Considering research enquiry into biophilic urbanism and office worker productivity

In cities, people spend a significant portion of their time indoors, much of which is in office buildings. The quality and nature of these spaces have the potential to be a strong determinant of people’s health and wellbeing. There is a body of evidence that suggests experiences of nature increase the rate of attention recovery, reduce stress, depression and anxiety, and increase cognitive abilities. Further, the presence of nature inside buildings (such as pot plants and internal green walls) can improve indoor air quality, potentially reducing illness and increasing cognitive function. Urban design that integrates nature into the built environment to provide these benefits, among others, is called ‘biophilic urbanism’ and is the subject of growing international interest and research. The potential for these benefits to increase worker productivity in office buildings is of particular interest, as this could significantly increase the financial performance of office building-based organisations. However, productivity is a complex concept that is difficult to define, and affected by a multitude of factors, which make it difficult to measure. This inability to quantify productivity increases from investments in nature- experiences in office buildings is currently a significant barrier to such investments. Within this context, this paper considers opportunities for research to explore the relationship between office-based nature experiences and productivity, by reviewing existing research in this field and reflecting on the authors’ own experiences. This review has a particular focus on the importance of quantifying this link in order to encourage private property owners to voluntarily integrate nature into buildings to provide city-wide ecosystem service benefits. The paper begins with a contextual overview of how biophilic urbanism can potentially increase worker productivity. Existing methods of measuring and evaluating the performance of biophilic urbanism within the context of office buildings are then explored, along with a discussion of issues with such methods that are currently limiting investment in biophilic urbanism to increase worker productivity and wellbeing. This includes a summary of a survey within a Perth office building to explore the impact of views of nature through a window. Drawing on these insights, the paper makes recommendations regarding opportunities for focusing future investigations to enhance understanding of how biophilic urbanism can contribute to increased wellbeing and productivity in office buildings. This paper builds on work conducted as part of the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre Project 1.5, Harnessing the Potential of Biophilic Urbanism in Australia, which considered the role of nature integrated into the built environment in responding to emerging challenges of climate change, resource shortages and population pressures, while providing a host of co- benefits to a range of stakeholders.

Considering research enquiry into biophilic urbanism and office worker productivity

In cities, people spend a significant portion of their time indoors, much of which is in office buildings. The quality and nature of these spaces have the potential to be a strong determinant of people’s health and wellbeing. There is a body of evidence that suggests experiences of nature increase the rate of attention recovery, reduce stress, depression and anxiety, and increase cognitive abilities. Further, the presence of nature inside buildings (such as pot plants and internal green walls) can improve indoor air quality, potentially reducing illness and increasing cognitive function. Urban design that integrates nature into the built environment to provide these benefits, among others, is called ‘biophilic urbanism’ and is the subject of growing international interest and research. The potential for these benefits to increase worker productivity in office buildings is of particular interest, as this could significantly increase the financial performance of office building-based organisations. However, productivity is a complex concept that is difficult to define, and affected by a multitude of factors, which make it difficult to measure. This inability to quantify productivity increases from investments in nature- experiences in office buildings is currently a significant barrier to such investments. Within this context, this paper considers opportunities for research to explore the relationship between office-based nature experiences and productivity, by reviewing existing research in this field and reflecting on the authors’ own experiences. This review has a particular focus on the importance of quantifying this link in order to encourage private property owners to voluntarily integrate nature into buildings to provide city-wide ecosystem service benefits. The paper begins with a contextual overview of how biophilic urbanism can potentially increase worker productivity. Existing methods of measuring and evaluating the performance of biophilic urbanism within the context of office buildings are then explored, along with a discussion of issues with such methods that are currently limiting investment in biophilic urbanism to increase worker productivity and wellbeing. This includes a summary of a survey within a Perth office building to explore the impact of views of nature through a window. Drawing on these insights, the paper makes recommendations regarding opportunities for focusing future investigations to enhance understanding of how biophilic urbanism can contribute to increased wellbeing and productivity in office buildings. This paper builds on work conducted as part of the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre Project 1.5, Harnessing the Potential of Biophilic Urbanism in Australia, which considered the role of nature integrated into the built environment in responding to emerging challenges of climate change, resource shortages and population pressures, while providing a host of co- benefits to a range of stakeholders.

