ZEB report nr 14
The aim of the Research Centre on Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB) is to promote the realization and diffusion of zero emission buildings. The goal of creating buildings that do not contribute to climate change is defined here in its most ambitious form: zero emission buildings must achieve a balanced carbon footprint throughout the course of their whole existence, including construction, operations, and demolition.
Especially in the case of larger buildings, professional actors assume a central role during the long usephase. Buildings and their use are subject to constant change, components age and wear out, new tenants may move in and new patterns of occupancy and use are established. As anyone working with managing, operating and maintaining buildings will be able to confirm: only to keep a large office building in line with its original specifications entails new challenges almost every day. The efficiency and quality of these (often invisible) activities influence – both directly and indirectly – a building’s energy consumption. The goal “zero emission” can only be sustained through the best possible interplay between the building, its various technical components and patterns of use. Consistently and continuously optimizing and stabilizing this interplay is therefore the most important task of building operations from the perspective of the ZEB Centre.
Recent decades have brought considerable changes in the technical and organizational constitution of building operations. On the one hand, under the name facilities management today we find a decidedly more professional and more holistic approach, especially in the operation of larger buildings and building complexes. At the same time, the advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has resulted in new possibilities for the real-time monitoring and maintenance of buildings. The significance of these changes for the goal “zero emission”, their potential, and their challenges are therefore essential research topics for the ZEB Centre.
Within the ZEB centre’s work, this report joins a series of case studies of professional building operation
using new ICT tools. The premier goal of this work is to learn from practical experiences with existing
systems and modes of organization, and to ensure that the resultant knowledge flows into future
developments – not only in Norway and not only within zero-emission buildings.
This type of research is thoroughly dependent on the willingness to share with us the knowledge so
arduously acquired in practice. This report would therefore not have been possible without the friendly
reception that we encountered during the course of this case study. We especially thank the staff of the
technical operations center for their support as we conducted our project.
ZEB Report nr 16
The aim of this review is to gain an overview of how interventions or experiments as a method are used to detect how to influence employees to use less energy. Most of the interventions on energy behaviour have focused on the residential sector. This literature review focuses on experiments conducted in nonresidential buildings, but also refers to some relevant studies done in the residential sector.
Employees do not have economic motives for saving energy, nor do they usually have the possibility to follow the energy consumption of the building. What type of interventions can motivate them to save energy? What are implications for further research on user behaviour for energy efficiency in nonresidential
buildings?
The findings from this review show that possibilities for strategic interventions to influence energy consumption in non-residential buildings are more limited than in households. Interventions should be based on feedback, knowledge, beliefs and norms since the economic dimension available in housing is inaccessible in non-residential buildings.
The organizational context has shown to be important in influencing energy related behaviour at a workplace. In order to create a new energy culture and motivation for energy reduction, it is important that the management participates, and that the pro-environmental attitudes pervade the organization.
Giving the employees access to information about the general energy consumption of the building can also motivate changes in energy use.
Further research on energy behaviour in non-residential buildings should adopt an interdisciplinary
focus in order to deal with the complexity of energy behaviour. Multiple interventions to test different
motivational factors and long-term documentation of effects can be recommended on the basis of the
existing studies. The role of attitudes of the management and the organization should also be
investigated and documented more thoroughly.