The relationship between the energy efficiency of buildings and occupants: A review

Abstract

Green buildings are supposed to provide a sustainable solution for energy usage, but their low performance raised some questions in the literature. The researchers determine that occupants are the key factor for this energy deficiency. In the last two decades, a stream of research focuses on the greening of occupants, but a synthesis of findings and results are absent in the literature. In this study, we reviewed the literature on green buildings and occupants. Based on the findings we classified four classes. The first class consists of green occupants and green buildings, which is the ideal solution for high-energy efficiency. The second class is of brown occupants and green buildings and is the prime reason behind outperformed green buildings and yields negative-medium level efficiency. The third class comprises green occupants and brown buildings and yields positive-medium level efficiency, which helps to start the journey towards sustainability. The fourth class is the combination of brown buildings and brown occupants and has the lowest efficiency and worst impact on the environment throughout the lifecycle. Further, we link these classes with the energy-saving efficiency of buildings and finally recommended an efficient solution for second and third world countries. The study contributes to green building literature and packed with managerial implications to gain the maximum benefits of green buildings.

A Review of How Occupant Behaviour Determines the Energy Efficiency of Green Buildings: A Case of Office Buildings

“…The occupant preferences and human behaviour were major factors in the discrepancy between expected and actual building energy performance. The most ignored factor that "might not be included as part of the energy design" along the continuum of design, building, operation, and maintenance is occupant behaviour (Melo et al 2019;Farooq et al 2021). Parida (2020) argued that due to its current structure, the POE is unable to take into account the occupants' social, psychological, and behavioural factors that may affect how well a building performs overall.…”