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Green to be seen

Introduction

Green is a colour we all see every day.

It has multiple uses and has become synonymous with nature, feeling good, calmness, clean energy, sustainability and conservation. Green stones and jewels have been used to represent nature for centuries. It is considered by many as the universal colour of safety and ‘go’ and we are even told that green improves focus and is good for us.

Furthermore, and more specifically, legislation dictates that in the UK at least, emergency exit signage (the ‘running man’ legend) is white on green.

Why?

What is light?

We speak of light but what, exactly, is it?

The electromagnetic spectrum ranges from radio waves, with a comparatively long wavelengths (meters), to gamma rays with a relatively short wavelengths (1×10-10 meters or picometers).

Light is electromagnetic radiation and as such is part, a very small part, of this spectrum, (broadly in the middle between infrared and ultraviolet), and typically refers to what can be perceived by the human eye ie visible light, what we see.

It is the main thing we use to perceive the world around us and without it we would be, literally, in the dark.

In fact, Isaac Newton discovered that sunlight consists of different colours, the visible spectrum, in 1666.

Whilst there are actually an infinite number of visible colours, Newton also showed that white light consists of 7 primary colours ie red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, in keeping with Aristotle’s seven classes of colour. These are not to be confused with what we understand as ‘primary colours’. That’s another discussion.

He also demonstrated that each colour in the spectrum is monochromatic meaning each consists of a single, unique wavelength that cannot be split into any further colours.

What is colour?

That’s light but what is colour?

When light hits an object, some is absorbed, and some is reflected. The reflected light is what we see and perceive as the colour of the object. The actual colour depends on the wavelength of the reflected light and how we perceive it.

Human perception

Humans are trichomats meaning we perceive three primary colours blue, green and red.

Each colour has a different energy level and wavelength. The retina in the human eye (the light sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye) can detect light between wavelengths of 400 nanometers (blue) to 700 nanometers (red). This range is better known as the visible spectrum.

The retina incorporates special cells called rods and cones. These see light reacting to light of different wavelengths. Different rods and cones react to different wavelengths or colours, of light. When light hits them, they react sending electrical signals to the brain via our optic nerves telling it what colours we are seeing.

Green sits in the middle of the visible spectrum at 555 nanometers.

This is where our visual perception is at its best. This means that green is the colour we see best both in terms of clarity and distance.

There is also some evidence to suggest that a combination of its nature and our visual acuity for green makes it more easily seen in smoky environments than many other colours. Technically, this is associated with a phenomenon known as ‘scattering’, the process by which light is deflected, refracted and absorbed by particles in the air changing the light’s direction, energy and even wavelength.

The ‘affordance’ or visibility of a green sign in differing conditions was apparently proven during the testing of alternative sign designs for competition in Japan when today’s ‘running man’ design was ultimately chosen – see below.

Human reaction

It is believed that the ability to perceive green was of significant, competitive advantage to primates in the past. In fact, the human species, which emerged in the forests and savannas of Africa 300k years ago, had a close biological relationship with the colour green and its meaning to our evolutionary advantage. Our eyes may have even evolved specifically to recognise the chlorophyll in plants unlike most mammals who are red-green colour blind.

It is also believed that due to our eyes being at the peak of their perception when, this may be why the colour green calms us down ie it takes less effort to perceive and hence our nervous system can relax through minimum strain being required.

A 2016 study found that living near green spaces can be linked to living longer and improved mental health. There are other benefits of course beyond the colour, the space and opportunity to socialise and how we react to nature but green is significant. The very word ‘green’ comes from the ancient Proto-Indo-European word ‘ghre’ meaning ‘grow’.

In fact, green is recommended for use in stressful environments such as hospitals, schools and offices. Historically, actors would even retire to ‘green rooms’ to calm their senses following their exposure to their stressful and brightly lit working environment.

Studies have shown that green offices create higher job satisfaction, and even that consumers spend more time shopping in stores that are green.

The tendency seems to be that we want to move towards green and away from red for example.

