The nature and quality of the built learning environment affect occupants' comfort, wellbeing and performance. Within the broad range of studies of the physical indoor environment reported in the literature, there are several which have focused on the effects of these environmental conditions on the comfort and physical health of students and teachers, while the main consideration in others is the organizational health of the school. The parameters, which are measured often concern the state and condition of the physical environment. Categories of building features, which appear to influence comfort, health and wellbeing, include thermal sensation, acoustics, lighting, air quality, classroom equipment, learning resources and other aspects of the teachers' workspace. Those components of the physical of indoor environment, which are considered to most strongly affect occupants' comfort, wellbeing and performance, are subject to sets of standards. The aim of this study is to elucidate the association between the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of educational buildings and teachers' performance. Following a comprehensive review of the literature on the effects of IEQ on teachers' comfort, wellbeing and performance, a case study was conducted in which physical measurements were made of a range of indoor environmental variables in the classrooms of a technical college in Saudi Arabia, during lessons. At the same time, the teachers of those classes were asked to complete a questionnaire designed to investigate the quality of the indoor environment and explore teacher performance. An artificial neural network was then used to create an assessment model in order to test the hypothesis that the quality of the indoor physical environment in educational buildings is related to teacher performance and to predict future data. This research makes both academic and practical contributions to the study of the relationship between IEQ and teachers' performance. The findings of this research will be used as a primary knowledge resource for future researches and to identify initial IEQ parameters and tools for further in-depth studies. In practical terms, it offers standards to help designers to consider the importance of IEQ and its impact on building users.

Most LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings are commercial office buildings and multi-use buildings. As of October 2009, 35,000 projects were registered in the LEED system, "comprising over 4.5 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 91 countries." However, as of April 30, 2009, only 43 healthcare projects had achieved LEED certification. Currently, most studies focus on the economic benefits and energy consumption of LEED certified buildings, rather than human factors. A small gain in productivity can result in a heftier financial gain. Even modest improvements in productivity and absenteeism can substantially outweigh the energy cost. This study surveyed 164 staff in the two healthcare settings for case study, and 146 staff in the six LEED certified healthcare settings for the main study in climate zone 2 and 3. Telephone interviews with the six facility managers were used to verify the survey results and further examine the healthcare facilities? performance and the effectiveness of the LEED strategies from facility managers' perspectives. Independent t-test was used to examine the difference between the LEED and Non-LEED hospitals in one healthcare system and results showed that building performance were rated higher by staff in LEED certified hospital than Non-LEED hospital. MANOVA was conducted to compare the staff's ratings between Silver and Gold certification levels, male and female, and also explore the possibility of interaction effect. Multilevel regression modeling was used to test how the building performance variables affect the overall comfort and productivity. Study results showed that staff in the Gold certified hospital had significant higher ratings in most the performance variables. Gold certified healthcare settings were significant better in rated building overall, overall comfort and controllability than Silver certified healthcare settings. And males felt more comfortable in temperature than females in healthcare facilities. Regarding the overall comfort and productivity, building design, efficiency of the space use, temperature comfort and controllability over building system were significant predictors for staff overall comfort; and lighting comfort, temperature comfort and controllability over building system had significant positive relationship with perceived productivity. LEED certified healthcare settings appear to have a good environment and building performance for occupants. Controllability, lighting, temperature, use of space, building design were important factors in staff comfort and productivity.

