Why sitting is the new smoking and wellness is the next green
Tony Arnel, Global Director of Sustainability Norman Disney & Young
Sitting is the new smoking, so they say.
And with most office workers spending 80 per cent of their day engaged in sedentary activity, it’s no wonder our attention has turned to health and wellbeing.
Australia’s green building movement is now more than a decade old, and there’s a palpable feeling within the industry that’s it’s time to look beyond energy and water efficiency to the ‘next big thing’.
The evidence that green buildings are good for human health continues to stack up. United Technologies Corporation – the company behind well-known brands like Carrier and Otis – has just funded a lab-based Harvard University study to examine the impact of green buildings on cognitive function.
Researchers varied the levels of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds within the lab’s air, and assessed nine cognitive domains, including activity levels, task orientation and crisis response. Scores for crisis response were up to 131 per cent higher in the environment with enhanced ventilation and lower carbon dioxide levels, while scores were 288 per cent higher for strategy and a whopping 299 per cent higher for information usage.