With climate change threatening the very existence of our species, it is imperative the scientific community collaborate to help solve environmental problems. Human factors professionals are uniquely qualified for addressing issues of climate change, particularly because the potential consequences represent the most human-centric of all concerns. That is, when designing for sustainability, and thus for the preservation of our species, we are designing with the human in mind.
However, without a user-centered design, many sustainable products and features may either fail to be adopted or may not be used in a way that maximizes performance, thus limiting their utility and potential benefits. One area of sustainable development that could greatly benefit from improvements in usability is the realm of “green” and LEED-certified building. However, in order to provide improvements in this area, there are a variety of issues and considerations that must be first addressed. In this paper, we provide an overview of each of these areas of concern within green building, describe what is currently being done to solve these issues, and provide human-factors-based solutions to increase usability, performance, and satisfaction within the realm of green building.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbduljalilS.KangD. K. (2011, February). Analysis of human factors in software application design for effective user experience. In Advanced Communication Technology (ICACT), 2011 13th International Conference on, 1446-1451. . IEEE.
AssefaG.GlaumannM.MalmqvistT.ErikssonO. (2010) Quality versus impact: Comparing the environmental efficiency of building properties using the EcoEffect tool. Building and Environment, 45, 1095-1103.
4.
AssefaG.GlaumannM.MalmqvistT.KindembeB.HultM.MyhrU.ErikssonO. (2007). Environmental assessment of building properties—Where natural and social sciences meet: The case of EcoEffect. Building and Environment, 42(3), 1458–1464.
5.
AzharS.CarltonW. A.OlsenD.AhmadI. (2011). Building information modeling for sustainable design and LEED rating analysis. Automation in Construction, 20(2), 217-224.
6.
BattistoD.PakR.Vander WoodM. A.PilcherJ. J. (2009). Using a task analysis to describe nursing work in acute care patient environments. Journal of Nursing Administration, 39(12), 537.
7.
BrownZ. B.DowlatabadiH.ColeR. J. (2009). Feedback and adaptive behaviour in green buildings. Intelligent Buildings International, 1(4), 296-315.
8.
DeubleM.P.JohndeDearR. (2012) Green occupants for green buildings: The missing link?Building and Environment, 56, 21-27.
9.
DiamondR. (2011). Evaluating the energy performance of the first generation of LEED-certified commercial buildings. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/498009ks
10.
EichholtzP.KokN.QuigleyJ.M.(2009). Doing Well By Doing Good? Green Office Buildings. UC Berkeley: Center for the Study of Energy Markets. Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4bf4j0gw
FrontczakM.SchiavonS.GoinsJ.ArensE.ZhangH.WargockiP. (2012). Quantitative relationships between occupant satisfaction and satisfaction aspects of indoor environmental quality and building design. Indoor Air, 22(2), 119-131.
13.
HedgeA.RollingsK.RobinsonJ. (2010). “Green” Ergonomics: Advocating for the Human Element in Buildings. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 54(9), 693-697. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
14.
HeerwagenJ. (2000). Green buildings, organizational success and occupant productivity. Building Research & Information, 28(5-6), 353-367.
15.
HeerwagenJ.H.ZagreusL., & Associates (2005). The Human Factors of Sustainable Building Design: Post Occupancy Evaluation of the Philip Merrill Environmental Center, Annapolis, MD. Whole Building Design Guide. Retrieved from http://www.wbdg.org/pdfs/human_factors_cbf.pdf
16.
HuaY.OswaldA.YangX. (2011). Effectiveness of daylighting design and occupant visual satisfaction in a LEED Gold laboratory building. Building and Environment, 46(1), 54-64.
17.
LeeY.S. (2010). Office layout affecting privacy, interaction, and acoustic quality in LEED-certified buildings. Building and Environment, 45(7), 1594-1600.
18.
LeeY. S.GuerinD. A. (2010). Indoor environmental quality differences between office types in LEED-certified buildings in the US. Building and Environment, 45(5), 1104-1112.
19.
LeeY. S.KimS. K. (2008). Indoor environmental quality in LEED-certified buildings in the US. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 7(2), 293-300.
NewshamG.R.ManciniS.BirtB. (2009). Do Leed-certified buildings save energy? Yes, but…Energy and Buildings, 41(8), 897-905.
23.
O’KeeffeS. E. (2012). Developing 6D BIM Energy Informatics for GDL LEED IFC Model Elements. Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, 2328-2333.
24.
PazM.SellersB. C.FioreS. M.RichardsL. (2012). Integrating Principles of Environmental Sustainability into Human Factors Education: A Recommendation. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 56, 1832-1836. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
25.
PhillipsE.SellersB.FioreS. M. (2010). Human Centric Environmentalism: Opportunities for the Human Factors Community to Contribute to Global Environmental Solutions. Proceedings of the 54th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 793-797. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
26.
TuomeyJ., CoStar Group (2009). Personal Perspectives on LEED Management and Investment. The Journal of Sustainable Research, 1(1), 245-254.
27.
VanGeemM. G.MarceauM. L. (2002). Using Concrete to Maximize LEED™ Points. Concrete International, 24(11), 69-73.
28.
VischerJ.C. (2008) Towards an Environmental Psychology of Workspace: How People are Affected by Environments for Work. Architectural Science Review, 51(2), 97-108.
29.
Von PaumgarttenP. (2003). The business case for high performance green buildings: Sustainability and its financial impact. Journal of Facilities Management, 2(1), 26-34.
30.
WallhagenM.GlaumannM.ErikssonO.WesterbergU. (2013). Framework for Detailed Comparison of Building Environmental Assessment Tools. Buildings, 3, 39-60.
31.
WuW.IssaR. R. A. (2012). Leveraging Cloud-BIM for LEED Automation. Journal for Information Technology in Construction, 17, 367-384.
32.
YoungerM.Morrow-AlmeidaH.R.VindigniS.M.DannenbergA.L. (2008). The built environment, climate change, and health opportunities for co-benefits. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 35(5), 517-526.