Green in signage

It is true that green is not used in emergency exit signage everywhere. North America and Canada for example, currently tend to use red (although in the US at least, this may be changing). However, it is true to say that most countries in the world adhere to international standards use green, either in text or as a background, many based upon the design created by Yukio Ota in the 1970’s (as seen in modern signage in the UK and signage legislation and something that the International Standards Organisation is currently urging the EC to revise the relevant directive to establish Ota’s design as the definitive version and no longer permit variants).

Conclusion

Whilst it has not been possible to prove that all the information conveyed here is behind green’s universal use, it seems much more likely than mere coincidence.

However, what is clear is that the reasoning, if only retrospectively, is sound.

It is easy for us to see. We can see it further away than any other colour, even in a smoky space. We like it and it makes us feel calm and safe.

Seems like a pretty good set of reasons to use it on a sign that is vital in an emergency situation and could save your life.

At Evaclite, we have worked hard to design products that have a consistent, evenly illuminated and ‘witness free’ (no inconsistencies or significant variations in colour, tone or opacity to compromise clarity or visibility – see patent number (GB2569053B), green and white legend that is compliant with the latest legislation).

It really does need to be green to be seen.

 

Hotels: 2023 Dynamic and Adaptive Signage

It’s no secret that large scale hotels have a serious evacuation problem and the majority of the exposure to this issue is revealed through social media. When there is a real fire or even a practice fire drill, people live tweet or post to facebook.  Social media posts may go along the lines of, ‘it was a nightmare’, ‘people were queuing down the stairs’, ‘it took us 45 minutes just to get out of the building’. `If it was a real fire everyone would have been burnt alive.’

Does this sound familiar? Let’s discuss how Evaclite solves this issue.

Why is emergency evacuation such a huge issue in hotels?

There’s a definite divide in hotels between the large scale and the small and the old and the new. A lot of old hotels are built with a maze of corridors, with multiple exits and multiple staircases. Practically, you may start to think, ‘that’s great, there are more escape routes’, but in reality, it’s extremely confusing and can cause panic in a real emergency evacuation. Typically, when you haven’t been to a hotel before, almost without exception, you’ll go out the way you came in, it’s human nature.

Everybody knows that you shouldn’t use a lift in the event of a fire, but generally there is also a staircase situated next to a lift and one you may have used already, so you head towards that. You’ll come up in a lift or a staircase off reception and therefore go back out the same way. The problem is EVERYONE heads toward this single staircase and single escape route

Relying on this natural behaviour is where we can get into trouble.

The larger newer hotels will have multiple exits, and so the nearest, quickest and safest route to get out of the building may be away from the crowds heading in the direction of the lifts.

Let’s consider the newer big hotels, with 1,000 rooms and long corridors often 100 yards long.  The issue arises when the fire alarm signals, you come out of your bedroom door and without looking (or thinking) you turn right and make your way back to the stairs, near the lift where you came in; 100 yards away, when actually there is a nearer, quicker exit  10 yards around the corner to your left.

This is because you didn’t see or notice the exit sign pointing left to the nearest exit . Up until now, this has just been the way it is, this combination of what is called ‘learned irrelevance’ and the instinct to go out the way you know, can be the cause of bottlenecks in corridors and stairways, panic and reduction in evacuation times. But Evaclite offers a solution.

How do dynamic and adaptive signs solve the problem?

It all comes down to two key factors – ‘increased affordance’ (you can see the sign clearly and quickly) and confidence (the dynamic pulsing green arrow emphasises the best route out).

Relying on our human instinct isn’t enough but with the use of dynamic signage, you see the signs quicker, you are given clear instruction and you can make your decision with confidence. This speeds up the evacuation process and in a large hotel with multiple corridors and exits, this will reduce the bottlenecks. People will now disperse to the nearest exit, as guided by the signs, instead of returning to the first exit they can think of, inevitably being the way they came into the building.

