 |
|
|
|||||
The days are getting longer, sunnier, and warmer in the western hemisphere. Those bright summer days have a bigger impact on the workforce and the physical office than you may think. The obvious ones are longer lunches and fewer people in the office due to vacations. Yet when everybody is in the office, there is one common human habit happening during the summer that is often overlooked. One that undermines employee productivity and increases a buildings carbon emissions. The productivity killer? Sunshine. Not that anybody is against it, but when the sun is at its highest and hottest, sun glare and heat penetrating the glass panes in office buildings prompts employees to leave their desks. They either spill over into another area of the office, disrupting colleagues, or they leave. Meanwhile, the air conditioning continues to blast, cooling unoccupied areas, wasting energy, increasing operational costs, and elevating the buildings CO2 emissions. Office insight reduces carbon emissions Since buildings account for almost 40% of the worlds carbon emissions, with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems being among the largest contributors, having insight into human behavior in the office can help reduce those emissions. This issue is not new, but the data to prove its impact on the workforce and planet has only been recently uncovered. For example, a global, well known Silicon Valley tech company took a closer look at how their workforce is using the office. Their goals were to improve collaboration, productivity, and energy efficiency. The company installed sensors that combine AI and body heat sensing technology to understand anonymous human movements in the office. At the large tech company, they aggregated 3-months worth of office data and identified human occupancy patterns. The analysis led to specific recommendations to improve the companys office energy efficiency. Below are actual recommendations from the report: Weekday early mornings and evenings: Reduce HVAC setpoints before 8:00 a.m. and after 6:00 p.m., when saturation rates are consistently low. Midweek daytime control: Reduce airflow to 50% capacity outside of the following high-demand periods: Monday at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday and Wednesday between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., and Thursday between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. This data can also be used to make decisions about window shades, insulation, and lighting. Office layout impacts productivity Going beyond an understanding of how employees move around the office, the tech company was also able to infer actions and interactions among employees. Being able to visually depict human movements without identifying individuals provides genuine data into corporate culture and employee engagement. The actions are far more insightful than any feedback an employee survey could offer. For example, the frequency of impromptu meetings based on chair rollbacks. Also, seeing a cluster of humans congregating in the hallway for a short period of time, especially when the gathering is not held at the top of the hour or at the half hour. From a workforce perspective, office layouts also impact productivity and energy efficiency. This reality is not lost on employers and property managers as the latest JLL Global Office Fit Out Cost Guide 2025 reveals. The report cites an increased focus on in-office attendance, employee experience, and sustainability performance on investing in high quality workspaces. This explains why the average global office fit-out cost is increasing. Understand the workforce needs However, the latest design trends may not align with the workforce needs and/or reflect the corporate culture. For example, another insight the tech company gained from the sensors was that individuals were reserving conference rooms for themselves. This ties up meeting space for others and puts unnecessary demands on the HVAC system that is set to accommodate large groups. It is also an indicator that the open office layout increases noise levels and is not conducive to supporting focused work. You can gain a better understanding of how the workforce uses the office without compromising privacy. Aggregated data on occupancy, foot traffic, human interactions, and their impact on energy consumption can lead to more comfortable, productive, and energy-efficient offices. And having that knowledge before undertaking a costly office renovation can make a big difference in ensuring the building aligns with the needs of the workforce as opposed to making employees adjust to the confines of the office. Honghao Deng is CEO and cofounder of Butlr.
Category:
E-Commerce
Over the years, Ive observed how the approach to housing in the U.S. has shifted. And while affordable housing has faced challenges in how its understood and accurately represented, there is increasing awareness of the need for more accessible, safe, and stable housing options for all. It is time to recalibrate our approach to housingone that not only addresses economic disparities but also fosters community and enhances the quality of life for all residents. Affordable housing is essential for providing a foundation that allows people to contribute meaningfully to their communities. It is one of the reasons my architecture firm recently acquired a firm that specializes in affordable housing projectsto underscore our belief that affordable housing means access and opportunity, and to galvanize our commitment to building resilient, connected communities. As a company, we are writing a new chapter for affordable housing by thinking beyond monolithic categories like low-income. We are also recalibrating how we design, build, and allocate housing for our citizens across all income levels. Rethink the new norm Housing trends in the U.S. have been dominated for decades by the idea of “more and bigger.” This trend has pushed housing prices ever higher, particularly for single-family homes. In contrast, look back 80 years. Neighborhoods were filled with small, modest homeshouses that were attainable for a much wider range of people. The new norm is out of scale with the financial reality for most Americans today. We need housing for all income levels. Were currently facing a housing challenge, not just in terms of cost, but also in how we approach scale and accessibility. While housing prices remain high, there is growing recognition of the need to create solutions that ensure more people can find safe and stable homes, particularly in urban centers where demand is strong. The gap between wages and housing costs has highlighted the need for creative approaches to housing that support diverse communities and offer better access to opportunities like jobs, education, and services. The call for housing has never been more urgent, but its clear that simply building more homes isnt enough. We need to rethink how and where we build, as well as who we build for. Affordable housinghousing thats affordableshould be designed to foster diversity, sustainability, and integration into vibrant communities. This means focusing on smaller homes, multi-family units, and mixed-use developments that can accommodate people from different income levels and contribute to the energy of neighborhoods. Ultimately, we need to shift our thinking about the built environmentnot as a commodity, but as a shared resource that serves the broader public good. Mitch Smith AIA, LEED AP is the CEO and chairman of MG2, an affiliate of Colliers Engineering & Design.