<p dir="ltr">As the urbanization trend prevails worldwide, more people are moving to major metropolitan areas, causing housing resources to be in urgent demand. Tiny homes, designed to offer a minimalist lifestyle while also addressing growing housing needs, have become increasingly popular among home seekers. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, individuals primarily spend their time indoors, and with more people adopting work-from-home lifestyles, ensuring a high-quality, sterile, and comfortable indoor environment becomes crucial for indoor occupants. Many studies have highlighted that the activities of occupants significantly influence indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and energy consumption in buildings and applying disinfectants will generate increasing amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which occupants could inhale, causing adverse health effects. Within this thesis, two studies are introduced and discussed. The first study, namely “zEDGE Living Experiments,” conducts a comprehensive evaluation of IEQ satisfaction and energy usage in the Purdue zEDGE Tiny House through real-time measurement and survey analysis. Twenty full-scale experiments were conducted during the winter season. The study first evaluates participants’ perception of IEQ factors, with thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ) emerging as top priorities. It then examined energy adaptive behavior to understand maintenance of comfortable indoor conditions, noting primary adaptive strategies including heating, ventilation, and artificial lighting. The study then measured IEQ and energy consumption, evaluating occupants’ IEQ satisfaction levels. The average energy use was recorded at 10.3 kWh, with occupants generally satisfied with IEQ in the zEDGE Tiny House. Analysis indicated that heating and cooking were significant energy consumers, potentially exposing occupants to high indoor air pollutant levels in such compact living spaces. The second campaign, namely “Performance Evaluation of PID and PTR-TOF-MS,” compares the VOC detection abilities of photoionization detectors (PID) and a state-of-the-art proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS). 54 controlled emission experiments were carried out among 18 different disinfectant products with main ingredients based on alcohol, lactic acid, peracetic acid/acetic acid, and botanical products. The results from time-series and correlation analyses indicate that the PID and PTR-TOF-MS were able to detect VOC signals from emission experiments. While the performances of the PID and PTR-TOF-MS were similar under experiments with alcohol-based products, the PID performed less well with products based on lactic acid and botanical products, and unsatisfactory for peracetic acid/acetic acid-based products.</p>

The overall aim of this research project is to study green/energy-efficient real estate from an economic perspective. The thesis summarizes the results from five different studies with a connection to green/energy-efficient real estate.The aim of the first paper (paper A) is to study how tenants perceive the indoor environment in green-rated premises, and to compare these results with tenants’ perception of a conventional building’s indoor environment. The main result is that the tenants in the green-rated building are more satisfied with the indoor environment than the tenants in the conventional building.Papers B and C assess whether energy efficiency has an impact on buildings’ income and market values using Swedish real-estate data. The key result is that although there is a small impact on building-related income, this does not seem to translate into a higher market value.The last two papers included in this thesis study hindrances to a more energy-efficient building sector. In paper D, two office buildings are used as baseline cases to provide insights into the difficulties that can arise when trying to upgrade a building to make it more energy efficient. The results indicate that changing existing leases is a prohibitive process and that it is often difficult to evaluate the final impact of an energy upgrade. The last paper focuses on why it may be rational to postpone green refurbishments even if they are profitable. The main result is that it may be rational to postpone such refurbishments. However, by introducing different financial penalties and/or subsidies, these investments could be triggered today.To sum up, the results indicate that green buildings are preferred by tenants, but that there still appear to be economic barriers to a greener building sector. / Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att studera grön/energieffektiva byggnader ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv. Avhandlingen består av en kappa och fem separata studier, vilka belyser tre olika forskningsfrågor. Syftet med den första studien är att studera hur hyresgäster upplever inomhusmiljön i gröna byggnader. I studien jämförs inomhusmiljön i en grön byggnad med inomhusmiljön i en likvärdig konventionell byggnad. Resultatet visar, på det stora hela, att hyresgästerna är mer nöjda med inomhusmiljön i den gröna byggnaden. De nästföljande studierna, B respektive C, undersöker om byggnadens energiprestanda har någon inverkan på dess hyra respektive marknadsvärde. Resultaten visar på en liten signifikant hyrespåverkan, dock