Plantbenefits: Interventiestudie naar de effecten van planten in de werkomgeving op het welzijn enfunctioneren van kantoormedewerkers en de betekenis hiervan voor de organisatie

In the period 2019-2020, research was conducted at nine organizations on the effect of plants in the workspace on a) the physical indoor climate and b) the perception of the workspace by office workers and their health and well-being. A conceptual model describing the short-term, medium and long-term effect of plants on the indoor climate and health and well-being of people underlies this research. The effect of plants on the physical indoor climate was measured by sensors, the effect on the health and well-being of employees by questionnaires. A ‘Before After Control Impact’ research design was used. A control workspace and an intervention workspace were selected for each location. A pre-measurement was conducted in both. After placing plants in the intervention workspace, a maximum of two post-intervention measurements were conducted. The outbreak of COVID-19 led to this abbreviated and modified design: originally 6 post- measurements were planned to take place and a cross-over would be implemented at a number of organizations after 3 measurements, by transferring plants from the (original) intervention workspace to the (original) control workspace. Overall significant effects were found on the relative humidity (higher), complaints about dry air (fewer), the sense of privacy (higher), the attractiveness of the workspace (higher) and satisfaction with the workspace (greater). No direct effect of the plants could be demonstrated on a large number of other outcome measures. The observed effects mainly concern outcome measures that are positioned at the beginning of the assumed causal chain, starting with plants and ending with mental health, absenteeism and job satisfaction.