Green Ergonomics and Green Buildings

In this article, we explore the individual and organizational outcomes associated with a move from traditional buildings to three green buildings. Our findings revealed that high-level organizational measures were not notably affected by the move. Changes were, however, seen in physical well-being and perceived environmental comfort. The primary drivers were air quality and lighting. The need to consider human factors/ergonomics in green building design has been recognized by the Green Building Council of South Africa as an industry standard and as the starting point for the development of an interior design rating tool. Longer-term impacts of green buildings on organizationally relevant indicators still need to be established.

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Green Building Occupant Satisfaction: Evidence from the Australian Higher Education Sector

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10082890 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 2890 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Maryam Khoshbakht ◽

Zhonghua Gou ◽

Xiaohuan Xie ◽

Baojie He ◽

Amos Darko

Keyword(s):

Environmental Control ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Facilities Management ◽

Subtropical Climate ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

The Individual ◽

Occupant Satisfaction

Universities spend billions of dollars on green buildings as a sustainability commitment. This research investigates occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental quality (IEQ), building design (BD), and facilities management (FM) in five highly ranked green higher educational buildings in the subtropical climate of Australia, in comparison to nine non-green counterparts. The results disclose that the green building users were more consistently satisfied than the non-green building users with BD&FM elements, such as design, needs from facilities, building image, cleaning, the availability of meeting rooms, and storage. On the other hand, the study revealed weaknesses of green buildings in IEQ, such as noise, ventilation, and artificial lighting. The individual environmental control positively correlated with satisfaction in non-green buildings, but did not significantly affect satisfaction in green buildings. This study also identified the influences of non-environmental factors on occupant satisfaction, such as gender, age, sitting close to a window, hours spent in the building and in the workstation, and the number of people sharing office space. The research provides evidence and guidance for investing in, designing, and managing green educational facilities.

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Can Green Building Promote Pro-Environmental Behaviours? The Psychological Model and Design Strategy

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12187714 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (18) ◽

pp. 7714 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Xiaohuan Xie ◽

Shiyu Qin ◽

Zhonghua Gou ◽

Ming Yi

Keyword(s):

Structural Equation ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Walking Distance ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Resource Saving ◽

Green Building Design ◽

Personal Norms ◽

Environmental Behaviours

A green building has a long lasting benefit through cultivating the occupants’ energy and resource-saving behaviours. To understand how green buildings can cultivate occupants’ pro-environment behaviours, the research applied the value–belief–norm model to investigate 17 pro-environmental behaviours which are related to a variety of green building design strategies. Two green and two non-green certified office buildings in the city of Shenzhen in China were surveyed, based on which structural equation modelling was established to confirm the relationship between personal values, environmental beliefs and norms that lead to pro-environment behaviours. Green and non-green building occupants showed significant differences in altruistic values, environmental awareness, personal norms, and pro-environmental behaviours. Green building users had more frequent pro-environmental behaviours than those in non-green buildings. The strategies that require fewer additional efforts were more likely to be adopted as pro-environmental behaviours, such as meeting daily needs within walking distance and adjusting sunshades, while the strategies that need extra physical efforts (taking stairs) or knowledge (garbage sorting) were less likely to be adopted as pro-environmental behaviours. This study pointed out important intervention opportunities and discussed the possible design implications for green building guidelines and programmes to cultivate green occupants and their corresponding pro-environmental behaviours.

