Influence of factors unrelated to environmental quality on occupant satisfaction in leed and non-leed certified buildings

Abstract

Occupant satisfaction in office buildings has been correlated to the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of workspaces, but can also be influenced by factors distinct from conventional IEQ parameters. This study analyses a subset of the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) indoor environmental quality occupant survey database, featuring 21,477 responses from 144 buildings (65 LEED-rated), to investigate the impact of factors unrelated to environmental quality on occupant satisfaction in LEED and non-LEED certified buildings. The results show that such factors statistically significantly influence differences in satisfaction in LEED and non-LEED buildings, but the effect size of most variations is practically negligible. However, trends indicate that LEED buildings may be more effective in providing higher satisfaction in open spaces rather than in enclosed offices, in small rather than in large buildings, and that the positive value of LEED certification on users' satisfaction may tend to decrease with time.