Leveraging timber and greenery to design healthy environments: findings from WELL-certified workspaces

Over the last decade, the health and wellbeing movement has taken the Asia Pacific market by storm. It has been estimated that 25% of the Australian commercial office space is under consideration for WELL certification. Despite this growth, research documenting the perception of office workers in certified spaces is yet to pick up the pace, preventing advances in knowledge about tangible (and quantifiable) outcomes of certification adoption. This paper contributes to this knowledge gap by reporting on findings of a cohort of 20 certified workspaces. A sample of over 2,400 SHE (Sustainable and Healthy Environments) Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) surveys were analysed. The survey is designed to capture occupants’ satisfaction, comfort, perceived productivity, health (physical and mental), creativity, and other aspects. The SHE POE survey is endorsed for use on certifications with GBCA, NABERS, and IWBI’s WELL v2. In addition, a total of ten case studies were selected for structured site visits with the goal of mapping physical attributes of the office fit-out, including greenery, access to daylight, overall office layout, zoning, furnishings, aesthetics, etc. Survey results show that perceived productivity was nearly 15% higher in certified workspaces when benchmarked against the SHE database. Workers also reported higher overall satisfaction, creativity and health. Results from site visits show that high-performing workspaces where timber and greenery rich fit-outs were more likely to achieve higher levels of satisfaction overall. There were also significant boosts in terms of utilisation - workers actively sought timber and greenery rich fit-outs three times more often and stayed five times longer than other locations within the same workplace. Findings highlight the value add of sustainable and healthy building certification as a blueprint pathway towards high-performing workspaces. This research provides information to industry stakeholders seeking evidence for business cases for fit-out improvements whilst helping to redefine best-industry practice.