New Paper Published in Indoor Air

How Indoor and Outdoor Nature Support Wellbeing and Environmental Behavior in Remote Work

A new paper from the lab led by PhD candidate Jiaxuan Flora Xu explores how indoor and outdoor nature exposure relate to wellbeing and pro-environmental behavior among US remote workers (N=460), tracked across four surveys from 2020 to 2023. Co-authored by Dr. Laura S. P. Bloomfield (University of Vermont), Dr. Nik Sawe, Dr. Basma Altaf (KFUPM), Prof. Nicole M. Ardoin, Prof. Elizabeth L. Murnane (Dartmouth College), and Prof. Sarah Billington, the paper aims to understand how different forms of nature exposure in the home office relate to stress, creativity, and environmental behavior throughout the pandemic when access to the outdoors is limited.

Indoor nature features were associated with lower stress, higher creativity, and more environmentally friendly behavior, with different features relating to different outcomes. Additionally, people's environmental values and connection to nature level shaped how strongly indoor nature related to these outcomes. These findings point to a complementary pathway between indoor and outdoor nature, suggesting that thoughtfully designed built environments can extend nature's benefits to those who spend most of their time inside. Overall, the results suggest that bringing nature indoors may support wellbeing and greener habits, particularly for people who can't easily get outside as remote and hybrid work become a lasting feature of post-pandemic life.