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

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2890 ◽  
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.

Green Ergonomics and Green Buildings

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Thatcher ◽  
Karen Milner
Keyword(s):  
Interior Design ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Organizational Outcomes ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
Green Building Design ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level

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.

A Literature Analysis on Acoustical Environment in Green Building Design Strategies

2013 ◽  
Vol 471 ◽  
pp. 138-142 ◽  
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.

PERFORMANCE OF A GREEN BUILDING'S INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ON BUILDING OCCUPANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clinton Aigbavboa ◽  
Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
The Body ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Health Implications

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is important to the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Unsatisfactory IEQ is associated with a number of phenomena, most notably, sick building syndrome (SBS), building-related illnesses (BRIs), and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), which have major negative effects on productivity. However, green building investors (owners) are not only concerned about reducing the negative impact of their buildings on the environment, but also about the potentially negative impact green buildings can have on their employees' productivity. This research sets out to address, through a questionnaire survey in South Africa, what constitutes the determinants of green building occupants' satisfaction with the IEQ elements of a green building and the health implications of a building's IEQ on the building occupants. Data analysis (involving a one-sample t-test) reveals some interesting findings in regard to what constitutes the determinants of green building occupants' satisfaction with the IEQ elements and the health implications of the IEQ elements of a five-star green rated building in South Africa. Findings from the survey revealed that the occupants of the building were not satisfied with the green building's IEQ, most especially the ineffectiveness of blocking natural and artificial lighting. Also, it was revealed that the IEQ with particular reference to the noise level and ventilation of the space has some serious health implications for the building occupants. The occupants' evaluation revealed that the major health issues from which they suffer include fatigue, headache, common cold, coughing, and influenza, and these affect their productivity and performance. Since building occupants are a rich source of information about IEQ assessment and its effect on productivity, the study can be used to assess the performance of green buildings, identify areas needing improvement, and provide useful feedback to designers and operators about specific aspects of green building design features and operating strategies that need improvement. This study adds to the body of knowledge on green buildings' IEQ performance.

scholarly journals Assessing occupant comfort in an iconic sustainable education building

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Best ◽  
Brian Purdey
Keyword(s):  
Work Environment ◽  
Natural Ventilation ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Evaluation Study ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
Occupant Comfort ◽  
Occupant Satisfaction

The building that houses the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University is the first educational building to achieve a six Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. It has won numerous awards since opening in August 2008 including being judged the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Sustainable Building of 2009. After more than two years in use a post-occupancy evaluation study was carried out to assess the performance of the building from the viewpoint of the users; both resident staff and transient students. Results for factors such as lighting, thermal comfort, noise and air quality. were compared to benchmarks established by the Usable Buildings Trust. The evaluation also assessed the occupants’ perceptions of the building’s impact on their own productivity. Users generally find the building provides a comfortable work environment although a number of areas of performance were noted as posing some concerns. These included intrusive noise in some parts of the building and some issues with glare in daylit teaching spaces. Such concerns were found to be in accord with the results of previous studies and they highlight some recurrent problems in “green” buildings designed to maximise the use of natural ventilation and natural light. These design challenges and how occupant satisfaction is to be measured and benchmarked are also discussed in the context of this comparative building study.

Importance-performance analysis (IPA) of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of an EDGE-certified building in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kofi Agyekum ◽  
Elorm Emil Koku Akli-Nartey ◽  
Augustine Senanu Kukah ◽  
Amma Kyewaa Agyekum
Keyword(s):  
Performance Analysis ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Artificial Lighting ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Space Layout ◽  
Visual Privacy

PurposeThe excellence in design and greater efficiencies (EDGE) certification system has seen a gradual adoption worldwide, with Ghana having six out of its eight certified green buildings bearing an EDGE certification. However, little is known about occupants’ satisfaction with the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of EDGE-certified buildings. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the satisfaction of occupants with the IEQ of an EDGE-certified building in Ghana by identifying their perceived performance of the indoor environment relative to their perceived importance.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted to evaluate the performance of 12 IEQ parameters with the occupants of an EDGE-certified office building. The survey results were evaluated using a gap analysis and both traditional and alternative Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) matrices.FindingsThe findings revealed that noise level, temperature, cleanliness, sound privacy, air quality and humidity were IEQs that required the highest priority for improvement. Daylight and artificial lighting showed no appreciable performance gap. Space layout was adequately satisfied, whereas space size was overly satisfied. Visual privacy and outdoor view were found to require low priority of improvement.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the state-of-the-art of the IEQ of green buildings. It pioneers the research that seeks to examine the IEQ of EDGE-certified buildings. The gap analysis and the IPA were effective in prioritizing the IEQs for improvement action and provided a practical research framework that helped researchers examine the performance of green buildings, thereby giving valuable feedback to policymakers and building owners.

