Willingness to pay for green buildings: A survey on students’ perception in higher education

Abstract

For most students in higher education, a green residence hall could form their first impressions regarding green buildings. As these students may be expected to make decisions regarding their place of residence upon graduation, if not sooner, the importance of their first experiences with a green building cannot be underestimated. Indoor environmental quality of residence halls may affect students’ productivity, which would have far-reaching implications for the student, university, and society. The goal of the study was to assess the students’ self-perceived comfort and indoor environmental quality of green residence halls in a higher education institution, together with their willingness to pay to reside in a green building upon graduation. The conducted survey resulted in 1040 complete responses, and so the sample size used in the analysis is one of the largest among studies done on green buildings. Results indicate that, students residing in a green building report higher satisfaction on thermal, lighting, and overall comfort levels, and report higher positive impact of their living environment on the quality of their studying. However, such students were also found to report decreased tendencies to consider green buildings in the future. Analysis towards willingness to pay of students to reside in a green building upon graduation revealed comparable results among the study and the control population, with 35–40% indicating no willingness to pay extra. Students with high self-reported knowledge on environmental issues were found to indicate significantly higher willingness to pay to reside in green buildings.