Enhancing Research Productivity of TEFL Academic in China : A Mixed Method Study

As research has become an important indicator of TEFL academics’ overall performance in Chinese higher education institutions, it is critical that TEFL academics are able to meet the expectation of conducting research. This mixed-method study (an initial survey followed by a qualitative collective case study)investigated research productivity of Chinese TEFL academics and associated influences, with the ultimate objective of constructing a framework to help build their research capacity in the future. The findings from this study revealed that the 182 Chinese TEFL academics’ research productivity during 2004-2008 was relatively low. Four influences were identified that impacted on thier research productivity: TEFL disciplinary influences, institutional and departmental research environments, individual characteristics desirable for research, and TEFL academics’ perceptions about research. Drawing upon the above findings, a Framework towards Enhancing Chinese TEFL Academics’ Research Productivity (FECTARP) was constructed. The FECTAR presented a framework for Chinese institutions and TEFL departments to enhance their TEFL academics' research capacity.

A framework to analyze the impact of sustainable infrastructure on human productivity

The built environment has a profound impact on our natural environment, economy, health and productivity. As the majority of the people spent most of their time inside buildings, the environment in which they perform their daily activities will have an impact on their health and productivity. Studies have been conducted about the negative impacts of presence of non-favorable conditions to human health and well being. The term "Sick Building Syndrome" (SBS) is used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort problems that appear to be linked to their time spent in a building. Sustainable infrastructure rating systems have requirements intended to improve occupant productivity and health.While the impact of Sustainable Infrastructure in energy consumption and waste/water reduction can be measured using available tools, the impact on productivity remained as an assumption that is not clearly measured. The purpose of this research is to develop a framework to assess whether the impacts of the incorporation of features intended to improve occupants’ performance and health such as: increased ventilation, lightning and thermal comfort serve their intended purpose.

Economic development and construction productivity in Malaysia

The productivity of the construction industry has a significant effect on national economic growth. Gains from higher construction productivity flow through the economy, as all industries rely on construction to some extent as part of their business investment. Contractions and expansions of economic activity are common phenomena in an economy. Three construction cycles occurred between the years 1970 and 2011 in Malaysia. The relationships between construction productivity and economic development are examined by the partial correlation method to establish the underlying factors driving the change in construction productivity. Construction productivity is statistically significantly correlated with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in a positive direction for the 1985–98 and 1998–2009 cycles, but not the 1970–85 cycle. Fluctuations in construction activities and the influx of foreign workers underlie the changes of construction productivity in the 1985–98 cycle. There was less fluctuation in construction activities in the 1998–2009 cycle, with changes being mainly due to the fiscal stimulation policies of the government in attempting to stabilize the economy. The intensive construction of mega-projects resulted in resource constraints and cost pressures during the 1980s and 1990s. A better management of the ‘boom-bust’ nature of the construction business cycle is required to maintain the capability and capacity of the industry.

Measuring Productivity Gains from Deregulation of the Japanese Urban Gas Industry

The Japanese government initiated a series of regulatory reforms in the mid-1990s. The Japanese urban gas industry consists of various sized private and non-private firms. Numerous previous studies find that deregulation leads to productivity improvements. We extend the literature by analyzing deregulation, privatization, and other aspects of a regulated industry using unique firm level data. This study measures productivity to evaluate the effect of the deregulation reform. Using data from 205 firms from 1993 to 2004, we find that the deregulation effect differs depending on firm size. Competitive pressure contributes to advanced productivity. The deregulation of gas sales to commercial customers is the most important factor for advancing productivity. Copyright © 2013 by the IAEE. All rights reserved.

Productivity and convergence in India : a state-level analysis

Total factor productivity plays an important role in the growth of the Indian economy. Using state-level data from 1993 to 2005 that were recently made available, we find widespread regional variation in productivity changes. In the years immediately following economic liberalization, productivity growth improved technical efficiency; however, in subsequent years, productivity growth was propelled by technological progress. We find a tendency toward convergence with regard to productivity growth among states; however, the states that were technically efficient when the economic reforms were instituted remained innovative in later years.