verkar denna inte ha någon effekt på byggnadernas marknadsvärdebedömningar. Skälet till detta kan vara att hyrespremien anses för liten för att ha någon signifikant inverkan på byggnadens marknadsvärde, alternativt att fastighetsvärderare inte beaktar energiprestanda när en fastighet värderas. De två sista studierna studerar varför vissa, tillsynes lönsamma, energiinvesteringar inte genomförs. Resultaten från studie D visar på svårigheterna med att ingå ett samarbetsavtal (för att eliminera felaktiga incitament) mellan hyresgäst och hyresvärd. Sådana avtal tar lång tid att förhandla fram och det uppkommer ofta svårigheter med att utvärdera de tänkta energiinvesteringarnas ekonomiska utfall. Studie E utgår ifrån en realoptionsmodell, vilken används för att utvärdera när ”gröna” renoveringar bör genomföras i en befintlig byggnad. Studien visar att det kan vara rationellt att vänta trots att investeringen idag är lönsam. Vidare visar resultaten att det är möjligt att via byggsubventioner/finansiella ”straff” påverka aktörer att tidigarelägga energieffektiviseringsåtgärder.  Dock är det viktigt att dessa utformas korrekt så att det inte skapar några snedvridna incitament. Övergripande visar resultaten att gröna byggnader är att föredra ur ett brukarperspektiv men att det fortfarande finns ekonomiska hinder för en mer hållbar byggsektor. Nyckelord: gröna byggnader, energieffektiva byggnader, EPC, inomhusmiljö, Realoptioner, fastighetsekonomi. / <p>QC 20160407</p>

nÃo hà / Esta dissertaÃÃo tem por objetivo mensurar o impacto do Ãndice Municipal de Qualidade da EducaÃÃo â IQE e do Ãndice de Desenvolvimento Humano Municipal â IDHM dos municÃpios cearenses sobre a proficiÃncia dos alunos do 5 e 9 anos do ensino fundamental das escolas pÃblicas municipais cearenses na Prova Brasil para o ano de 2011. A fonte de dados utilizada para as variÃveis que representam a Prova Brasil foi extraÃda do Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais AnÃsio Teixeira (INEP) para o ano de 2011. Jà para o IDHM foi extraÃdo do Programa das NaÃÃes Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (PNUD), para os anos de 2010 e pelo Instituto de Pesquisa EstratÃgica EconÃmica do Estado do Cearà (IPECE) para o IQE, para os anos de 2011. Com a utilizaÃÃo do mÃtodo dos MÃnimos Quadrados OrdinÃrios foram feitas estimaÃÃes que indicaram que a proficiÃncia nas disciplinas de PortuguÃs e MatemÃtica apenas para o 5 ando ensino fundamental das escolas pÃblicas municipais cearenses à melhor quanto mais alto for o IDHM e o IQE. E mais importante, a existÃncia de assimetrias no impacto do IQE sobre a proficiÃncia dos alunos em MatemÃtica e PortuguÃs para os dois anos escolares analisados. Sendo os alunos do 5 ano os mais beneficiados. / This paper aims to measure the impact of Municipal Index of Educational Quality - IEQ and the Municipal Human Development Index - MHDI of Cearà municipalities on the proficiency of students in 5 and 9 years of basic education of public schools of Cearà in Prova Brasil Exam, for the year 2011. The data source used for variables representing Brazil Support was extracted from the National Institute of Educational Studies Teixeira (INEP) for the year 2011. As for the MHDI was extracted from the United Nations Program United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for the years 2010 and 2011 and the IEQ from the Institute for Economic Strategy Research of the State of Cearà (IPECE) for the IEQ, for the years 2010 and 2011. Using the method of Ordinary Least Squares stimations were made which indicated that proficiency in the subjects of Portuguese and Math for only the 5th year of basic education of public schools Cearà is better the higher the IDHM. And more importantly, the existence of asymmetries in the impact of IQE about student proficiency in math and Portuguese for two school years analyzed. Being students of the 5th year the most benefit.

An overarching aim of this research was to investigate the comprehensive value of green residential buildings as seen from two perspectives: that of the developer and that of the occupant (the customer). The dissertation consists of studies presented in seven papers.  The studies conducted to investigate the developer’s perspective focused on construction cost and potential profit (papers I and VII). The customer’s perspective was examined with three approaches: the impact that energy and environment have on the decision to purchase (or rent) an apartment (paper V), willingness to pay for a green apartment (paper VI) and finally, the occupants’ satisfaction with the dwelling and indoor environment (papers II, III and IV).  