Indoor environmental quality improvement in green building: Occupant perception and behavioral impact

Abstract

Previous studies have explored the validity of various design and functioning interventions to improve indoor environmental quality (IEQ); however, there is a lack of empirical studies on what motivates humans to seek better IEQ. To address the challenge, this study aimed to investigate how occupants' perceptions on IEQ can influence their behavioral changes to improve IEQ. A living-lab-based empirical study was conducted in the workspace of a green building built in 2014 in Hong Kong, designed for excellent IEQ. In order to evaluate the occupants' satisfaction with IEQ and their participation in its improvement, two surveys were conducted before and after the workspace's data-driven IEQ information was released to the occupants. According to the main findings, the objective IEQ information can allows the occupants, who had previously shown indifference or a lack of sensitivity to IEQ, to clearly understand their working environment and to create a more comfortable working environment. This study creates new ground in the field of facility management and engineering, focusing on indoor environmental quality improvement, in which occupant perception and behavioral impact can be investigated by deploying an integrated approach using data-driven IEQ reports and questionnaire surveys as well as statistical analysis. This approach will aid in providing guidelines on how to improve the occupants' perceptions on IEQ in the workspace, how to motivate the occupants' participations for IEQ improvement, and how to evaluate the causal effect of increased occupants' interventions on the enhanced indoor working environment. With occupant-tailored facility management systems, occupants will be able to keep track of the objective IEQ status in real time, to maintain a personalized comfortable environment, and to identify any factors that would eventually harm the occupants' health and comfort.