Total factor productivity growth and convergence in the petroleum industry : empirical analysis testing for convexity

While economic theory acknowledges that some features of technology (e.g., indivisibilities, economies of scale and specialization) can fundamentally violate the traditional convexity assumption, almost all empirical studies accept the convexity property on faith. In this contribution, we apply two alternative flexible production technologies to measure total factor productivity growth and test the significance of the convexity axiom using a nonparametric test of closeness between unknown distributions. Based on unique field level data on the petroleum industry, the empirical results reveal significant differences, indicating that this production technology is most likely non-convex. Furthermore, we also show the impact of convexity on answers to traditional convergence questions in the productivity growth literature.

The pollution release and transfer register system in the U.S. and Japan : an analysis of productivity

This study analyzes Total Factor Productivity (TFP), which includes all categories of productivity. Our measure investigates productivity in the context of the provision and dissemination of environmental information policies. We investigated data on the emission of toxic chemical substances for the U.S. and Japanese manufacturing firms, including 386 firms for the period 1999-2007 and 466 firms for the period 2001-2008. The results show that productivity improved in all nine industrial sectors and that pollution levels were high in the U.S. and Japan from 2001 to 2007. In particular, the electronics industry improved rapidly after 2002 in both countries, which may be attributed to the enforcement of RoHS and the REACH directive in Europe. As a result of these stringent policies on toxic chemical emissions, the U.S. and Japanese firms, many of which export to the European market, have strong incentives to reduce their toxic chemical emissions.

Productivity measures and effects from subsidies and trade : an empirical analysis for Japan's forestry

Several techniques have been proposed in the literature to measure productivity. While allowing for inefficiency of the production unit, we provide a methodological comparison of alternative approaches to measure total factor productivity. This article evaluates the effects of unintended policy outcomes such as government subsidies and foreign trade. Empirically, we analyse the forest productivity of timber in Japan by using panel data on 46 regions. The results suggest substantial variation in productivity between these two techniques although average trends are similar. We find that subsidies impede competition since the government is ready to rescue a loss-making firm with subsidies rather than allow it to close. In contrast, trade is shown to have positive effects on productivity.

Productivity analysis with CO2 emissions in Japan

This article measures Japanese prefectures' productivity from 1991 to 2002, taking CO2 emissions into consideration, and examines the factors that impact on productivity. We use the data envelopment analysis and measure the Luenberger productivity indicator, incorporating CO2 emissions in the analysis. Our results show that productivity was decreasing during the period of investigation. According to the results of the generalized method of moment estimation, the operations rate, the share of the energy intensive industries and social capital significantly impact on productivity.

Productivity growth and biased technological change in Japanese airports

In this paper, the productivities of Japanese airports over the period of 1987-2005 are analyzed using the Malmquist index, and technological bias is investigated. During this period, airports on average became less efficient and experienced technological regress. Our results indicate that the traditional growth accounting method, which assumes Hicks neutral technological change, is not appropriate for analyzing changes in productivity for Japanese airports.

Changes in environmentally sensitive productivity and technological modernization in China's iron and steel industry in the 1990s

Technological modernization is widely believed to contribute positively both to economic development and to environmental and resource conservation, through improvements in productivity and strengthening of business competitiveness. However, this may not always be true, particularly in the short term, as it requires substantial investments and may impose financial burdens on firms undertaking such investments. This study empirically examines the effects of technological modernization in China's iron and steel industry in the 1990s on conventional economic productivity (CEP) and environmentally sensitive productivities (ESPs). We employ a directional distance function that can handle multiple inputs and outputs to compute relative production efficiencies. We apply these models to the data covering 27 iron and steel firms in China between 1990 and 1999-a period when the Chinese iron and steel industry modernized rapidly. We find that ESPs have continuously improved, even in the period when the CEP declined.

Productivity growth and biased technological change : Credit banks in Japan

This paper investigates the productivity change of Japanese credit banks with a Malmquist index and the input technological bias during 2000-2006. Our results indicate that the traditional growth accounting method, which assumes Hicks neutral technological change, is not appropriate for analyzing changes in productivity. Our analysis unambiguously shows that management of Shinkin banks has to be improved. These must be based on the improvement of technical efficiency and/or technological change, emulating the procedures of the best-practice banks, i.e., those banks with Malmquist productivity scores higher than one and simultaneously with technical efficiency and technological change higher than one.