The relationships among indoor environmental quality, occupant satisfaction, work performance and sustaimability ethtic in sustainable buildings

Abstract

The purpose of this study was 1) to develop an explanatory model showing simultaneous relationships among occupants' satisfaction with indoor environmental quality (IEQ) criteria at the workstation level, their satisfaction with the overall facility (i.e., site, building, and interior), their overall work performance, and their sustainability ethic in sustainable buildings; 2) to test the developed model and suggest a good-fit model; and 3) to estimate the hypothesized relationships among variables. Secondary data analysis was used to examine the purpose of this study. The data were obtained from the B3 Sustainable Post-Occupancy Evaluation Survey database hosted by the Center for Sustainable Building Research at the University of Minnesota. Data were collected from three sustainable buildings, all located in Minnesota and a total of 289 respondents were used for data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis provided support for a good-fit five-factor model, including furnishings, thermal conditions, view conditions, lighting conditions, and acoustics and privacy conditions, related to occupants' satisfaction with sustainable IEQ criteria. Path analysis was used to examine simultaneous relationships among independent and dependent variables. Satisfaction with thermal conditions did not significantly influence both satisfaction with overall facility and overall work performance. The only significant relationships were between satisfaction with furnishings and acoustics and privacy conditions and overall work performance. There were significant relationships among satisfaction with overall facility, overall work performance, and sustainability ethic. The importance of this study is that the findings extended the scope of the research through the development of a hypothesized model, extraction of IEQ factors, and as a test for a good-fit model showing the simultaneous relationships among variables. Most importantly, this study found that there is a connection between occupants' sustainability ethic and their satisfaction and work performance. Therefore, in the future research, a revised model showing a continuous process among all variables can be suggested and tested with much larger sample size. In addition, five IEQ factors, derived from various IEQ attributes addressed in B3-SPOES questionnaire, can be used for newly development of occupant survey questionnaire that has reliability and validity.