Do green offices affect employee engagement and environmental attitudes?

Abstract

Employees working in 15 public- and private-sector office buildings in a mid-sized Canadian city reported their level of work engagement (as measured by job satisfaction, perceived productivity and affective organizational commitment), environmental orientation, pro-environmental behaviour and opinions about the physical aspects of their buildings. The buildings’ green attributes were assessed on an objective 36-item scale. Neither engagement nor environmental attitudes were correlated with green design attributes. However, employees’ office impressions were significantly negatively correlated with the number of green design attributes. Surprisingly, the results suggest that green design in office buildings does not have a positive effect on employee engagement or on environmental attitudes and behaviours.

Keywords:

• Employee engagement
• green building design
• satisfaction