Dynamic signs will give you a clear indication to the nearest exit, but if the nearest egress routes become compromised, because of either the initial or a developing hazard Evaclite signs become ‘adaptive’. They can adapt facilitated by the  ’cause and effect programming’ via the fire panel which identifies via sensors or human instruction that an exit route is now compromised and the emergency exit sign will change from green to red – indicating a negated exit route – alternate safe exit routes will then be highlighted via the green dynamic flashing signs – thus preventing guests exiting towards the known hazard.

Real life application: Large scale Hotels

With Evaclite emergency exit signs, hotels now have a solution to what could quickly become a dangerous evacuation problem.

Evaclite is working with many hotels, but the biggest problem is in the biggest hotels. New Hotels with more than 5 storeys and with 300+ bedrooms often have 3 exits per floor, with one next to the lift.

You can immediately see where the problem lies. During the event of a fire drill, people automatically gravitate towards the exit near the lift, because this is the way they entered the building. This can cause a backlog of 30 minutes or more to exit from the top floors of the hotel as they queue to get to and down the stairs yet people are often oblivious to the fact that there are two more exits at either end of the corridor. This is where the natural human response takes over, we’re programmed to both follow the crowd and go out the way we came in.

The successful modern hotel businesses put the customer experience at the forefront of everything they do.  they do a lot of brilliant work around hiring and training great people, providing state of the art facilities, luxurious rooms and quality food. Safety too is now also being added to that list as a must have and Evaclite dynamic signs is a  significant element of this adding another service to uphold that valued customer experience reputation.

How will it work?

The Fire ALARM sounds You come out of your room at the hotel into the corridor, you look to the right and you see an exit sign with an arrow pointing to the right, if you look to your left you’ll see an exit sign pointing to your left. Both are viable exits, but, which one is closest? At this point, we don’t know. Evaclite can solve this problem through dynamic 3-pulse array dynamic exit signs. In practice, If you left your room and turned right, looked towards the lift and it’s 50 yards away, it will be a standard, passive (no flashing indicator), illuminated sign. However, if you turn left, where the staircase is just 15 metres around the corner, it will be a flashing green arrow within the exit sign, so the sign is now dynamic. If your bedroom is halfway along the corridor, both the exit sign to your left and the exit sign to your right will have a 3-pulse array green arrow, if you’re nearer to one exit than another, the sign to the nearest exit will become dynamic.

So, it’s obvious that due to the sheer scale and size of new hotels, there will be an issue evacuating quickly and efficiently in an emergency.

However, there is an easy solution and that is Evaclite’s dynamic and adaptive emergency exit signs. It’s time to leave passive static signs in the past and move on to a safer and more visible form of emergency exit signage with dynamic and adaptive emergency exit signs fully integrating into your existing Fire Evacuation Systems. 

 

Want to discover why hotels are making the move to dynamic and adaptive signage?

Download our free eBook: ‘Dynamic Emergency Exit Signage: Why the time is now for the hotel sector’ to discover the wider problems facing hotels and how they deal with some very practical customer experience issues.

Download the eBook

Sign of the times

We all recognise and know the ‘running man’ of course (although he is not supposed to be running), as the image that represents an emergency exit. It is a legal requirement in fact for all non-domestic buildings and spaces to have signage like this guiding occupants and users to safety in an emergency.

What we are less likely to know is that this, the latest incarnation of the running man, was designed by a Japanese gentleman, Yukio Ota in the late 70’s as a response to a competition to promote safety and evacuation techniques. It was later adopted by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) in 1985 becoming the well-known illustration that it is today.

So, this design has been in use in the UK for nearly 50 years. Where were buildings 50 years ago and how have the built and working environments changed over this time? As a simple example, at the time this signage was invented the tallest building in the world was The Sears (Willis) Tower in Chicago at 443m or 1,450 feet with 110 stories.

Today, the world’s tallest building is the Burj Kalifa in Dubai. At 828m or 2,716 feet in height, it is nearly twice as tall as The Sears Tower.

Is traditional, conventional, static signage still the most effective solution? It was, after all, a sign designed for that time. The industry could not have anticipated the speed of development in the modern world.