HOW DO GREEN BUILDINGS COMMUNICATE GREEN DESIGN TO BUILDING USERS? A SURVEY STUDY OF A LEED-CERTIFIED BUILDING

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susie Ruqun Wu ◽  
Suk-Kyung Kim ◽  
Hogeun Park ◽  
Peilei Fan ◽  
Arika Ligmann-Zielinska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
Green Design ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Affordance Theory ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Future Design

Studies investigating the benefits of green buildings can be approached by the affordance theory—the perceived properties of a thing that determine how it could possibly be used. This study focuses on the sustainable communication and education that a green building should provide. By applying the affordance theory, we examined whether a LEED-certified university campus building effectively communicates green design and sustainability to its users and if so, then how? We employed a questionnaire survey targeting campus users of a LEED-certified building by examining their awareness of the building's LEED status and perception of green design elements at multiple spatial scales, as well as their general knowledge on green building topics. We collected 177 questionnaires, of which 153 were qualified for statistical analysis. The results suggested that the building itself can afford to promote awareness among users, but cannot afford to educate users on general green building knowledge. We found that building users perceived green design at different spatial scales, preferring either product or space-related design. Our results indicate that future design should continue promoting the use of educational signage, which was found to be the most effective communicator of sustainability. The communication of green design to users with different spatial preferences remains a future research focus. Further studies on the innovative use of green building design as effective communicators are needed to promote sustainability education among the building users.

GREEN BUILDING AND BIODIVERSITY: FACILITATING BIRD FRIENDLY DESIGN WITH BUILDING INFORMATION MODELS

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Kensek ◽  
Ye Ding ◽  
Travis Longcore
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Visual Programming ◽  
Information Modeling ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Information Models ◽  
Building Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Bird Collisions

Green buildings should respect nature and endeavor to mitigate harmful effects to the environment and occupants. This is often interpreted as creating sustainable sites, consuming less energy and water, reusing materials, and providing excellent indoor environmental quality. Environmentally friendly buildings should also consider literally the impact that they have on birds, millions of them. A major factor in bird collisions with buildings is the choice of building materials. These choices are usually made by the architect who may not be aware of the issue or may be looking for guidance from certification programs such as LEED. As a proof of concept for an educational tool, we developed a software-assisted approach to characterize whether a proposed building design would earn a point for the LEED Pilot Credit 55: Avoiding Bird Collisions. Using the visual programming language Dynamo with the common building information modeling software Revit, we automated the assessment of designs. The approach depends on parameters that incorporate assessments of bird threat for façade materials, analyzes building geometry relative to materials, and processes user input on building operation to produce the assessment.

GREEN CLEANING: AN ESSENTIAL ASPECT OF MALAYSIAN GREEN BUILDINGS

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Nadiah Zainol ◽  
Izran Sarrazin Mohammad ◽  
Maizan Baba ◽  
Neo Bee Woon ◽  
Abdul Qayyum Nazri
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
Building Performance ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Green Cleaning ◽  
Maintenance Stage ◽  
Operations And Maintenance ◽  
Reduce Energy Consumption ◽  
Specific Regulation

This paper discusses the importance of green cleaning for green buildings during the operations and maintenance stage. The investment on green buildings is often driven by the aim to reduce energy consumption. However, many tend to overlook the importance of the operations and maintenance aspect of the building, particularly the green cleaning aspect. Green cleaning is a major contributor to Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) where IEQ is one of the important criteria that should be considered during the assessment of green building performance. In Malaysia, there is no specific regulation set for green cleaning. Green Building Index (GBI) tools itself does not specifically highlighting green cleaning in their assessment tool. Thus, based on literature review, this paper discusses the benefits of implementing green cleaning and how green cleaning can contribute to achieving better green building performance.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7714 ◽  
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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