This report looks at office buildings and compares occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental quality in green office buildings compared to non-green office buildings.
Summary
This report looks at office buildings and compares occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental quality in green office buildings compared to non-green office buildings.
Two hundred and fifteen buildings and over 30,000 respondents from America, Canada and Finland were studied to compare occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental air quality (mainly thermal comfort, air quality, lighting and acoustics) in green office buildings compared to non-green office buildings. Approximately 80% of the buildings surveyed were owned of leased by a government entity.
The major results showed that occupants in green buildings, on average, were more satisfied with thermal comfort and air quality in their workspace than in non-green buildings. Despite this, lighting and acoustic quality were seen as comparable to non-green buildings. Lighting and acoustic quality also attracted the most complaints in green buildings, especially relating to open plan workspaces where there is a need for greater speech privacy to concentrate or perform confidential tasks.
Common light complaints included; not enough daylight, reflections in the computer screen and too dark/bright. Common acoustic complaints include; people talking in neighbouring areas, people overhearing private conversations, people talking on the phone and telephones ringing. The results suggest that there is a need for greater occupant control of lighting and that there needs to be greater sound privacy for occupants in green buildings.
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