However, dynamic exit signage has been designed for today’s buildings and environments. It has been developed using the very latest technology and micro-simulation modelling that was simply not available in the 1970’s. This all means that this modern solution is over twice as effective as the equivalent, conventional signage today.

If you want to maximise the safety of your working or living environment then bring it up to date with Evaclite dynamic and adaptive emergency exit signage.

There are more reasons to consider dynamic signage than you may think.

The market is beginning to recognise the benefits of dynamic over passive emergency exit signage. Broadly and, as we know, dynamic signage has been proven to be over twice as effective in terms of being seen and understood by all. It gets people moving in half the time and in the right direction, towards safety and away from danger. It reduces congestion in an evacuation by over one third and reduces overall evacuation time by nearly one fifth. It is also much more inclusive helping everyone to get to their nearest, safest exit more quickly, every time.

Even if you know this and are considering the upgrade, what you may not know is that it also:

  1. Provides greater evacuation control.
  2. Minimises disruption in a drill or false alarm (you can get people out and back in quicker)
  3. Helps protect your people, your business, and your brand.
  4. Helps minimise property damage through getting people out faster in effect allowing the emergency services in quicker.

If this finally convinces you then may we encourage you to not delay. Make your people safer by specifying or buying Evaclite dynamic signage today.

Risk or reward?

Do you own, manage, or have responsibility for a business, building or space? If so, you deal with and manage risk every day.

The legal minimum is to endeavour to identify, avoid and mitigate risk to achieve compliance.

These days, the modern business owner or manager is much more likely to take a proactive approach and seek to minimise or eliminate risk whenever and wherever they can realising the benefits and rewards, personally, financially and commercially such an approach can deliver. 

This more informed and progressive approach is to be applauded. It is and has always been an important and significant responsibility professionally. More recently it has become a personal one too. Should something happen, the responsible individual can be held personally accountable with the potential of an unlimited fine and even a prison sentence should their approach be found wanting.

With this is in mind, you might like to consider installing dynamic exit signage.

Being over twice as effective as conventional, static signage, it is a powerful weapon in the business or building manager’s risk, health and safety arsenal. It is specifically designed to minimise the evacuation time of any building or space helping to plan and allow for the unexpected.

It also provides an extra level of control over the flow of people around the building in an emergency bringing additional efficiency and effectiveness to an organisation’s reaction to any emergency minimising the risk to people and property as a result.

The Four Motivators for Dynamic Signage

The benefits of dynamic emergency exit signage over the conventional, passive ‘running man’ equivalent are proven and well established.  It reduces risk, increases the safety factor and provides you, your staff and visitors with a little extra peace of mind by getting people out faster.

In brief, it is much better at getting your people out safely whatever the emergency.  Modern life has brought us different types of emergency to consider beyond that of fire meaning we need to be flexible and agile in keeping our people safe.  This includes how we direct them around or out of the building under different conditions such as a terrorist attack, a bomb or chemical alert, or even active shooter.

You would imagine therefore that everyone would want it in their building wouldn’t you?  After all, why wouldn’t you want to increase the safety of your people for as little as a few £000’s?  Unfortunately, life is not that simple.  There are other factors to consider.  These include things such as responsibility, compliance and cost.

Firstly, we know compliance is a legal requirement.  Many organisations feel this to be adequate even though they also know it is a minimum standard based upon a signage designed in the 1970’s.

Strictly speaking of course, they are right; it should be adequate.  However, is adequate enough, particularly when it comes to safety?

So, money.  Clearly, change invariably costs, in the short-term at least.  For an organisation working in a small space and/or where money is tight clearly the cost versus benefit argument may seem less conclusive. 

Not all of us have the luxury of being able to consider upgrading any aspect of our working environment, even our fire system, when the budget does not allow or when the return on investment is less apparent and more difficult to justify.  Also, perhaps we are tenants and the fire system employed is not our responsibility so why should we worry? 

