Air and well being - a way to more profitability

Until recently, the air quality did not play a major role in the planning of buildings. Air qualitywas simply understood to be synonymous with pollution-free and safe air. This approach,however, omitted consideration of how to achieve the well-being of the occupants. Asresearch has shown, elimination of pollutants is far from being sufficient and does notsignificantly reduce the dissatisfaction rate of building occupants. More recently, research hasaddressed the occupants perception of indoor air with the goal of increasing their satisfactionrate. In this context, air quality, encompassing both olfactory and thermal comfort, plays animportant role. In particular, the hedonic value of indoor air has to be taken into considerationwhen measuring the air quality. The economic consequences are still not fully apparent toinvestors and developers. Competition and market conditions in the commercial propertymarket require that investors adopt new ways to attract tenants to buildings. One of thesolutions are so-called performance-based buildings, which go well beyond traditionalmethods of addressing the well-being of building occupants, resulting in enhancedproductivity, reduced absenteeism and reduced health risks. A case study will show that suchhigh-performance buildings can create a sufficient return on investment for investors, even ifthe initial investment costs are higher than for conventional buildings. Addressing the wellbeingof the building users can realize a significant increase in a building's value.