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Risk Factors Impacting the Project Value Created by Green Buildings in Saudi Arabia

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app10217388 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (21) ◽

pp. 7388

Author(s):

Wael Alattyih ◽

Husnain Haider ◽

Halim Boussabaine

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Saudi Arabia ◽

Financial Risk ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Principal Component ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Sustainable Urban Development ◽

Green Building Design

Green buildings are playing a pivotal role in sustainable urban development around the world, including Saudi Arabia. Green buildings subject to various sources of risk that influence the potential outcomes of the investments or services added in their design. The present study developed a structured framework to examine various risks that may lead to green buildings’ value destruction in Saudi Arabia. The framework initiates with identification of 66 potential risk factors from reported literature. A questionnaire compiling a list of identified risk factors was hand-delivered to 300 practitioners (managers, engineers, and architects) having knowledge of value engineering in the construction industry, and an overall response rate of 29.7% was achieved. Subsequently, descriptive statistics ranked the risk factors based on scores given by the respondents. The principal component analysis extracted 16 components, based on the likelihood of risk factors impacting the value created by green building design. Finally, the factor analysis grouped the 35 most significant risk factors in 5 clusters—i.e., 8 in functional risk, 13 in financial risk, 3 in operational risk, 3 in environmental risk, and 8 in management risk cluster. The study enhances the understanding of the importance of the risk factors’ impact on value creation. Based on the results, the value management (or engineering) teams and the top-level management can identify, manage, and control the risk factors that have a significant impact on the project value created by green building design.

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建築環境模擬分析整合於設計流程之教育成效評估

建築學報 ◽

10.53106/101632122021060116007 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 116 (116-1) ◽

pp. 001-019

Author(s):

林權萱林權萱 ◽

蔡耀賢 Chuan-Hsuan Lin ◽

陳柏睿 Yaw-Shyan Tsay

Keyword(s):

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Ease Of Use ◽

Basic Knowledge ◽

P Value ◽

Training Methods ◽

Academic Education ◽

Perceived Ease Of Use ◽

Green Building Design ◽

The Individual

近年來，由諸多文獻中發現在建築設計過程中以建築性能分析軟體輔助之相關議題，然而無論在業界實務端或學院教育，對於在設計流程中導入建築性能分析軟體的可信度、時間點、意願、操作流程及相關背景知識仍未成熟。因此，本研究著重於整合國內實務端設計工作流程與重點模擬分析項目，提出一套學習的參考架構，並對設計者進行教育訓練，以消弭設計階段應用分析軟體的障礙。本研究以7名建築系學生為對象，進行一學期的教育訓練實驗，透過問卷和訪談進行綜合性分析以評估訓練成效。實驗結果發現教育訓練具有良好成效，參與者對建築性能分析軟體的知識有顯著提升。雖然個體間學習成效存在差異（如參與者對技術易用性的認知不同），但對技術的價值認知與採納意願則皆有顯著提升。然而，建築能耗分析軟體被發現訓練成效不彰，可能歸因為該能源相關專業本身之複雜性，訓練時間不足，個體學習態度等，導致不容易在短期課程中立即獲得良好學習成效，其在設計中的應用也受到限制。藉此，本研究最後亦提出對未來建築學院在理論與分析軟體操作的整合課程建議，以協助學習者能夠循序漸進，有效的應用輔助分析軟體回饋建築設計。  Since the sustainable issue has become a trend in recent years, the adoption of building performance analysis (BPA) tools in design process is not a news today. However, according to the literature review revealing the “rule of thumb” was still the measure when architects discuss the green building design. Also, the lack of background knowledge could always be noticed between the intention of sustainability and design works in either academic education or design practice. Therefore, this study was started on the BPA software training course of basic knowledge and application through the early design phase. To close the gap, a guided workflow of BPA tools was proposed for the designer’s needs. The guided workflow was used to draft a pilot experiment course in architectural education with 7 trainees. In order to enhance students’ fundamental knowledge. The results of the experiment showed subjects have a significant improvement on the knowledge of BPA tools (p-value <0.05), nevertheless, energy simulation learning showed on the opposite. The results also indicated that the individual discrepancy might cause the effect on factor of “Perceived Ease of Use”. In conclusion, based on the results of experiment above, the grading course with learning objectives, training methods and contents have been modified and suggested.

