Moving to a green building: Indoor environment quality, thermal comfort and health

A global movement towards the creation of “green” buildings is currently underway. Although driven primarily by an external environmental agenda such as energy or carbon, there growing recognition that greener could affect Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ). However, localised green building codes, especially in developing world, often do not systematically recognise IEQ health crucial issues, which therefore remain understudied. Since world alone expected to nearly double current built floor space 2050, it perform holistically be effective. Here, we follow 120 employees a single organisation they transition from four conventional office first (GB), designed local Jordanian Green Building Guide. We ask if move has positive effect on occupant perception IEQ, thermal comfort and prevalence Sick Syndrome (SBS), using repeated-measures protocol. Statistically significant differences conditions, positively biased GB, were observed across move, this enhanced comfort. Surprisingly, no improvement air quality, visual acoustic was detected after moving while odour, mental concentration, glare perceived poor GB associated with increase SBS symptoms. Hence, our results support concern may create unintended consequences terms pursuit better environment efficiency.