Sustainability

Research conducted by Sreedhari Desai and Francesca Gino confirms the importance of the nonverbal cues we find in our physical environment.  They found that “Adults are less likely to cheat and more likely to engage in ‘pro-social’ behaviors when reminders of children, such as teddy bears and crayons, are present.”  When asked to discuss the research, Desai responded that “Child-related cues might unconsciously activate notions of goodness and drive us to get to a pure state and not want to pollute it

The General Services Administration (GSA) has released online a 3-D interactive program to streamline the planning of sustainable office buildings.  It is available at http://sftool.org.  The tool helps designers “explore . . . .

Brager and Baker investigated occupant satisfaction in mixed-mode buildings.  They define “mixed-mode” as an “approach to space conditioning that uses a combination of natural ventilation and some form of mechanical ventilation and/or cooling.”   At the study sites, the natural ventilation was provided through operable windows. 

Brown and Cole completed post-occupancy analyses of two Canadian buildings (one green, one conventionally designed) to learn more about occupant comfort in buildings and comfort related behaviors. Green building design generally requires people in the structures to take an active role in maintaining their own physical comfort.  They may need to open and close window blinds, for example.  Often, people in conventionally designed structures do not play as active a role in making their environments physically comfortable.

Providing workers with control of aspects of their physical environments has clear psychological benefits. A full report is now available detailing a National Research Council of Canada study reported here previously in brief, which found that “Personal environmental control improved environmental satisfaction.

Researchers from Michigan State University have more good news about green buildings. Using a post-occupancy research format, Singh and his colleagues found “improvements in the average well-being, satisfaction, and productivity for the resident population, after moving to LEED [green] offices.” The well-being measures used were not outlined in the report prepared.

How does knowing you’re in a green building influence how comfortable you think you are? Brown and Cole determined that people want “to learn more about how buildings work and comfort is provided, with a higher interest level in the green building over the conventionally designed. . . While knowledge of the building [knowing it was a green building] was positively related to use of personal control in the green building, neither knowledge nor personal control use resulted in higher overall perceived comfort.”