Lessons learned from 20 years of CBE’s occupant surveys

Abstract

Buildings influence diverse factors (e.g. health, wellbeing, productivity, and social connection). Occupants' direct experiences with their indoor environments allow them to determine whether those spaces support or hinder the activities performed. However, most post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) focus solely on measuring people's levels of comfort and environmental satisfaction. With increasing attention and interest in occupant health and wellness, there is a need to reassess whether occupant surveys are evaluating all they need to. An analysis is presented of data collected from a widely used online POE tool: The Center for the Built Environment's (CBE) Occupant Survey (more than 90,000 respondents from approximately 900 buildings) in order to summarise its database and evaluate the survey's structure and benchmarking metrics. A total of 68% of the respondents are satisfied with their workspace. Satisfaction is highest with spaces' ease of interaction (75% satisfied), amount of light (74%), and cleanliness (71%). Dissatisfaction is highest with sound privacy (54% dissatisfied), temperature (39%), and noise level (34%). Correlation, principal component, and hierarchical clustering analyses identified seven distinct categories of measurement within the 16 satisfaction items. Results also revealed that a reduction in the scale may be possible. Based on these results, potential improvements and new directions are discussed for the future of POE tools. PRACTICE RELEVANCE Assessing the measurement properties in a widely used occupant satisfaction survey reveals what is still useful to include and what may be missing from occupant surveys. These insights are increasingly important as built-environment research evolves and an increasing emphasis is placed on the physical and mental wellbeing of occupants and their productivity. Typical occupant satisfaction rates are reported for indoor environmental quality parameters and benchmark values. These can be used as references by practitioners and other survey tools. Based on this analysis, recommendations are made for different clustering and themes of measurement categories, along with the scope of additional questions that can be posed to occupants.

Modeling Social Impacts of High-Rise Residential Buildings during the Post-Occupancy Phase Using DEMATEL Method: A Case Study

“…In other words, buildings can potentially affect occupants' health, wellbeing, productivity, and social connection, and thereby surveying occupants' opinions about whether or not the indoor environment supports the activities performed is imperative. However, most postoccupancy evaluations have concentrated mainly on measuring residents' levels of comfort and environmental satisfaction, and adequate attention has not been paid to their social wellbeing [17]. It is worth mentioning that social interactions, both in terms of quality and quantity, can have a short-and long-term influence on occupants' mental wellbeing and physical health [18].…”

The HDR CARE Scale, Inpatient Version: A validated survey instrument to measure environmental affordance for nursing tasks in inpatient healthcare settings

“…A mixed-methods, multi-phased approach was used for the evaluation, revision, and validation of the survey instrument. Early survey item development was based on a review of existing post occupancy surveys in healthcare settings, and leaned particularly on the Center for the Built Environment Occupant Toolkit [ 48 , 49 ]. Survey items underwent further iteration in response to research questions explored, and gaps identified, in the literature examining clinical caregivers’ relationship to the healthcare built environment [ 50 , 51 ].…”

Field evaluation of thermal and acoustical comfort in eight North-American buildings using embedded radiant systems

“…This study relied on occupant satisfaction data collected by the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at the University of California, Berkeley [ 17 , 18 ]. The IEQ occupant satisfaction survey covers nine core categories including thermal comfort and acoustics [ 19 ].…”