91ÊÓƵ

Ample room exists for continued growth in sustainable design, but only if the human aspect is understood first, according to Erica Dunn, an associate with Hennebery Eddy Architects.

Dunn recently was awarded the Van Evera Bailey Fellowship. Starting in January, she will conduct an expansive study on building occupants’ impact on energy consumption. The study, which will require a year, will determine which methods are useful in educating occupants about sustainable design and the types of behavior changes they are willing to implement.

According to study results released earlier this year by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, trends suggest that buildings will be 70 percent more efficient by 2035. Dunn believes that percentage could be even higher if occupants were educated how to properly interact with buildings’ sustainable design features.

Dunn’s study is expected to help architects pursue increasingly aggressive sustainable goals, including those for reducing carbon emissions.

The 91ÊÓƵ recently asked Dunn about her study and the concept of occupant behavior and energy consumption.

91ÊÓƵ: What made you want to examine the human aspect of sustainable design?

Erica Dunn: I’ve done a lot of work with the (American Institute of Architects) committee on the environment, and as part of that we have a lot of speakers come in and speak on the various aspects of sustainability. What we keep seeing again and again are talks about how you design a more efficient building. Everyone is starting to understand when they look at energy models that the human being has a huge impact on the efficiency of a building, but nobody really understands exactly how much. And nobody really has talked about what architects or design teams can do to engage the occupants in helping their buildings become more energy efficient. It’s sort of the missing link.

There was a (2030 Challenge) lecture I went to a couple years ago that talked about how with current knowledge and technology we can get 70 percent more efficient than where we are right now on a national average. That remaining 30 percent … while not all of it is going to come from occupant behavior, some portion of it is. So we need to start looking what portion can that be and how do we best address it with our clients.

91ÊÓƵ: When architects design a project, how often do you believe they consider the human aspect of it?

Dunn: Architects are thinking about it a lot. In the last couple of years, it’s something that’s starting to come to light. But what I don’t think we have yet is the best practices for setting up our clients to have the appropriate expectations for a high efficiency building. We are used to buildings where it’s 72 degrees inside the building always. We are starting to see that if we actually want to reduce our carbon footprints, we can’t have that expectation anymore. We need to allow for a widening of our thermal comfort range and make sure that our clients and the people occupying the building are aware of that and are in support of that.

91ÊÓƵ: In a way, do you believe that certain sustainable design strategies are wasted if tenants aren’t knowledgeable?

Dunn: I wouldn’t say they are wasted. I would say they are maybe not as efficient as possible. An example might be a building that has daylighting in it. We are now using vacancy sensors … if you turn lights on and then leave the space, the lights will then turn off after recognizing no one is in the space. But a building with daylighting could probably be more efficient if occupants didn’t initially reach to turn the lights on and allowed themselves to see whether they needed additional light in the space. It’s kind of a habit now for people – you walk in the door and turn the light on without stopping to consider it or not. But in daylight spaces, you can just take that brief moment and say, ‘Is this enough light?’

91ÊÓƵ: Do you believe energy consumers are more willing to change certain behaviors more than others?

Dunn: I’m really not sure. I would guess yes; there will be some that will be easier to change and people will be for that. There are some that might simply take habituation. A lot of times we do things without even thinking about it because we’re used to interacting with our environments in a certain way. So not to say they wouldn’t agree to do it, we just have to remember to do it.

91ÊÓƵ: Do you think their professions or lifestyles will have any influence on their willingness to change?

Dunn: We’ll see. The buildings I’m hoping to look at cover a wide range of building types, so I’m hoping that will come to light. There may be different strategies that you put in place depending on whether you’re working with a multifamily residential building or an office building or an educational building. Different communities might have different needs.

91ÊÓƵ: Are there any current sustainable design strategies that you believe occupants just can’t be compliant with?

Dunn: I have not seen any myself yet, but I’m optimistic.

91ÊÓƵ: I know this will be part of your research, but how do you believe occupants can be better educated on this issue?

Dunn: I think the biggest piece in my mind and the biggest question is simply getting the design teams engaged with the occupants. So often our clients are not the entire population that’s going to be inhabiting the building, so it’s carrying our conversations forward beyond the clients and into the building occupants. Our building committees are a small handful of people, some of whom may or may not actually work or live in those buildings.