Group photo of the project partners at the time for project kickoff 2019

Occupant well-being and productivity in sustainable office buildings: A multidisciplinary study on the key factors of indoor environmental quality

People have been endeavoring to build habitable indoor environment as more than 80% of our live are spent indoors which is a vital part to achieve a good life. During the past decades, growing researches have shown that indoor environmental quality IEQ has a significant impact on occupant well-being and productivity in office buildings. This research program aims to develop advanced indoor environmental quality IEQ in sustainable office buildings promoting occupant comfort, health, and productivity by identifying key factors and revealing causal relations from evidence-based studies. A national dataset will be aggregated from the office buildings in Sweden by physical measurement and subjective survey. A series of statistical methods will be applied to achieve a reliable data analysis. A cross-country analysis will be conducted using the dataset from Switzerland with the collected 27 office buildings and 2000 responses to verify the results and further examine the application of the finding in a wider context. The findings will contribute to the research gap of key factors and causal paths of indoor environmental quality regarding a multidisciplinary perspective. Ultimately, the research project will promote the national occupants’ well-being and health in the work environment and positively contribute to the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Partner organizations

  • Chalmersfastigheter (Private, Sweden)
  • Skanska Property Gothenburg AB (Private, Sweden)
  • Akademiska Hus (Public, Sweden)
  • Boverket (Public, Sweden)
  • Bengt Dahlgren AB (Private, Sweden)
  • Lund University (Academic, Sweden)
Start date 04/01/2019
End date 31/03/2022

Funded by

  • Formas (Public, Sweden)
​Lund University  (Thorbjörn Laike, professor)   
Lund University was founded in 1666 and, ever since, has been a centre of culture and learning. It is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top 100 universities. Environmental Psychology is a research group at the department of Architecture and Built Environment, founded 1980. We study the relationship between the individual and the environment, mainly the physical environment.    Since we have studied the impact of work environments in many different aspects, amongst others the impact of light and colour in the environment, it is extremely interesting to relate the individual experience. Within this project we get a unique opportunity to combine the different measures in order to create healthier and better work environments.   

Bengt Dahlgren (Max Tillberg, specialist inneklimat)    
Bengt Dahlgren is a privately-owned consultancy firm focusing on the built environment. The company was founded in 1952 and has since grown to become one of Sweden's leading independent consultants with nearly 600 employees. Bengt Dahlgren has been awarded the best employer in Sweden several times.     There is probably nothing more important than the health and wellbeing for us and of our loved ones. Buildings can have a big impact on health, productivity and wellbeing for the people using them. This relationship is still not fully understood and this is the reason Bengt Dahlgren support the SOIEQ project.   

Skanska AB  (Thomas Berntsson, projectchef; Jonas Gräslund, technical director)   
Skanska Property Gothenburg AB is a commercial development company inside Skanska. Our business is to lease out and sell fully leased office buildings. We are clients to the construction company Skanska from who we order office new buildings according to our functional requirements. As indoor climate in all its aspects is linked to productivity we and our clients and tenants see this as a main subject to preserve and to develop knowledge about. We find this research project in line with our own priorities.   

Boverket (Hans-Olof Karlsson Hjorth, uppdragsägare)   
Boverket is the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning dealing with all issues concerning the planning and building act. I work specially with sustainable construction and the reason why we are interested in participating in this research group is to follow the frontline when it comes to premises dealing with indoor environment and environmental issues.   

Akademiskahus (Per Löveryd, energiingenjör; Peter Karlsson, innovationsledare)   
Akademiskahus is involved in the projekt because we are a large property owner with many tenants.  An important part of being a good landlord is a good indoor climate. This projekt we can give and learn more about indoor climate and also be a good landlord in the tenant’s projects.   

Chalmersfastigheter  (Åsa Östlund, strategisk fastighetsutvecklare; Bengt Bergsten, energistrateg)    Chalmersfastigheter is Chalmers own property owner - formed in 1999 and owned by Stiftelsen (Foundation) Chalmers Tekniska högskola. Our vision is “World class, sustainable and inspiring campus”. Chalmersfastigheter develops and manages premises and campuses that supports Chalmers and Chalmers partners. One of our main challenges is to obtain an excellent indoor climate. Together with Akademiska Hus we constantly aim to improve the satisfaction of our tenants. This is the reason why we are glad to be a part of the SOIEQ project.

Page manager Published: Mon 12 Aug 2019.