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      Beyond Exposure to Outdoor Nature: Exploration of the Benefits of a Green Building’s Indoor Environment on Wellbeing

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          Abstract

          Most research exploring the psychological benefits of the natural environment has focused on direct exposure to the outdoors. However, people spend most of their time indoors, particularly in office buildings. Poor employee mental health has become one the most prevalent and costly occupational health issues. The integration of high quality environmental features (e.g., access to sunlight) in green-certified office buildings offers a superior work environment. These nature-based experiences are anticipated to provide beneficial outcomes to wellbeing. This study is the first to empirically investigate these benefits. Participants in a green (LEED gold certified) office building ( N = 213) in Canada completed an assessment of environmental features, measures of hedonic, eudaimonic and negative wellbeing (NWB) and assessments of psycho-environmental potential, environmental behaviors and social belonging. Linear regression analyses confirmed the benefits of indoor environmental features for all aspects of wellbeing. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the effect of specific indoor environmental features on wellbeing. We explored physical features (e.g., air quality, light), and social features (e.g., privacy), as well as windows to the outside. Results suggest that physical features are important in promoting hedonic wellbeing, while social features prevent NWB. Both features equally predicted eudaimonic wellbeing (EWB). A view to the outside was positively correlated to wellbeing, although it did not uniquely predict it after accounting for other environmental features. Path analyses revealed the importance of person-environment fit, pro-environmental behavior and social belonging in mediating the association of indoor environmental features with hedonic and EWB. The results suggests that, by fostering person-environment fit, pro-environmental behaviors and feeling of community in a high quality setting, green buildings may lead to benefits on an array of wellbeing dimensions. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychol.
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-1078
                30 August 2018
                2018
                : 9
                : 1583
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, Wilfrid Laurier University , Waterloo, ON, Canada
                [2] 2Faculty of Environment, Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy, University of Waterloo , Waterloo, ON, Canada
                [3] 3Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia , Vancouver, BC, Canada
                Author notes

                Edited by: Patrik Sörqvist, Gävle University College, Sweden

                Reviewed by: Mirilia Bonnes, Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Italy; Alan Kabanshi, Gävle University College, Sweden

                *Correspondence: Bianca C. Dreyer, bdreyer@ 123456wlu.ca

                This article was submitted to Environmental Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01583
                6125719
                245d1ab4-2a6f-4f0a-a448-a56aa554399c
                Copyright © 2018 Dreyer, Coulombe, Whitney, Riemer and Labbé.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 01 March 2018
                : 08 August 2018
                Page count
                Figures: 1, Tables: 5, Equations: 0, References: 148, Pages: 17, Words: 0
                Categories
                Psychology
                Original Research

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                indoor environmental features,wellbeing,high-performance green buildings,employee mental health,green buildings,nature exposure

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