However, before you dismiss the idea, there are number of other needs that dynamic signage could help you address and problems it could help you solve.  There are also circumstances where it could actually save you money as well as make your life easier that many fail to consider.

Let us explore the key motivators and reasons for specifying, buying or demanding dynamic signage that you may not have considered and that may enable you to justify upgrading to a performance-based solution even if you had previously said no to the idea:

  1. Structural problem
  2. Operational need
  3. Aspirational want
  4. Personal desire/Moral imperative

Structural problem

A building’s structure, size, shape and layout impact how it is used and how it can be used.

Older buildings provide greater individualism, interest and character and can be great places to work.  Furthermore, they may have historical and architectural significance, provide balance as well as diversity to a cityscape and preserving them may help save the look of the local built environment as well as natural resources.  However, they can be complicated and costly to run, change, update or re-purpose.

More modern buildings typically offer greater efficiency, flexibility and cost-effectiveness than older ones and may be more readily adapted to suit our changing needs.

However, whether old or new, buildings bring their own challenges.  Owners change, tenants move, organisations grow or shrink, and areas may be re-purposed each of which can bring the need for significant structural change.

With older buildings in particular, balancing occupancy capacity with the structural restrictions such as narrow corridors or tight stairwells may create the need for complex remodelling or a more complex fire strategy.  Less open space and less clarity in terms of evacuation routes add to the challenge as does the risk of fewer practicable escape routes.  This may increase the risk of potential delay in decision making when trying to exit the building due to less linear corridors and more route options within a floor or space risking safety and potentially jeopardising compliance.

A re-modelling project may have inadvertently confused one or more exit routes increasing exit complexity and a lack of clarity restricting ease of sign-off by Building Control.

Providing clear, intuitive guidance to a broader, international demographic with differing levels of familiarity of the space and fitness in such circumstances can also be difficult with simple, passive signage.

As responsible people, we need to ensure we have an effective fire strategy in place and that we can ensure the safety and security of all building occupants in a range of emergency situations.

Dynamic signage can help resolve issues that such changes may create, typically much more quickly and cost-effectively than the alternative re-design, re-model or structural change delivering clarity and more efficient egress. 

Furthermore, Building Control is beginning to recognise that dynamic signage offers greater flexibility and control over conventional signage such that they may even suggest it as an alternative to a costly structural change.

Operational need

The growing complexity, size and design of modern buildings brings new challenges to address when trying to ensure an efficient evacuation.  It is often necessary to employ new approaches in terms of controlling people movement and fire strategies are becoming more advanced and elaborate accordingly.

Such approaches include phasing the evacuation by floor or zone, compartmentalisation or directing the occupants in different directions based upon given scenarios.  It may be appropriate to evacuate a single floor or group of floors perhaps simultaneously moving them upwards and downwards to the adjacent, safe floors rather than directing them out of the building.

Given it is not just about a fire, strategies and infrastructure need to be sufficiently flexible to adapt and enable agile solutions that can help manage the movement of people in any emergency situation.  Those of us responsible for managing large, complex buildings in such a variety of dangerous scenarios need all the help we can get.

Dynamic signage not only provides clarity and efficiency it also enhances your ability to manage people movement and adapt at short notice in accordance with the emergency or crisis you might be faced with.  Control that is simply not possible with conventional signage.

Each sign is addressable meaning it can be controlled independently of those around it and how it behaves when (ie passive, dynamic green arrow and adaptive red cross), can be dictated by not only the fire panel through cause-and-effect programming also by manual intervention if necessary.

This enables you to consider, anticipate and predict a range of scenarios and then pre-determine the corresponding signage behaviour.  Should x and y happen then the signs 1-6 will do this.  However, should z happen too then signs 2 and 3 will do this instead.

Similarly, it enables to you to adapt as the environment changes.  It enables the controlled evacuation of different areas or floors of the building to be directed in different directions spreading the loading across the available facilities minimising risk and congestion.

The facility for manual intervention adds an additional level of control to allow for the unexpected or a temporary variable such as an area of the building being closed for refurbishment or being used for an alternative purpose such as event or meeting.

