Sensing wellbeing in buildings

£2,200 a year is lost in productivity per employee due to poor indoor environmental quality

Improving indoor environmental quality improves public productivity and health. Improving commercial buildings' environments can help companies have happier, healthier and more efficient employees.

This can only be achieved through ubiquitous sensing.

arbnwell, a subsidiary of arbnco, worked with BE-ST, TH Real Estate and the University of Strathclyde to develop a low-cost, IoT-based indoor monitoring kit that measures environmental quality in commercial buildings. Users can easily see accurate environment data such as CO₂, temperature, and light levels.

A healthier amount of control

The kit was deployed in offices in London and New York.

Using these office and retail buildings, the kit measured environmental quality from over 100 data points—including ventilation, natural light, and thermal comfort—over 8 months. arbnwell worked with facility management to receive feedback, learn what was acceptable and unacceptable, and create a scoring system to benchmark against future buildings.

Building managers gained more insight into their building’s behaviour to improve their management approach. From this, office and retail workers could enjoy better wellbeing.

BE-ST helped fund the initial research behind arbnwell's system. arbnwell went on to secure a deal with the University of California, Davis and win CIBSE's Building Performance Awards: Wellbeing Product of the Year in 2020, bringing innovation to the commercial built environment and helping developers improve public health.

Impact

Delivered new sensing equipment and software for better wellbeing diagnostics
Created a benchmarking system for Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
Gave facility managers of high-tech buildings powerful data to inform management approach
Helped secure arbnco deal with the University of California, Davis
Contributor to a projected revenue increase of £15m over 5 years
Proven opportunity to support better public health in commercial buildings and real estate

Support

Total Project Value - £65k

CSIC Contribution - £21.5k

Partners