Shhhh … It’s too quiet in here

Green building specialists Enermodal (MMM) conducted an anonymous, online survey of its employees one year after the company moved into its new head office in Kitchener.

Enermodal have designed the building, called “A Grander View” to incorporate a host of environmental features. The building is so energy efficient as a result, it achieves 82% actual energy savings compared with Canada’s Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB).

The building scored highly in all categories in the employee survey — except for in the acoustic quality.  In “general building satisfaction,” the score was 100% among employees. Lighting, cleanliness, air quality and thermal comfort all scored in the 80s and 90s.

The score for employee satisfaction over acoustic quality, however, was only 49%.

Enermodal reports that the problem was partly to do with the very quiet HVAC system, and “people talking too loudly in the open plan offices, combined with the very quiet HVAC system.

As a solution, Enermodal installed sound masking equipment, and they encouraged employees to use meeting rooms for even short meetings and conference calls.

Now if all our own office neighbours would take that advice …

To read story on A Grander View from the August 2010 issue of CCE, click here.