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Development of Value Creation Drivers for Sustainable Design of Green Buildings in Saudi Arabia

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11205867 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (20) ◽

pp. 5867 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Alattyih ◽

Haider ◽

Boussabaine

Keyword(s):

Saudi Arabia ◽

Value Creation ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Value Management ◽

Value Drivers ◽

Green Building Design ◽

Detailed Statistical Analysis ◽

Governmental Institutions

The sustainability of green buildings has been widely recognized around the world in the recent past. Evaluating the investment on such buildings, with higher complexity than the conventional buildings, involves multiple and diverse stakeholders, such as consultants, contractors, general public, governmental institutions, etc. The selection of useful value creation drivers is a difficult task while accommodating the opinion of a group of stakeholders with varying perceptions and experiences regarding the value creation in green building design and the associated costs. In this research, a framework is proposed to develop a set of the most important value creation drivers (VCDs) for green buildings. Five primary VCDs were developed to cover the financial, functional, operational, environmental, and management aspects of a green building. Ninety-eight (98) performance value drivers (PVDs) were identified through the literature for assessing the performance of these value creation drivers. The identified PVDs were evaluated through a hand-delivered questionnaire survey, followed by detailed statistical analysis of the collected data while using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel software. Factor analyses were performed to eliminate the PVDs with least importance based on the responses obtained from 89 experienced managers (45%), engineers (38%), and architects (17%) working in the field of value management of construction industry in Saudi Arabia. Finally, 51 most important PVDs were grouped into two clusters for each value creation driver; for instance, control and planning clusters to assess the performance of management’s VCD. The final outcome of the research in the form of five top level VCDs, 10 clusters, and 51 PVDs will facilitate the designers for enhancing the performance efficiency and value from investment for green buildings in Saudi Arabia, Gulf, and elsewhere.

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A Research on the Design Strategy Suitable for Local Green Building Design in China – A Comparative and Empirical Study on GBES and LEED-NC2009

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.919-921.1685 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 919-921 ◽

pp. 1685-1689

Author(s):

Hao Zhang

Keyword(s):

Empirical Study ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Design Strategy ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Evaluation Standards ◽

Evaluation Standard ◽

Research On Evaluation ◽

Green Building Design

Green building evaluation standards provide references for green building design. This paper did comparative and empirical research on evaluation points and design strategies of Chinese Green Building Evaluation Standard and American LEED-NC 2009, and analyzed the differences between their orientation and applicability. The conclusion shows that the strategy of GBES is more suitable for local green buildings in China.

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GREEN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION IN INDIA AND BENEFITS OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDING MATERIALS

JOURNAL OF MECHANICS OF CONTINUA AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES ◽

10.26782/jmcms.2021.04.00001 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

Author(s):

D. P. Kothari

Keyword(s):

Building Materials ◽

Construction Materials ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Sustainable Growth ◽

Sustainable Construction ◽

Indoor Environments ◽

Green Building Design ◽

The Impact

The green building design aims to minimize the need for the non-renewable energy of these resources, optimize their sustainability and maximize their conservation, recycling and usage. The use of effective building materials and construction techniques is maximized. Architectural bioclimatic technology will also optimize on-site usage of sources and sinks. It requires only minimum electricity to fuel itself and efficient appliances to meet its lighting, air-conditioning and other needs. Green buildings architecture optimizes the use of renewable energies and efficient waste and water management methods to create practical and hygienic working conditions for indoor environments. Materials such as chemical, physical and mechanical material properties and an appropriate specification are the fundamental elements of construction design and responsible for the mechanical strength of the design. The construction of green buildings is also the first step in choosing and utilizing eco-friendly materials with or better characteristics than traditional building materials. Based on the practical, technical and financial requirements, construction materials are usually selected. But, given that sustainable development has been a core issue in recent decades, building industry that is directly or indirectly responsible for a substantial share of annual environmental destruction, by pursuing environmentally sound constructions and buildings should take responsibility for contributing to sustainable growth. The quickest way for manufacturers to start integrating environmental design practices into buildings would be the diligent procurement of eco-friendly sustainable construction materials, including options for new material uses, recycling and reusing, organic product creation and green resource use. This paper aims to show how green building materials will help reduce the impact on the atmosphere and create a cleaner building that can be healthy for the occupant or our environment. In the sustainable progress of a nation, the choice of building materials that have reduced environmental burdens is helpful.

