Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity

Buildings are more than the backdrop to daily life. In Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity, Joseph G. Allen and John D. Macomber ask what changes when the health and performance of the people inside a building become central to how it is designed and managed. Their argument brings building science, health science, and business thinking into the same conversation.

The book offers a way to think about indoor environments not only as operating costs, but as places that shape people’s experience and work. It is a thoughtful read for anyone interested in how the built environment and human well-being intersect.

Beyond energy and efficiency

Green-building discussions often focus on energy, water, and waste. Allen and Macomber widen the lens to include the people who occupy those spaces. They explore how indoor conditions relate to health, focus, productivity, and the value organizations create—making the case that a building strategy can also be a people strategy.

A two-part case for healthier spaces

The first section establishes why healthy buildings matter and considers how buildings can contribute to business and human value. The second turns to strategy: it introduces the nine foundations of a healthy building and examines subjects including indoor chemicals, certification systems, health performance indicators, and conditions beyond the building itself.

Where science meets building decisions

Rather than treating health, building operations, and business outcomes as separate concerns, the authors connect them. That joined-up perspective gives readers a framework for considering how choices about indoor spaces may affect occupants as well as owners, employers, investors, and the wider community.

Who may find it useful

This book is relevant to readers working with or studying buildings, including business leaders, building owners and managers, investors, developers, and people interested in workplace health, indoor environmental quality, or sustainable design. It also offers a wider perspective for anyone curious about how everyday indoor spaces relate to human well-being.

Healthy Buildings makes a case for looking at buildings through the experience of the people who use them—and for treating that perspective as part of the conversation about performance and value.