Wellness & Productivity: benchmarking sustainability, health and productivity

Most people are familiar with NABERS Energy because that rating has been compulsory for several years. NABERS also provides rating tools for other aspects of performance, such as Indoor Environment, Water and Waste.

Indoor Environment is critical to tenant organisations because it has been proven to enhance staff productivity.

There are alternative or complementary rating schemes to NABERS:

• Greenstar Performance reviews data from the building’s continuous monitoring systems.
• Well Building Standard is a common foundation for measuring wellness in the built environment.

QED specialises in the objectively measured components of the various building rating schemes, in particular for Indoor Environment, and have rated some of the highest performing buildings in Australia.

NABERS Indoor Environment (IE)

NABERS Indoor Environment (IE) is a rating system that evaluates and benchmarks the quality of indoor environments in commercial buildings across Australia. It focuses on factors such as air quality, lighting, temperature, and acoustic comfort to promote healthier and more productive workplaces.

WELL Building Standard

The WELL Building Standard is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and well-being. It focuses on factors such as air quality, water quality, lighting, nutrition, fitness, and mental well-being to create healthier and more sustainable buildings.

Green Star

Green Star is an internationally-recognised sustainability rating system for buildings and communities in Australia. It evaluates the environmental design, construction, and operation of buildings based on factors such as energy efficiency, water usage, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality to promote sustainable built environments.

Indoor Environment Quality

Quality of the environment created within a building is fundamental to its occupants’ health, wellbeing and productivity. This is particularly true for office buildings where many occupants spend a large proportion of their daily life, and their activity involves more cognitive oriented tasks.

The indoor environment of a building is influenced by:

• Thermal comfort including air temperature, radiant temperature, relative humidity and air speed
• Acoustic comfort including ability of building to minimise external noise as well as the noise levels within the tenanted space
• Indoor air quality including ventilation effectiveness and levels of pollutants (gaseous, particulate and biological)
• Lighting to maximise daylight whilst minimising glare and heat

Why Rate Indoor Environment?

• Official certification improves the overall standing of premises, Property Council of Australia building grades now allow for indoor environment ratings
• Marketing and presentation to prospective tenants, and engagement with current tenants
• Allows for tracking of continuous improvement.

Which Building Rating Scheme Should I Use?

QED has experience with all rating schemes and can assist in deciding which rating to undertake.

We often perform some limited testing to estimate a predicted rating which can assist in the decision process. Attaining the highest rating may depend on the availability of continuous sensor data from your building management system, or as an alternative we can undertake continuous monitoring using innovative technologies such as SAMBA.

Building rating schemes explained

QED's Joe Scholz explains the alternative building rating schemes to NABERS, exploring more about Greenstar Performance & WELL Building Standard