Health and Wellbeing in the Built Environment and its Relevance in Global Sustainable Assessment System

Sustainability standards state criteria to create adequate comfort, health and wellbeing conditions inside the new and existing buildings. The requirements for health and comfort are critical especially to employees who spend more than eight hours per day in their offices. International principles, standards are trying to identify the optimum and most comfortable existing conditions of the commercial buildings. The aim of the research is to link occupants and well-being with the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS). The purpose is to check whether the GSAS rating system and its prerequisites provide a comprehensive analysis for the optimum design of the indoor environment and to identify any gaps to prepare a proposal on how to address them. The study compared indoor environment aspects and their health problems against all the categories and criteria of GSAS rating system. The GSAS rating system has sufficiently addressed the occupant health and wellbeing issues. The research study would be helpful to green building professionals who use GSAS rating system in building design. The research study also provides a good starting point for researchers working in the field of sustainable buildings and indoor environment research.