In recent decades, there has been growing attention on indoor climate, yet the conditions in many of the nation’s schools still lag behind. A healthy indoor climate is crucial for both students and teachers.
A good indoor climate significantly affects the well-being, health, and performance of both pupils and staff. Poor indoor conditions can reduce students’ performance and learning ability by up to 10%—equivalent to an entire school year by the time a student completes primary education.
Thus, ensuring a healthy indoor climate is essential. It can lead to faster task completion, increased creativity, reduced absenteeism, and fewer conflicts and frustrations.
Renovating Schools with a Sustainable Perspective
Between 1950 and 1980, there was a substantial expansion of schools across the country. As a result, 80% of the nation’s schools were built before 1982, when insulation standards were first introduced, and only 10% were constructed after 1995, when ventilation requirements were implemented.
Many older schools have been renovated in recent decades, typically focusing on reducing energy consumption and climate impact from a sustainability perspective. However, it is important to emphasise that sustainable construction must address three key aspects:
- Environmental sustainability: Protecting the environment and reducing energy and resource consumption.
- Economic sustainability: Making long-term investment decisions.
- Social sustainability: Ensuring healthy buildings that provide users with the best conditions for living and thriving.
Social sustainability includes a healthy indoor climate, which is vital. However, creating a good indoor climate must respect the other two perspectives to achieve a balanced approach, avoiding improvements at the expense of either finances or the environment.
A Socioeconomic Asset
More than half a million Danish children and young people, along with approximately 50,000 staff, spend a significant portion of their time in schools. Both older and newer schools provide the physical settings that should offer students the best conditions for learning.
There is substantial socioeconomic potential in ensuring a good indoor climate, as it directly influences the performance of both students and teachers.
The study Socioeconomic Gains from Improved Indoor Climate (Madsen et al., 2020) developed a socioeconomic model exploring the relationship between indoor climate, performance, and absenteeism.
The study revealed several socioeconomic benefits of a healthy indoor climate:
- Improved learning: A gain of DKK 2.9–10.1 million in net present value over 30 years for a school with 650 pupils.
- Reduced absenteeism: A gain of DKK 11–22 million for pupils and up to DKK 1.16 million for teachers over 30 years for a school with 650 pupils and 50 teachers.
Four Key Areas for Improving Indoor Climate
Several factors influence perceived indoor climate. It is important to note that personal preferences will always vary, making it impossible to satisfy everyone entirely. Nonetheless, efforts should be made to create conditions that maximise comfort for as many people as possible.
When addressing indoor climate, focus is typically placed on four main areas:
- Thermal indoor climate
- Atmospheric indoor climate
- Acoustic indoor climate
- Visual indoor climate
Below, we explore these areas and their impact on indoor climate.
Thermal Indoor Climate
The thermal indoor climate concerns factors that influence whether a person feels warm or cold.
Key factors include air temperature, draughts, and radiant temperature, which generally have the most significant effect on thermal conditions.
Numerous studies have demonstrated the negative correlation between poor thermal conditions and performance. For instance, when temperatures rise from 22°C to 23.5°C, performance typically drops by 5%. At 25.5°C, the decline increases to 10% (Vorre et al., 2020).
Atmospheric Indoor Climate
The atmospheric indoor climate refers to air quality, which depends on factors such as oxygen levels, humidity, odours, and pollutants from people, furnishings, and building materials.
This area typically involves managing ventilation to dilute and remove atmospheric pollutants.
When atmospheric conditions are suboptimal, individuals often experience symptoms such as drowsiness and difficulty concentrating.
Acoustic Indoor Climate
This area focuses on sound conditions within classrooms, group rooms, and communal spaces. The emphasis is on reducing noise within the space and from surrounding areas while ensuring speech intelligibility, particularly in teaching environments.
Balancing the acoustic environment involves minimising unwanted sounds—such as noise from installations or moving chairs—without over-dampening and compromising speech clarity, which is critical for understanding teachers.
A poor acoustic environment significantly impacts concentration, sleep quality, and stress levels. Therefore, creating an acoustic environment that supports effective learning and teaching conditions is essential.
Visual Indoor Climate
The final area is visual indoor climate, encompassing factors such as the amount and distribution of daylight, views of the surroundings, artificial lighting, and glare.
Research has shown that good daylight access and unimpeded views are among the most appreciated elements of a healthy indoor climate. Natural light enhances performance, with changes in light levels providing a boost to the brain. Furthermore, green views have a calming effect.
Creating a Healthy Indoor Climate in Schools
There are numerous ways to improve the indoor climate for both pupils and teachers in schools.
At DAMPA, we offer a range of solutions to enhance the indoor climate, whether through acoustic improvements, temperature regulation, or integrating ventilation and lighting systems.
You can find more detailed guidance in our article on creating a healthy indoor climate in schools.
Takeaways
- Poor indoor conditions can reduce learning and performance by up to 10%, equivalent to an entire school year.
- A healthy indoor climate contributes to faster task completion, greater creativity, fewer conflicts and sick days, and better overall well-being.
- Renovations should address environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
- Improved indoor climate can yield significant financial savings through enhanced learning and reduced absenteeism.
- Optimising thermal, atmospheric, acoustic, and visual conditions is key to creating an ideal environment for learning and teaching.
- Thermal: Temperature changes can affect performance; for example, a rise from 22°C to 25.5°C can reduce productivity by up to 10%.
- Atmospheric: Poor air quality can lead to drowsiness and concentration issues, making proper ventilation essential.
- Acoustic: A balanced sound environment improves focus and speech clarity, critical for both teachers and students.
- Visual: Access to daylight and green surroundings enhances performance and reduces stress.