Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
(N/A)
ST PAUL,MN 55108
Performing Department
Design, Housing & Apparel
Non Technical Summary
Developing and validating an occupant IEQ well-being measurement scale will provide interior designers, architects, facility managers, and others in the built environment professions a tool to measure human well-being. Occupant well-being is a significant predictor of economic success in commercial building types (Bonda & Sosnowchik, 2008). A scale can be defined as a collection of questions (with variables implied) designed to elicit information about a particular well-being factor, i.e., satisfaction, performance. The purpose of a scale is to quantify a phenomenon of interest and ultimately to generate knowledge about it. Researchers develop scales when they want to measure relationships among attributes that they believe exist because of theoretical relationships, but that cannot observed and assessed directly (DeVellis, 2003), i.e., one cannot observe occupant well-being. The scale can be used as a decision rule for practitioners,as a measure of one component of human well-being,to support design strategies that predict occupant satisfaction, performance, etc.,as a benchmark for success, and to prepare future practitioners how to measure well-being and its economic relationship between interior environments and employers. Commercial marketability of the SPOSE questionnaire, protocol, and analysis is important because the data gathered from POEs will inform design teams and business owners, as well as the state of Minnesota, of the return on investment of the designed environment. Employee performance is the second most costly part of doing business regardless the focus of the company (Chilton & Baldry, 1997). What adds unnecessary cost for businesses are employee issues such as turnover, retention, and illness, some of which are influenced by IEQ attributes within the physical environment such as temperature, glare, and workstation or furnishings fit (Fischer, Tarquinio, & Vischer, 2004). The work environment can lead to higher levels of employees satisfaction, and employees are more likely to stay with a firm longer, which decreases the turnover rate and means that employers do not have to invest in costs of recruitment and training (Bonda & Sosnowchik, 2008). This is the relationship that design firms and business owners are trying to document so they can judge the economic value a supportive interior environment has on their employees and therefore, their business. The third goal, to develop protocol to add, validate, and test custom questions for specializations in interior environment. Lighting is one of the most highly visible, controllable, and functional IEQ attributes of interior environments and, therefore, has been found to be highly predictive of occupant satisfaction and performance (Newsham et al, 2007). By working with a variable with a wide range of attributes, we can develop the protocol for adding such complex items to the POE questionnaire to accommodate custom questions or design goals from design teams, which will increase the SPOES questionnaires marketability.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
40%
Developmental
30%
Goals / Objectives
Goals The SPOES questionnaire has identified several IEQ categories that contribute to overall occupant well-being, including thermal, acoustic, lighting, indoor air quality, privacy, and personal control conditions. However, determining the contribution each of these conditions makes to an employees well-being has not been successfully tested. Statistical analysis of these results from previous research will lead us to the development of a score or scale to efficiently measure a single variable via various contributions. This will become the occupant well-being assessment tool for designers and the basis of best practice. Therefore, the first goal of this project is: 1. to develop, test, and validate an occupant IEQ well-being measurement scale to be used as a design tool in commercial sustainable buildings. An ongoing part of our initial occupancy SPOSE project (see Guerin et al, 2011a; 2011b) was the development of a valid and reliable questionnaire that is directly related to sustainable design guidelines. We have completed the development and testing of this instrument and are ready to determine its viability in the marketplace. This instrument has potential for architects, interior designers, business owners, facility managers, contractors, and others in the built environment industry to measure the results of their design decisions and determine the return on investment for the business or client. Therefore, the second goal of this project is: 2. to investigate marketability of the SPOES questionnaire, protocol, and analysis strategies. During the work the SPOES team completed on the development of the questionnaire, we identified the need of architects and designers to add questions to the questionnaire that would represent their design goals and provide them with in-depth analysis of custom variables. This could be an important addition to the POE questionnaire that will contribute to its marketability. We will begin to develop custom question/specialization protocol using the category of lighting conditions, which includes attributes of both electric lighting and daylighting. Lighting conditions is an excellent topic to start with because it contributes to both energy efficiency, i.e., building performance, and is a major factor in occupant performance, which affects occupants satisfaction, performance, and health (Newsham, Aries, Mancini, & Faye, 2007). From this protocol, we will be able to add custom questions to the questionnaire that design teams need and provide them with measurable results of their design goals, thereby increasing the marketability of the product and providing metrics to design teams and business owners. Therefore, the third goal of this project is: 3. to develop protocol to add, validate, and test custom questions for specializations in interior environment, e.g., lighting design.
Project Methods
This project is conducted by the SPOES team of researchers and practitioners from various disciplines under the direction of the project leader. The SPOES questionnaire has been developed, tested, and validated over a three-year, six building study. The team has access to over 100 sustainable office buildings in Minnesota that have been designed and built to the B3-MSBG guidelines where the questionnaire and scale can continue to be tested. The team has the expertise to develop custom questions as needed, analyze the data, develop the scale, and conduct confirmatory analysis. Dissemination strategies are also in place to distribute and apply the results of this study. Goal 1. Scales for each well-being factor, i.e., satisfaction, performance, comfort, etc. will be developed for use in the SPOES questionnaire. We will perform each of the following scale development procedures over the course of the project: (a) item generation and content validity testing; (b) reliability and validity assessment; and (c) scale validation. The results will be a series of scales that measure occupant well-being factors. Therefore, there will be an Occupant Interior Environment Satisfaction Scale, and Occupant Interior Environment Performance Scales, etc. Goal 2: The SPOES questionnaire, with its valid well-being scales, can be used as a post-occupancy evaluation tool and a pre-occupancy diagnostic tool. Because the SPOES questionnaire is based on the IEQ criteria in several sustainable design guidelines, it has marketability to all design firms who have used such a set of guidelines in their design process. As of 2011, there are over 9000 buildings in North America that have used LEED (USGBC, 2011) and over 150 in Minnesota that have used B3-MSBG. Further, LEED is now being used globally, so the potential market is growing. The University of Minnesota commercialization team will be asked to join a segment of this project to assist the SPOES team: a. Develop a commercializtion plan for the SPOES questionnaire; b. Conduct a market analysis to identify audience, marketability, price, dissemination method, c. Develop business and marketing plans for the product including price, costs, task analysis, strategies for marketing the product; and Goal 3: Each design team that follows a set of sustainable design guidelines also has other design goals often required of the client. We need to develop a protocol to follow when design teams ask for custom questions by going into greater depth with an IEQ criterion, lighting, for which we have already developed questions and analysis methods. By using lighting as our model, and by adding a lighting expert to the SPOES team, we will be able to establish the data collection and analysis protocol that will underpin the addition of other variables to the questionnaire when required. For electric lighting and daylighting, we will: a. Develop additional questions. b. Develop field measurement protocols for measuring lighting factors, c. Develop analysis methods to study lighting attributes, and d. Write protocol/method used to add questions Results of all goals will be disseminated to scholars and practitioners.