Environment Analytics: What Are the Healthiest Conditions for Work?

Quick question: Do you prefer an airy, breezy space, or a stuffy, musty room? Of course, you prefer the former. Everyone does. It’s thus surprising that some offices are still stuffy, unpleasant, and unhealthy. Today, there is an ample amount of information about how the surrounding environment influences individuals and how that affects their productivity, alertness, and general ability to do work. Therefore, it should behoove employers and real estate providers to create a healthy atmosphere.

Sick building syndrome is actually a real thing. It comes from people spending too much time in buildings that simply make them feel ill. Symptoms include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat; dry mucus membranes and skin; hoarseness, wheezing, coughing, and frequent respiratory infections; skin rashes and itching; headaches and mental fatigue; and nausea and dizziness. These can come from a myriad of causes, chiefly inadequate ventilation, thermal discomfort, low humidity, and air pollution including airborne organic matter. Right now, this is a serious issue and everyone should work from home if possible and practice safe social distancing. However, once the crisis has passed, the question remains how do you ensure you’re making your environment as healthy as possible for people who have to spend long hours inside?

Today, modern technologies can help maintain a healthy atmosphere in the workplace and increase the wellbeing of people inside. Primarily, the temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels have to be monitored and adjusted in order to maintain an environment that is conducive to work and increased productivity. Spaceti offers its Environmental Analytics platform as a tool to ensure people are working to their potential.

Spaceti’s founder and CEO Max Verteletskyi has been WELL AP certified, and he helped develop the company’s environmental recommendations. As a rule, temperature should be about 23°C-24°C, while humidity should be between 45%-55%. Carbon dioxide levels should be especially closely monitored. When tested, people’s scores improved up to 12% in environments with lower CO₂ levels. In one test, people worked up to 60% faster in spaces with reduced CO₂ concentrations.

As part of the Environmental Analytics, Spaceti has developed its Environment Index, which gauges how healthy the indoor environment is. It’s an average of the temperature, humidity, and CO₂ levels, and the higher the number, the more productive the workplace is. These analytics provides you with a detailed report about CO2, temperature, and humidity as well as an overview at the building level all the way down to individual chairs filterable for different time periods. It’s tools like these that help employers improve the working environment, which makes their people healthier and more productive.

And in these trying times, we hope everyone stays happy and healthy.