The first paper examines whether increased investment costs are profitable, taking into account the reduction in operating costs. The investment viability is approached by comparing investment in conventional and green residential building, particularly passive houses, using real construction and post-occupancy conditions. The increased investment costs in energy-efficient building were also the focus of paper VII. In this paper, the aim was to study how technologies used in energy-efficient residential building construction affect the available saleable floor area and how this impacts on the profitability of the investment. Potential losses and gains of saleable floor area in energy-efficient buildings were assessed using a modelled building and analysed with the help of the average construction cost. Papers II and IV present results from a study of occupants’ satisfaction and indoor environmental qualities. Both papers aim at comparing and analysing responses from occupants living in green and conventional buildings. Paper III focuses on a similar subject, but investigates occupants’ satisfaction among all adults living in multi-family buildings in Sweden, providing a national context for the results presented in papers II and IV. The results indicate that occupants are generally satisfied with their dwellings, but indoor environment proved to have a statistically significant effect on overall satisfaction. The results in paper V indicate that energy and environmental factors have a minor impact on customers’ decision to purchase or rent an apartment. However, availability of information on building energy and environmental performance may have an effect on the likelihood of the buyers’ being interested in environmental qualities and consequently an impact on their decision. The study presented in paper VI shows that customer interest in energy and environmental factors has a significant impact on stated willingness to pay for green dwellings. The paper discusses the stated willingness to pay for low-energy buildings and buildings with an environmental certificate and attempts to assess the rationale of the stated willingness to pay for low-energy dwellings given potential energy savings. / Fokus i detta forskningsprojekt har legat på att undersöka värdet av gröna bostäder ur ett brett perspektiv, dvs både genom att studera byggherrens och de boendes (kundens) synpunkter. I avhandlingen ingår sju uppsatser. Undersökningen av byggherrens synpunkter fokuserades på kostnader och potentiella inkomster (uppsats I och VII). Kundernas åsikter undersöktes på tre olika sätt: vilken effekt energi och miljö faktorer hade på beslut att köpa eller hyra en lägenhet (uppsats V), betalningsvilja för gröna bostäder (uppsats VI) och slutligen de boendes trivsel samt nöjdhet med inomhusmiljön (uppsats II,III och IV). Den första uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka om ökningen av investeringskostnader vid byggande av gröna byggnader kan täckas av framtida energibesparingar och minskning av driftkostnad. Investeringens lönsamhet undersöktes genom att jämföra skillnader i byggkostnader mellan konventionella och gröna bostäder med skillnader i driftskostnader givet olika antaganden om energipriser och räntekrav. Huvudfokus i uppsats VII var också byggkostnader, men denna gång undersöktes hur nya tekniska lösningar påverkar boarea och lönsamhet av energieffektiva bostäder.  Genom att konstruera en modell av ett typhus analyserades potentiella ökningar i boarea med nya lösningar och hur detta påverkade lönsamheten i olika geografiska lägen (prisnivåer). Uppsatserna II och IV presenterar resultat från boendeundersökningar. Båda uppsatserna syftar till att undersöka boendes trivsel och nöjdhet med inomhusmiljö samt att testa skillnaden i svar från boende i gröna och konventionella bostäder.  Uppsats III fokuserar också på inomhusmiljön, men analysen gjordes på svaren som samlades in under Boverkets projekt BETSI och resultaten är därmed representativa för alla vuxna som bor i flerfamiljshus i Sverige. Uppsats III ger därmed en national kontext för uppsatserna II och IV. Resultaten visar att boende trivs i sina bostäder, men inomhusmiljön har en statistiks signifikanta effekt på allmän nöjdhet faktor.. Resultaten i uppsats V tyder på att energi- och miljöaspekter spelar mindre roll i beslutet att köpa eller hyra en lägenhet. Den synliga informationens tillgänglighet angående byggnadens energi- och miljöprestanda, påverkar kundens intresse för dessa faktorer och därmed indirekt hushållets beslut. Resultaten i uppsats VI pekar på att kunderna, som är intresserade av byggnaders energi och miljö prestanda, är villiga att betala mer för gröna bostäder. I uppsats 6 diskuteras betalningsvilja för låg-energi byggnader och för byggnader med miljöcertifikat samt utvärderas om den angivna betalningsviljan är rationell beslut när man tar hänsyn till nuvärdet av framtida energibesparingar. / <p>QC 20131014</p>

Cette recherche étudie la perception de la qualité de vie (QV) et de la qualité de l'environnement intérieur (QEI) du point de vue des occupants d’espaces de travail certifiés « durables » selon le système d'énergie et de conception environnementale (LEED) et des occupants des immeubles de bureaux conventionnels. Dans cette étude, la QV est définie en termes de santé perçue, confort, et productivité. La qualité des environnements intérieurs est importante, car les gens passent la majorité de leur vie à l'intérieur des immeubles et, dans notre société contemporaine, plus de ce temps est passé dans des espaces de travail, tels que les espaces de bureaux. Les préoccupations grandissantes pour la durabilité des espaces de vie et la prise de conscience des effets négatifs que des bâtiments peuvent avoir sur les occupants font émerger les constructions dites ‘vertes’ comme étant des alternatives plus durables. LEED est le système d’accréditation le plus populaire de nos jours en Amérique du Nord qui évalue les bâtiments verts en terme de leur performance environnementale. Toutefois, la revue de littérature indique que des occupants des édifices de bureaux certifiés LEED ne sont