A co-creative method for mapping and improving energy use and management in non-residential buildings

Abstract

The built environment has a significant role to play to support a transition towards sustainability. A critical point is the energy use and management of non-residential buildings, where the operational phase has been identified as the largest contributor to energy use over a building’s lifecycle. To achieve performance in line with ambitions, there is a strong need to address interactions between architecture, technology and the people who use and maintain non-residential buildings, and to foster collaboration between different stakeholders. This article introduces a co-creative method that offers the opportunity to gather insights on how energy management and use happen on a day-to-day basis in the building, as experienced by the different stakeholder groups. The main goals of the presented method are to gather insights into the perspectives of different stakeholder groups on a systemic level and to offer innovative ways to search for opportunities to improve the energy performance of the building. Stakeholders include users or tenants, building operators, facility managers, and building owners. The article presents the method, examples from user-testing in Norwegian school and office buildings and reflects on how co-creation principles can add value to improving energy use and management in non-residential buildings.