So Tell Me What You Want, What You Really Really Want: Including the User Perspective before Implementing Measures of Sustainability

Abstract

In order to reach organisational sustainability goals and to comply with increasing regulatory requirements, organisations such as universities have to decide which measures will be best suited to attain these goals. An accepted approach is to base these decisions on an assessment of hard facts that consider the effectiveness and the (financial and technical) feasibility of each measure. In this paper it is argued that the subjective user perspective (i.e. of staff members affected by these measures) is a third aspect that should be considered when evaluating the suitability of sustainability measures. Adding the user perspective will gain insights into the acceptance of potential measures and into the positive influence on users’ attitudes and behaviour. In addition, not accepted measures or measures that are given low priority by users will hinder the implementation and success. This paper presents a three-part evaluation process of applied environmental management approaches such as the “eco-mapping” approach to collect environmental data on office spaces and combining these findings with the results from personal interviews with staff members occupying these office spaces. Based on the gathered information, it is possible to map different measures against the three dimensions—effectiveness, feasibility and acceptance—in order to prioritize their usefulness.