Poor acoustics are becoming a liability
By Ben Hancock, Managing Director, Oscar Acoustics
Client expectations of building performance keep rising and the criteria keep changing. Energy ratings, wellbeing credentials and accessibility standards already shape how buildings are judged and how occupants experience them daily. Increasingly, acoustic performance is being assessed the same way. For AEC firms, the gap between how a building was designed to sound and how it actually sounds is turning into a source of commercial risk. New research from Oscar Acoustics, polling 2,000 UK office workers in February 2026, found that noise costs workers an average of 26 minutes of productive time every single day. Over a year, that is more than three working weeks per person. For UK businesses, the aggregate cost in lost productivity, staff turnover and customer dissatisfaction exceeds £40 billion annually. Despite this, only 8% of companies have installed any acoustic treatment in the past two years, and 85% have never assessed their workplace acoustics at all. But lost productivity is only part of the story. Half of UK office workers report headaches or migraines due to noise, nearly two-thirds (63%) struggle to concentrate and a quarter (24%) have taken time off due to noise- related stress. For the estimated 60% of the UK population who are noise-sensitive, including neurodivergent people and those with hearing or visual challenges, poor acoustics can make meetings, collaboration and everyday communication unnecessarily difficult, creating barriers to full participation.
Audio inclusivity is an essential part of the next chapter in inclusive design. Acoustic expectations are rising with each generation entering the workforce. Two-thirds of workers (67%) aged 18 to 24 describe their office as noisy, compared with just under half (47%) of over-55s. Two in three job seekers now weigh up acoustics when choosing where to work. Nearly half would consider leaving because of excess noise. Sound has become a material issue for recruitment and retention, making it a commercial one too. Buildings that underperform acoustically are no longer silently endured. They generate complaints, drive remedial costs and, in some cases, cause reputational damage. My view is straightforward: acoustic design needs to be built in, not bolted on, and treated with the same rigour as energy performance or accessibility. Firms that treat it as a specifiable, verifiable deliverable, rather than a finishing touch, are turning it into a point of difference. Sownd Certification makes that possible. Sownd Certification gives practices and clients a measurable framework for specifying and verifying audio-inclusive spaces. Developed by Sownd Affects in partnership with Oscar Acoustics, it has been independently validated by the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton. Aligned with BS 8233, BB93 and PAS 6463, it evaluates how a space actually performs once occupied, not just how it was predicted to perform at design stage. Three
The Oscar Innovation Centre is the world’s first Sownd Certified building.
© Antonia Stuart KD11
© Hufton + Crow
certification levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold, provide a clear framework for improvement. Certified spaces have recorded an 18% improvement in productivity and staff satisfaction of 94% against a 61% industry average. The AEC firms leading on acoustic performance are treating the issue as a specification standard, not a snagging oversight. Sownd Certification gives you the framework to specify for how a space sounds as well as how it looks, and it gives your clients proof that their space performs. We now have the evidence, the standards and the tools needed to build spaces that resonate. For AEC firms, the question now is when acoustics enters the brief. The answer lies at the beginning of each project.
Find out how Sownd Certification sets the standard for audio-inclusive spaces. Visit
https://www.oscar-acoustics.com/ sownd-certification/
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