Green Daily

A co-worker of mine used to complain about the lights and air in our high-rise office building making her sick. I always attributed it the the work environment itself which had more to do with the people there than the building. It turns out though that a little attention paid to building green can actually cut down on employee sick days.

Understandably, the biggest perpetrator of worker illness (next to not wanting to get out of bed) is recycled air. If one person is sick those germs get carried through the office. By increasing ventilation, improving air filtration and using ultraviolet light to disinfect the air, the common cold can be decreased by 20%. Science aside, I'm sure that a little more natural light or healthy cafeteria food doesn't hurt either.

Unfortunately there is nothing that green building can do for the days when it's simply too nice outside to be cooped up in an office all day.