The added performance and functionality over that provided by traditional signage brings your building in the 21st Century making it properly SMART, able to cope with the modern living and working environments whilst bringing the flexibility and agility to adapt to short-term and long-term changes.  You are also able to better plan for the future knowing you are keeping your people safe as they can be throughout.

Aspirational want

Aspirational may be defined as the want to achieve or the desire to perform to a high level, not being satisfied with the status quo.  Where would modern manufacturing or the aviation industry be without the continuous improvement aspiration?  This is very much performance beyond compliance and may be a personal and an organisational imperative.

These days, the values that an organisation or brand live by or stand for make a difference to how they perform.  This also impacts how they are perceived by the outside world so by their staff, suppliers, customers and even competitors.  This might include the culture within the organisation and how staff are treated, who they work with, how they operate, why they do what they do and what is important to them.

Perhaps you just want to be the best, the biggest, the fastest, the most profitable, the best to work for or have the nicest working environment.  Why shouldn’t this include the safest too?

Increasingly, health and safety is becoming a more dominant priority.  Anyone who is familiar with the construction industry will know how it has been transformed by proactively prioritising and embracing health and safety from training and site procedures to how staff and visitors park their cars.

Offices and buildings are simply other kinds of ‘site’ and we should consider the health and safety within them just as much as a Project Manager might consider it on their construction site.  Keeping our people safe is, after all, the first thing any employer must do.

Dynamic signage is at the heart of this want.  An alarm sounds then the number one priority is to ensure that everyone on site can exit quickly, safely and calmly something that dynamic signage was designed to help enable.

Surely our people and hence our buildings should be as safe as they can be, and this is something that should become integral to our personal and organisational missions and aspirations. 

We always consider ways to save costs don’t we? Perhaps it is time we also continuously consider ways to improve safety and save lives.

Personal desire/Moral imperative

Wikipedia defines a moral imperative as ‘A strongly felt principle that compels that person to act’.

We want those people who use our buildings to be safe.  We also expect the buildings we use and inhabit to be safe.

The HSE states that the first responsibility or duty of an Employer is ‘to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees and other people who might be affected by their business. Employers must do whatever is reasonably practicable to achieve this.

This means making sure that workers and visitors are protected from anything that may cause harm, effectively controlling any risks to injury or health that could arise in the workplace’.

The Government states the first responsibility of a landlord is to ‘keep the property you live in safe and free from health hazards’.

So as business owners, employers, and landlords we have an obligation and a moral imperative to keep people in our employ, under our care and in our buildings safe.

Shouldn’t we therefore do everything we can to ensure this?  In modern society is simple compliance, or adherence to the minimum requirement enough?  We are rarely satisfied with the minimum of anything so why should we be when it comes to fire safety?  Furthermore, when we realise the inefficiencies of a system that is based upon signage developed in the 1970’s, isn’t it time we all felt obliged to fit the latest and best solution to help minimise risk and keep our buildings and our people safe no matter what? 

Can we really go home to sleep soundly with peace of mind having achieved or maintained the minimum safety levels in our buildings?  Is this the way a truly responsible person should feel? 

If we know dynamic signage is basically twice as effective than the conventional running man, perhaps we have the moral imperative to do something about and buy or specify it today.

Conclusion

If you recognise and appreciate the benefits of dynamic but are concerned about cost or feel compliance to be adequate, please remember that there are many other things to consider before saying no.

Apart from helping to save lives, it can help make your life easier, reducing risk, increasing control and enabling change.  It can save you money through enabling complex structural solutions to pass formal scrutiny without significant and costly change.

When it comes to health and safety, surely as responsible people we have an obligation to challenge the status quo aiming for performance beyond mere compliance?  Even as a tenant, we have responsibility to ensure the buildings and spaces we use are safe and why not demand the best?

Whether your issue or need is structural, operational, aspirational or personal make the time to find out how dynamic signage is the ‘smart’ solution.