Are Green Buildings Doing Enough? The role of green certification and gender on sick building syndrome

Rana Elnaklah, Daniel Fosas, Sukumar Natarajan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract / Description of output

One of the promised benefits of green buildings is providing healthier indoor environments for their occupants, however, this notion is still debated. To test this, a sample of 502 office-based workers from 13 air- conditioned office buildings (44.4% female and 55.6% male) in Jordan completed a questionnaire on Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) symptoms. The role played by gender in symptom-reporting was also investigated. Findings showed that building type made no significant difference to the prevalence of all SBS symptoms except the tiredness symptom which was slightly higher in the occupants of conventional buildings. Surprisingly, green buildings and conventional buildings had a higher occurrence of SBS symptoms than what industry standards allow for (up to 20%), suggesting that both building types would be classified as sick buildings. Results have also shown that the only significant difference between male and female workers was in the cough and sore throat symptom, which was reported more often by female workers. These findings reinforce the need for further attention to the occupants’ perceived health in the green buildings, which may use as an indict of the building performance.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPlanning Post Carbon Cities
Subtitle of host publication35th PLEA Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, A Coruña, 1st-3rd September 2020: Proceedings
PublisherUniversity of A Coruña
Pages193-198
Number of pages6
Volume1
Publication statusPublished - 15 Nov 2020

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