Rosetta Stone

August 24, 2020

Daylight + Performance

Talking Points • Research Brief • Collection Database


Daylight - Performance Talking Points

Summary

In addition to supporting physical and mental health, which both indirectly support increase performance and productivity, daylight positively impacts performance in other ways as well. Increased alertness, better color rendering, less flicker, reduced absenteeism, increased financial performance and increased academic performance have all been seen with increased access to daylight.

Keywords

Daylight, performance, productivity, financial performance, academic performance, cognitive performance, absenteeism, alertness

Decreased Stress

  • Daylight has been shown to contribute to higher student cognitive performance and test scores (Edwards 2002).
  • Poor spectral quality can cause eyestrain, leading to decreased information processing, learning ability and increased stress (Edwards 2002).
  • Higher stress levels can impact certain growth hormones, supporting observations that children primarily under electric lights have a greater risk for decreased mental capabilities, agitated physical behavior, and fatigue (Edwards 2002).

Improved Employee Performance

  • Improving and supporting physiological health and well-being, daylight positively impacts performance by influencing the “platform” from which productivity originates (Edwards 2002).
  • Better lighting has been attributed to improvements in productivity, a decrease in accidents, an increased level of mental performance, and improvements in sleep quality (Edwards 2002).
  • Increases in performance are an important payback of investments in daylight because the costs of employee salaries and initial construction are much larger than building energy and operating costs (Edwards 2002).

Improved Financial Performance

  • Daylit stores have higher sales numbers than non-daylit stores by roughly 30-40% (Edwards 2002).
  • On a per student basis, reduced absenteeism saves the (operational, material, staffing) cost of providing for students who aren’t present (Edwards 2002).
  • Windowless factories saw more employee absenteeism and increased vandalism and correlating maintenance costs compared to factories with windows (Edwards 2002).
  • Healthcare facilities benefit from reduced operating costs due to faster recovery times, less need for medication, and lower mortality rates due to increased daylight exposure (Edwards 2002, Joseph 2006).

Decreased Performance

  • If improperly or poorly considered, daylight can cause visual discomfort through glare, distraction, veiling reflections or by shadows (Boyce 2003).
  • Performance speed and accuracy deteriorate in a non-linear manner with reduced visibility (Boyce 2003).
  • Poorly managed daylight can decrease performance and increase absenteeism through excessive lighting levels, extreme glare, and high thermal discomfort (Boyce 2003).
  • Tactics used by employees to cope with the negative problems of uncontrolled daylighting also decrease performance because they distract employees from work and are typically not effective at removing the problem (Edwards 2002).

Key References

Review Articles
  • Boyce, P., Hunter, C. and Howlett, O. (2003) The Benefits of Daylight through Windows. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy.
  • Edwards, L., & Torcellini, P. (2002). Literature Review of the Effects of Natural Light on Building Occupants
  • Ulrich, Roger S, Craig Zimring, Xuemei Zhu, Jennifer DuBose, Hyun-Bo Seo, Young-Seon Choi, Xiaobo Quan, and Anjali Joseph. “A Review of the Research Literature on Evidence-Based Healthcare Design.” HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal 1, no. 3 (2008): 61-125.
Primary Research
  • Heerwagen, J.H.; Johnson, J.A.; Brothers, P.; Little, R.; Rosenfeld, A. (1998). “Energy Effectiveness and the Ecology of Work: Links to Productivity and Well-Being.” Proceedings of the 1998 ACEEE Summer Study. Washington, DC: The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy; pp. 8.123–8.132.
  • Heschong, Lisa, Roger L. Wright, and Stacia Okura. “Daylighting Impacts on Retail Sales Performance.” Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society 31, no. 2 (2002): 21-25.
  • Heschong, Lisa, Roger L. Wright, and Stacia Okura. “Daylighting Impacts on Human Performance in School.” Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society 31, no. 2 (2002): 101-14.
  • Heschong Lisa. “Windows and Offices: A Study of Office Worker Performance and the Indoor Environment.” Fair Oaks, CA: Heschong-Mahone Group; (2003).
  • Heschong, Lisa, M. Saxena, R. Wright, S. Okura, and D. Aumann, 2004, “Offices, Windows and Daylight: Call Center Worker Performance,” Proc. ACEEE Summer Study in Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 22-27 August
  • Romm, J.J; Browning, W.D. (1994). “Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through Energy-Efficient Design,” Snowmass, CO: Rocky Mountain Institute.
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