Recent research done in collaboration between the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) found that green buildings have a positive impact on the productivity of the employees working within them.

The research determined the human resources benefits of building green by analyzing anonymous data on more than 40,000 RBC employees against information on more than 70 RBC office buildings. Results found that overall, green buildings have statistically higher employee job satisfaction, higher employee engagement and organizational commitment, and higher management-assessed performance.

“Organizations inhabiting or owning buildings that are looking to meet green certification standards, such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), usually use the environmental impact and energy cost savings benefits to make the case for certification,” said Richard Tremblay, general manager of the NRC’s Construction portfolio, in a press release. “Now, the NRC and RBC have developed objective methods to support the case that green buildings enhance job satisfaction and enhance indicators related to productivity as well.”

This research is just one of the NRC’s initiatives to create a greener future through innovation. The NRC was selected for this collaboration because of both its technical knowledge of high-performance buildings, as well as its impartial analysis of more than 120 million records from RBC.

“We are delighted to have partnered with the NRC on this ground-breaking study,” said Robert Carlyle, RBC’s senior director of strategic workforce management. “We look forward to uncovering new insights with the NRC to assist in developing physical spaces that help keep employees engaged.”