66% This is the drop in productivity among employees exposed to noise pollution. Source: World Green Building Council 1. World Green Building Council, Building the Business Case: Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Green Offices, 2016. For example, the Weber incubator (a SaintGobain Group service that helps bring projects to life) developed a trolley for buckets of cement, thanks to the recommendations of a tile company manager. The trolley was based on the manager’s observation that handling 15 buckets of tile adhesive on one knee every day causes joint pain. Hence the creation of an ergonomic trolley that allows the buckets to be moved effortlessly. Cobots (collaborative robots) are heralding a major technological shift that could help minimize musculoskeletal injuries. According to the International Federation of Robotics, a record three million industrial robots were operating in factories around the world in 2021. Some of those installations involved cobots taking over warehouses. These ‘3.0 operators’ interact with their work environment to free human operators from the most difficult tasks. This is particularly true for order preparation, which requires a lot of handling, but also for packaging and palletizing operations. Launched in 2020, Saint-Gobain's Slimwool project illustrates this human-robot collaboration, with a cobot lending a hand to employees at the company’s plant in Lucens, Switzerland. Its mission: to take samples of glass wool at regular intervals to measure its performance. This is a real boost to productivity, especially at night, since the cobot continues to perform its tasks without interruption. Healthier and more comfortable accommodation Air quality, but also thermal, acoustic and visual comfort: construction stakeholders and observers have long known the impact of these factors on the mental health and productivity of occupants. Often classified as ‘wellbeing’, the benefits of aspects such as natural light and good thermal insulation and acoustics go far beyond the subjective. For example, according to the World Health Organization, noise is the second most significant environmental cause of ill health in Western Europe, and a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A study by the World Green Building Council has also shown a 66% drop in productivity for employees exposed to noise pollution1. This health awareness has accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic. It has increased the need for buildings to offer maximum visual, thermal and acoustic comfort and to guarantee good air quality, 66 SAINT-GOBAIN
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