Category:
E-Commerce
Every four years, the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) provides a snapshot of how students across the country are performing in math and English. It doesnt tell us about individual students; instead, it gives us information about how well our public schools are preparing students. The 2024 results showed that 28% of 8th graders were proficient in mathematics (on grade level), and 30% were proficient in reading. In both, the average scores and proficiency rates are still below 2019 rates. One explanation for this dismal reality? Public schools simply arent capable of delivering results for students. But look closely at historical trends in NAEP Reading results from Mississippi. In 1998, only 18% of the states 4th graders were at least proficient in reading, relative to 29% across the nation. By 2024, Mississippi was beating the nation, with 32% of their 4th graders at proficient or advanced proficiency in reading compared to 30% nationally. Why? They will tell you they invested heavily in evidence-based approaches and programs for teaching readingthe science of reading. Unfortunately our states and districts often dont have a supply of effective, useful and usable products and solutions to choose from. Whats broken is not our schools; its the lack of investment in education research and innovation that develops and delivers better solutions to them. If we care about education, we must invest in education R&D like we do in other sectors vital to our nations well-being. Lets start by dispelling the myth that we dont know how to help young people learn. In fact, we have decades of science from fields like psychology and neuroscience telling us a lot about how children learn and how learning progresses within fields like math or reading. The science of learning and human development tells us about the many factors that shape a students ability to learn, from their motivation and interests to environmental forces around them. The real problem The problem is that we dont have a coherent system for translating basic scientific research in education fields into research and development. We lack a clear system for innovating new solutions and scaling them for sustained outcomes. Education R&D funding in the U.S. has historically been a tiny fraction of R&D funding compared to defense, health, energy, and agriculture sectors. Those other fields have structures that support and sustain such efforts. For instance, DARPA in the defense industry, or ARPA-E in energy define bold what if? questions and then catalyze funding so that researchers, builders, and industry collaborate toward future-oriented solutions. The Department of Educations Institute for Education Sciences, prior to its effective dismantling by the current administration, historically funded basic research and program evaluation, but as a tiny (less than 1%) portion of the Departments overall budget. That program evaluation budget goes quickly when spread across the many entities that deliver products and services across 50 states. It results in lots of one-off studies of solutions versus a truly problem-driven approach, focusing and directing resources to finding the solution. One problem with the solution-centric approach is that the solutions often originate from an education product marketplace thats disconnected from the education research sector. Entrepreneurs and companies launch products, then gather data to see how they perform in classrooms. Imagine if a pharmaceutical company had its product teams (not researchers) develop a new drug, market it to a wide audience, then gathered data from users to see what happened. Thats the norm in education. We also often fail to scale what works. Take the science of reading: That researchmuch of it federally fundedhas been around for decades. It eventually took a few well-informed state leaders and a podcast to finally bring the science of reading to scale in products, practices, and state-level policies. What real investment in education R&D looks like Theres a better way. We can create structures that enable and encourage problem- and research-driven innovation, align policies to desired outcomes, and sustain these efforts through ample and reliable funding. Its long past time for an ARPA-Ed that builds on all weve learned from DARPA and other advanced research project agencies, adapted for the unique needs of K-12 education. At AERDF we have built such a model to demonstrate how actively managed R&D, done in close collaboration with educators and learners, can lead to breakthrough science and technology to power new solutions. An ARPA-Ed, or its equivalent, can build on this template. Sustained, well-funded research and development in other fields has shaped how we live today. GPS technology, the internet, and the mRNA vaccine all came out of DARPA projects. Theyve changed the way we navigate, communicate, and protect ourselves from disease. What might similar investment in education R&D do to transform how people learn? The aim is not to control where schools spend their money or what happens in classrooms. A strong education innovation system ensures that communities have a wide range of already-proven options to select, making the best choices for their students. This is really about what our young people need in order to thrive. Every child deserves an opportunity to pursue their educational and career goals. Lets make the necessary investments because when we succeed at educating every child, we create a prepared workforce, our next generation of leaders, and stronger communities. Its time to act Education is essential infrastructure for our economy and our communities. Lets approach it that way. This is not the time to dismantle and defund NSF and the Department of Education. And this isnt just a call for more federal funding. Philanthropy and the private sector also must think differently if we are to catalyze capital systematically in the way fields like energy and health have done. Lastly, we need policies at the state and local level that hold the market accountable for the solutions delivered. For the future we dream of, we need an education system that worksand that means investing like we mean it. Auditi Chakravarty is CEO of The Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF).
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||