It's in the Air: The Invisible Secret to Strategy and Productivity

The rising importance of health and wellbeing is likely to change several aspects of our lives – especially in the way we work. As our office environments move under the microscope, we explore how the air we breathe can impact our productivity and cognitive function.

The spaces we work in significantly affect the way we function. On average, we spend almost a third of our lives (approximately 90,000 hours) at the office. And often, whether we’ve had a good week or a bad week is closely tied to how work was.

But beyond the commonly discussed stresses and uncertainties of business, our physical office environments can have a profound impact on our health, too.

In 1986, the WHO coined the term ‘sick building syndrome’, a phenomenon still referenced today as a product of poor indoor office environments – predominately poor air quality. At the time, it was estimated that workforces in up to 30% of new and refurbished buildings across the globe were victims to it, as efforts to conserve energy meant several workspaces were airtight. Symptoms include headaches, sore eyes, tiredness and difficulty concentrating.

It’s true that modern workplaces have started to welcome the importance of wellbeing, many offices include breakout spaces, meditation rooms and fitness studios, but the focus on the impact of air quality has been – much like its subject – invisible.

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How air quality improves your productivity and cognitive function

In our search to understand the true impact of air quality on our working lives, we spoke to Niall Ingham, Head of London at AirRated, a certification programme for indoor air quality. According to Ingham, one of the main opportunity costs of poor air quality is a lack of productivity.

He explained: “Productivity and performance are largely dictated by CO2. Workplace-specific studies have shown that elevated levels of CO2 can reduce productivity by up to 11%. When CO2 levels increase, our cognitive performance decreases, forcing us to feel lethargic. In high enough levels, this can cause headaches, aggravate respiratory problems and increase stress”.

He continued: “We have all gone into meetings feeling refreshed, only to become sleepy in the stuffiness of the room. Often, CO2 is to blame. In fact, a small increase in CO2 (by 1000ppm) can impair cognitive performance in the same way that 1.5 pints of beer can in men, and 2 pints of beer can in women”.

If poor air quality can have a similar effect on us to that of a pub lunch, we might think twice before making our biggest decisions at the end of a tightly packed, two-hour meeting.

Niall Ingham, Head of London at AirRated says: "Contrary to popular belief, improving air quality doesn’t always involve costly replacements or major upgrades".

How air quality can improve your ability to strategise during crises

One of the workplace-specific studies Ingham references has been published by Joseph G. Allen in The Harvard Business Review. Ultimately, the study found that “breathing better air led to significantly better decision-making performance”.

The study invited 24 managers, architects and designers to spend six days in a highly controlled environment. As they were instructed to carry out their normal working days from nine to five, their air quality conditions were changed from meeting minimum standards to being highly optimised.

In summary, Allen explains: “The results showed the biggest improvements in areas that tested how workers used information to make strategic decisions and how they plan, stay prepared, and strategise during crises. These are exactly the skills needed to be productive in the knowledge economy”.

Not only does improving air quality alleviate ‘sick building syndrome’, but it can actually bolster the strength of our leadership and our ability to navigate crises, benefits CEOs, CFOs and managing directors would quickly sign up for, especially in uncertain times.

How to improve indoor air quality – even in polluted cities

In Allen’s study, indoor air quality was optimised in three main ways. The amount of outdoor air brought into the space was double the minimum requirement, the level of volatile compounds was decreased by limiting surface cleaners, dry erase markets, dry cleaned clothing and building materials, and finally, CO2 levels were changed.

To alleviate symptoms of ‘sick building syndrome’, the NHS proposes solutions along the same lines as above – increase the amount of air brought in from outside and get some fresh air during your lunch break.

But does embracing the great outdoors do more harm than good? London’s air pollution, in particular, has been called a “public health crisis” by Mayor Sadiq Khan, and against a global backdrop, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO has previously dubbed air pollution the “new tobacco”.

It’s a silent killer, taking approximately two years off of average life-spans and causing 800,000 premature deaths in Europe. The latest research even suggests that high levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from Covid-19.

Ingham explains that even in central London, there’s no excuse. The trick is to target the source: “We offer a ‘design and operation’ certificate for buildings which are pre-construction to ensure that developers and landlords have air quality strategies in place at the design phase so that once a building has completed, it performs well”. But even for existing buildings, “there is plenty that can be done to improve air quality retrospectively”.

Ingham continues: “Testing can help to flag how complicated the problem is, whether it’s as simple as using less toxic cleaning supplies or changing to higher grade air filters in the HVAC. Contrary to popular belief, improving air quality doesn’t always involve costly replacements or major upgrades”.

Other options including embracing biophilic office design, and incorporating plants that help to improve air quality, absorb pollutants and weed out toxins. Some plants can also restore water vapour levels in dry office air – which can make us vulnerable to allergens and viruses by irritating the cells in our noses and throats.

The ROI of employee wellness

Wellness and productivity are two sides of the same coin. We know that employee happiness is said to increase sales by 37% and boost productivity by 18%. Likewise, mental wellbeing has the power to improve productivity by as much as 12%.

In the latest release from the ONS, 141.4 million days were lost in 2018 due to sickness absence. When some research goes as far to say that 40% of all sickness absence can be traced back to indoor air pollution or poor air quality, investing in the quality of your office environment is likely to outweigh the cost of doing so.

In fact, after conducting his study on air quality, Allen took his research a step further to prove this. He estimated that the “cost of doubling ventilation rates would be less than $40 [£32]* per person per year”, while the “productivity benefits from doubling ventilation rates are $6,500 [£5,263]* per person per year”.

The latter figure doesn’t even account for associated health benefits, such as absenteeism and decreasing cases of ‘sick building syndrome’, which means it could be much higher.

Health and wellbeing were once seen as employee domains, but businesses are becoming more concerned with how they can help. For some, this is philanthropic, but for others, it’s a genuine strategy for reducing the financial burden caused by sickness absences and a high staff turnover. Health and happiness do in fact, boost your bottom-line.