Occupiers as the Critical Stakeholders in a Sustainable Building

Abstract

There is an established body of knowledge about technical aspects of sustainable buildings however little research conducted into the post-occupancy relationship between sustainable buildings and occupiers based on the ‘form vs function' argument (Reed & Bole 2009). There has been limited attention placed on the relationship between technological advances and how occupiers interact and behave with these buildings (Wener & Carmalt 2006). Therefore this is a preliminary study into differences (if any) between (a) the expectation of occupiers and (b) their actual experiences. The data was provided by a survey of occupiers/tenants of sustainable buildings in Melbourne, Australia in 2012. The findings demonstrated (a) occupants of sustainable buildings are primarily interested in their own personal comfort levels, (b) occupiers of 5 star sustainable buildings have the highest expectations of how their buildings operate however there also exists the largest gap between their expectations and actual experiences, and (c) the communication channels available to occupiers about the operation of their sustainable office building and how they address problems are very limited. There is an urgent need to ensure future efforts to incorporate sustainability into new and existing office buildings meet the needs of present and future occupiers without compromising short and long-term occupier satisfaction levels.