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Ready for Green Building Risks? The Case of South Korea from the Architect’s Point of View

10.20944/preprints201805.0030.v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jinho Kim

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

South Korea ◽

Risk Mitigation ◽

Integrated Design ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Building Projects ◽

Green Building Design

The number of green buildings has increased to address the global environmental crisis. However, green buildings face risks resulting from new materials and methods. In addition, these buildings are expected to perform at higher levels than traditional ones. The objectives of this study are to identify the possible risk factors for architects developing green building projects in South Korea and to assess risk mitigation measures. To attain this goal, fourteen risk factors and twelve mitigation measures were identified from a comprehensive literature review. A questionnaire survey was administered to architects practicing green building design. Findings revealed the ‘adoption of new technology and processes’ was the largest difference between green and traditional building projects. This study identified ‘financial risk,’ ‘design changes,’ and ‘client’s goal uncertainty’ as the top three risk factors in green building design. Additionally, the survey proposed the four most effective risk mitigation measures for green building projects: (1) ‘contract indicating each party’s roles, liabilities and limitations clearly’; (2) ‘utilizing integrated design process’; (3) ‘understanding client’s goal in green building projects’; and (4) ‘improving communication and coordination among stakeholders.’ There are a few studies focusing on the architects’ perceived risk concerning green building projects; however, this study expands the knowledge and fills the literature gap. Additionally, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of critical risks and mitigation measures that can benefit South Korea’s green building design practice through better risk management.

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A Literature Analysis on Acoustical Environment in Green Building Design Strategies

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.471.138 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 471 ◽

pp. 138-142 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Nurul Amira Abd Jalil ◽

Nazli Bin Che Din ◽

Nila Inangda Manyam Keumala Daud

Keyword(s):

Natural Ventilation ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Working Environment ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Visual Comfort ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Green Building Design ◽

And Performance

Acoustic quality is important in ensuring a healthy and workable working environment. One of green buildings main objective is to reduce the building impact on human health and performance. This was emphasized in most green building rating system under its requirement for Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). IEQ highlights the four main points for achieving an improved indoor environment: indoor air quality, acoustics, visual comfort (lighting) and thermal comfort. Although acoustics was mentioned in the IEQ criteria, according to previous surveys and studies; acoustics quality in green buildings were not improving. It seems as though in order to improve on other green building criteria, acoustics performance is bound to become poorer. Through review of previous literature, survey and studies on acoustical performance in green buildings, the objective of this paper is to identify how green building design strategies contribute to the degradation of acoustical environment in green office buildings. Findings shows that design strategies implemented to cater for other green building requirements such as natural ventilation, daylight, reduction of finishes and office layout have unintentionally decrease the acoustical quality.

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How to Create Green Buildings from Perspective of Evaluation Label: Taking Taiyuan No. 63 Middle School Campus Rebuilding Project as an Example

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.253-255.8 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 253-255 ◽

pp. 8-12

Author(s):

Xia Zhao ◽

Yong Sheng Zhang

Keyword(s):

Middle School ◽

Green Building ◽

Building Design ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Design Methods ◽

Evaluation Standard ◽

Main Design ◽

Green Building Design

Based on the Evaluation Standard for Green Buildings, we selected Taiyuan No. 63 Middle School Campus Rebuilding Project (which won “Two-Star Evaluation Label for Green Building Design”) as an engineering case, studied main design methods and technical means for this project from the perspective of an evaluation label, summarized relevant experiences, and put forward factors to be emphatically taken into account in creating green buildings as well as associated precautions.

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