Editing IPCC:AR6/WGIII/Chapter-9 (section)

==== 9.8.5.1 Buildings-related Labour Productivity ====

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Low-carbon buildings, and particularly well-designed, operated and maintained high-performance buildings with adequate ventilation, may result in productivity gains and improve the competitiveness of the economy through three different pathways ( [[#MacNaughton--2015|MacNaughton et al. 2015]] ; [[#European%20Commission--2016|European Commission 2016]] ; [[#Niemelä--2017|Niemelä et al. 2017]] ; [[#Mofidi--2017|Mofidi and Akbari 2017]] ; [[#Thema--2017|Thema et al. 2017]] ; [[#Bleyl--2019|Bleyl et al. 2019]] ): (i) increasing the amount of active time available for productive work by reducing the absenteeism from work due to illness, the presenteeism (i.e., working with illness or working despite being ill), and the inability to work due to chronic diseases caused by the poor indoor environment; (ii) improving the indoor air quality and thermal comfort of non-residential buildings, which can result in better mental well-being of the employees and increased workforce performance; and (iii) reducing the school absenteeism due to better indoor environmental conditions, which may enhance the future earnings ability of the students and restrict the parents absenteeism due to care-taking of sick children.

Productivity gains due to increased amount of active time for work is directly related to acute and chronic health benefits attributed to climate mitigation actions in buildings ( [[#9.8.2.2|Section 9.8.2.2]] ). The bulk of studies quantifying the impact of energy efficiency on productivity focus on acute health effects. Proper ventilation in buildings is of particular importance and can reduce absenteeism due to sick days by 0.6–1.9 days per person per year ( [[#MacNaughton--2015|MacNaughton et al. 2015]] ; [[#Ben-David--2017|Ben-David et al. 2017]] ; [[#Thema--2017|Thema et al. 2017]] ). In a pan-European study, ( [[#Chatterjee--2018|Chatterjee and Ürge-Vorsatz 2018]] ) showed that deep energy retrofits in residential buildings may increase the number of active days by 1.78–5.27 (with an average of 3.09) per year and person who has actually shifted to a deep retrofitted building. Similarly, the interventions in the non-residential buildings result in increased active days between 0.79 and 2.43 (with an average of 1.4) per year and person shifted to deeply retrofitted non-residential buildings.

As regards improvements in workforce performance due to improved indoor conditions (i.e., air quality, thermal comfort, etc.), ( [[#Kozusznik--2019|Kozusznik et al. 2019]] ) conducted a systematic review on whether the implementation of energy efficient interventions in office buildings influence well-being and job performance of employees. Among the 34 studies included in this review, 31 found neutral to positive effects of green buildings on productivity and only 3 studies indicated detrimental outcomes for office occupants in terms of job performance. Particularly longitudinal studies, which observe and compare the office users’ reactions over time in conventional and green buildings, show that green buildings have neutral to positive effects on occupants well-being and work performance ( [[#Thatcher--2016|Thatcher and Milner 2016]] ; [[#Candido--2019|Candido et al. 2019]] ; [[#Kozusznik--2019|Kozusznik et al. 2019]] ). [[#Bleyl--2019|Bleyl et al. (2019)]] estimated that deep energy retrofits in office buildings in Belgium would generate a workforce performance increase of EUR10.4 to EUR20.8 m –2 renovated. In Europe every 1°C reduction in overheating during the summer period increases students learning performance by 2.3% and workers performance in office buildings by 3.6% ( [[#Kockat--2018|Kockat et al. 2018]] b). Considering the latter indicator, it was estimated that by reducing overheating across Europe, the overall performance of the workers in office buildings can increase by 7–12% ( [[#Kockat--2018|Kockat et al. 2018]] b).

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