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Encouraging occupant engagement
Buildings often use more than double the amount of energy and water that is predicted by statistical models. This discrepancy does not typically result from modeling software, but from a single variable that is difficult to quantify: occupant behavior. The way occupants live and work in their buildings is critical to the overall performance of a building and is something that is often overlooked.
This credit seeks to answer to following question: how can we enable occupants to exhibit energy efficient behavior in existing building spaces in order to improve overall building performance? By rewarding the implementation of innovative, occupant engagement mechanisms that systematically empower occupants to become aware of and responsible for their own energy consumption, this credit will communicate the necessity of creating a culture of sustainability and resource conservation among building occupants in order to improve the overall performance of the building.
For a commercial building, regular building occupants are defined as workers who either have a permanent office or workstation or typically spend a minimum of 10 hours per week in the project building. Broadening the scope of the occupant engagement program to include visitors, transient occupants, and/or maintenance personnel, including janitorial staff, is often recommended, but not required for this credit.
The occupant engagement program may be combined with another type of engagement program that aims to provide building occupants with the knowledge to manage their environmental impact at home or in their communities, but this type of program alone does not satisfy the credit requirements. Additionally, water consumption and/or waste reduction initiatives may be incorporated into the program, but do not satisfy the credit requirements unless they are combined with an energy consumption component.
Credit Submittals
General
- Register for Pilot Credit(s) here.
- Register a username at LEEDuser.com, and participate in online forum
- Submit feedback survey; supply PDF of your survey/confirmation of completion with credit documentation
Credit Specific
- Provide a summary of the occupant engagement program that includes, at a minimum
- Performance goals for the program and how they relate to the overall sustainability goals for the building
- Communication mechanism(s) used for consumption feedback and the data/information presented to occupants about the actual energy consumption of the building and/or their space
- Specific energy-saving actions occupants were encouraged to take
- Document the results of the occupant engagement program against the established performance goals and identify areas for improvement
Optional
If available, submit any metrics and/or quantitative data used to measure the success of the occupant engagement program (e.g., energy consumption data, records of complaint/report logs, event participation records, etc.)
Additional Questions
- Were you able to understand and comply with the credit language as written?
- In four sentences or less, why did the project choose to pursue this pilot credit?
- Were there barriers to implementing the strategies used under this credit?
- Prior to the implementation of the occupant engagement program, in your own judgment, how would you have defined the level of knowledge the occupants had about energy efficient practices (e.g., environmentally savvy, clueless, not sure)?
- Did you notice any change(s) in occupant behavior in relation to energy efficient practices during and/or after the implementation of the occupant engagement program?
- Were there aspects of the occupant engagement program that you thought about implementing but then decided not to?
- What are your plans for maintaining the occupant engagement program after the conclusion of the performance period?
- Did this program have support from upper-level management?
USGBC
Excerpted from LEED Pilot Credit Library
COPYRIGHT © 2011 BY THE U.S. GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDPilot Credit 59: Occupant Engagement
Intent
To improve the performance of the building by enabling energy efficient behavior in building occupants.
Requirements
Establishment
Consumption Feedback
Implement one or more modes of communication to inform occupants about the actual energy consumption of the building and/or their workspace. This may be done in real-time, or through regular reporting mechanisms, but must be communicated at least on a monthly basis. Occupants must be given information with a relevant comparison point; the comparison point(s) may either be comparable buildings or spaces, or historical energy consumption data for the same space (at least 1 years worth of data, or predicted usage if 1 years data is not yet available).
Occupant Empowerment
Implement and maintain an occupant engagement program that involves communicating with, enabling and empowering building occupants to help meet the sustainability goals for the building. The occupant engagement initiative(s) must include the following minimum requirements:
- Education – provide accurate, up-to-date, and catered information to building occupants about what their largest impacts are on the energy use of the building and where the largest areas for potential savings exist. This may be achieved through a one-time event like a competition or awareness week or month, but also must include some permanent educational components, which must be updated to account for any seasonal variations in energy consumption and building performance.
- Enabling – occupants must be made aware of specific actions they can take to improve the performance of the building, not just the impacts they have on resource use in their building
- Feedback to management – occupants must be provided a clear avenue for reporting building-related energy or water inefficiencies to building management
Establish performance goals and develop a way to effectively track the success of the program.
The engagement program must also address more than one building system: lighting, HVAC, plug loads. If occupants do not have direct control over lighting and/or central HVAC systems, alternative methods and strategies that support energy conservation for these systems are acceptable (e.g., window shade control and use).
The engagement program must not encourage behaviors that significantly affect the productivity of occupants or their comfort, such as lighting quality and thermal comfort.
Performance
Track and document the results of the occupant engagement initiative(s) against the established performance goals and identify areas for improvement. These results must be recorded on a regular basis and summarized for the performance period.
Potential Technologies & Strategies
Articles
Foundations of LEED
Background for the LEED Pilot Credit Library is provided in this foundational document.
Organizations
LEED Pilot Credit Library
The homepage for the LEED Pilot Credit Library. The LEED Pilot Credit Library is intended to facilitate the introduction of new prerequisites and credits to LEED. This process will allow USGBC to test and refine credits through LEED 2009 project evaluations before they are sent through the balloting process for introduction into LEED.
LEEDuser is produced by BuildingGreen, Inc., with YR&G authoring most of the original content. LEEDuser enjoys ongoing collaboration with USGBC.
2 Comments
Defining performance goals and seeking an example initiative
Regarding this requirement: "Track and document the results of the occupant engagement initiative(s) against the established performance goals and identify areas for improvement." Which performance goals are being referred to, building energy goals?
Does anyone have an example of a successful occupant engagement initiative they'd care to share the details of?
What is an example of a performance goal for this type of initiative? Something like achieving 50% occupant participation?
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