Occupant satisfaction in sustainable and conventional higher education buildings

The higher education sector as a bastion of sustainability research has embarked in continual efforts to make its buildings more sustainable. Besides being environmentally friendly and economically feasible in the long run, there are perceptions that sustainable buildings are more user friendly and that their occupants are more satisfied than those in conventional buildings. However, research findings in this particular aspect of sustainability are inconclusive and even conflicting. Therefore, this research aims to study the occupant satisfaction of sustainable and conventional buildings in a higher education institution in Australia. The results show that generally there is no significant difference in occupant satisfaction between sustainable and conventional buildings. A goal of sustainable buildings to improve the wellbeing of building occupants apparently has not been achieved based on the findings of this research. There is a possibility that the development of sustainable buildings mainly focuses on the environmental aspect while the social aspect tends to be neglected. The results further show that focusing on thermal comfort is the most effective way to improve occupant satisfaction. Future developments of sustainable buildings should evolve further and find the right balance among the triple bottom line of sustainability so that they truly are sustainable buildings.