pas toujours satisfaits avec la QEI. Les bâtiments certifiés LEED sont en effet uniquement évalués selon des critères techniques de performance. Pourtant, il y peut avoir des écarts entre les performances mesurées et celles perçues par les occupants. Cela soulève la question suivante: à quel point les bâtiments construits selon les critères LEED prennent-ils en compte la qualité de vie (QoL) et les facteurs humains dans l’évaluation des espaces de travail ? Cette recherche a donc pour but de proposer un nouveau cadre qui prend en considération non seulement des facteurs durables, mais aussi humains pour évaluer les environnements de travail. Cette recherche utilise une approche mixte – quantitative et qualitative – en trois phases afin d’étudier de manière approfondie la perception de la qualité de vie des occupants de deux bâtiments certifiés LEED et d’un immeuble de bureaux conventionnel. La phase I est dédiée à l’observation des environnements de travail et la documentation des traces d’interaction entre l’utilisateur et l’espace. La phase II est dédiée aux entrevues permettant aux participants de décrire leur expérience de la QV et les facteurs de la QEI qui façonnent leur expérience. Ils nous aident aussi à identifier les éléments constitutifs d'un environnement humain de travail. Parallèlement, des questionnaires aident à comprendre la relation entre la qualité de vie perçue par les occupants et les facteurs de QEI dérivés de la littérature. À l’aide de groupes de discussion, menés lors de la phase III, nous cherchons à valider les résultats préliminaires. Les données sont ensuite analysées séparément en utilisant la ‘triangulation’ afin d’interpréter et corroborer les résultats. Cette étude compare les expériences des espaces de travail « verts » et « conventionnels » et révèle 32 facteurs (30 facteurs QEI et deux autres) qui peuvent affecter de manière significative l'expérience des édifices de bureaux. De plus, des éléments constitutifs d'un environnement de travail humain du point de vue des occupants ont été identifiés. Ceux-ci nous permettent donc de mettre au point un nouveau cadre global, intégrant des critères humains pour évaluer la QEI dans des environnements de travail durables. Ce cadre met en relation la QEI des environnements de travail et la QV des occupants en tant que système environnement-comportement. / This research studies perceived Quality of Life (QoL) and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) of occupants’ in the work environments of sustainable office buildings certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system (green buildings) and in conventional office buildings. QoL is defined in this research in terms of perceived health, comfort, and productivity. The quality of indoor environments is important because people spend most of their time inside buildings, and in contemporary society, much of the time spent in work environments is in office buildings. In this era of growing concerns about sustainability and the increased awareness of buildings’ negative impacts on occupants, green buildings have been promoted as sustainable solutions to these issues. LEED is the most popular rating system for measuring the performance of green buildings in North America. However, the literature review indicates that there are user complaints about the IEQ of LEED-certified office buildings. LEED-certified buildings are assessed based on technical measures of building performance. This assessment way may create a gap between measured and perceived performance from the user perspective. This raises the question of whether buildings certified with the LEED criteria are humane from the QoL experience of occupants in office buildings. Hence, this research is therefore to propose a new framework that takes into account not only sustainable but also humane factors for evaluating work environments. The study uses a mixed-methods approach – using both quantitative and qualitative methods and proceeds in three phases to comprehensively study occupants’ perceived QoL experience in two LEED and one conventional office building. Phase I uses observations to document the physical work environment and users’ behavioral interactions with the environment. Phase II uses interviews to describe the occupants’ QoL experience, explore the possible IEQ factors shaping their QoL, and to define the constructs of a humane work environment. Questionnaires were distributed concurrently to measure the relationship between occupants’ perceived QoL and IEQ factors that are derived from the literature. Phase III uses focus groups to converge and focus the results of the study. The results are analyzed separately and triangulated using an integrative mixed-methods analysis to interpret, corroborate, conclude, and increase the validation of the findings. The study compared occupants’ perceived QoL in «green» and «conventional» office buildings and revealed 32 quality factors (30 IEQ factors and two others) that influence the QoL experience in office work environments. Also the constructs of what composes a humane work environment based on occupants’ viewpoints have been identified. A new comprehensive, sustainable, and humane framework for assessing IEQ in work environments is developed. This framework guides the relationship between IEQ in work environments and occupants’ QoL as an environment-behavior system.