices which have the best health stories will receive premium rents and tenants and those offices who do not will be left behind.”

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Additional Business-Related Pandemic Coverage from Around Harvard and Beyond

• Compassion in the Management of Coronavirus Layoffs (Harvard Business Review).
• Organizational Responses to COVID-19, Climate Change and a Conversation with Rebecca Henderson.
• COVID-19 Business Impact Center, Harvard Business School

Working Knowledge has COVID-19 coverage. Many elite companies already use their building’s efficiency or grandeur to send a signal to customers and workforce talent. As a result of the global pandemic, Macomber expects an emphasis on indoor air quality and other healthy building measures will diffuse through the rest of the economy.

Macomber says that as the nation begins to return to the workplace, the concern about the spread of infectious diseases will “make it easier than ever to invest in the basics of a health building, particularly around ventilation, air quality, water, humidity, and security.” “They aren’t very expensive.” “I think they will spread quickly and become a must-have because of the low cost and high benefit.”

Poor ventilation can impair cognition, as anyone who has felt sleepy in a stuffy plane can attest. Casinos figured out this long ago. They pumped in extra air, kept the temperature cool, and had you stay awake longer at the slot machines and gaming tables.

The authors of Health Buildings have quantified these effects through double-masked scientific studies that compared workers to themselves in offices of varying air quality and flow.

The performance of study subjects was significantly improved in optimal conditions, with high ventilation rates and low carbon dioxide concentrations.

Macomber and Allen wrote: “Think about it for a second. Simply increasing the amount air brought into an workplace, which is something that almost every office could easily do, has a quantifiable effect on higher-order cognition in knowledge workers.”

Macomber cautions against making the mistake of assuming that increased productivity is synonymous with enhanced performance, as productivity encompasses so many factors.

The authors believe that “security” will have a wider meaning in the post-pandemic era. Security in a building will include monitoring who enters, what they carry physically, and also what is inside. Infrared scanners are also being installed at the building entrances to take visitors’ temperatures to prevent viruses and other pathogens from spreading. This technology is similar to that used at airports.

Wearables and smartphones could be used to share data about air quality and personal health. This would allow for new applications to provide information in real time. Macomber suggests that an app could be developed for public health to do what WAZE did for traffic congestion.

He predicts that the public will be more aware and interested in the quality of their spaces, including their aircraft and cruise ships. They’ll also be more selective when it comes to their apartments and offices. “They’ll also be very selective in their homes and offices, and will share this information with others.”

Book Excerpt

Healthy Buildings: Indoor Spaces that Drive Performance and Productivity

 Regularly Checking Your Building

If you want to make sure that your mechanical system operates in a manner that is safe for your health, we recommend commissioning your automated system. If you are not familiar with the process of commissioning, we recommend that you get up to speed as soon as possible.