LEED Behavioural Change Impacts in Energy Savings

Jacquie, I've thought about this a lot. There is research out there but it's more narrowly oriented, such as the savings when a single education (community based social marketing...cbsm) program is implemented, such as emails asking employees to shut off lights when they leave for lunch. A dashboard was used to measure change in occupant behavior. Energy models are another matter as you know. Maybe the approach with energy models is the modeler's assumptions about occupant behavior. I wonder if enough research has been conducted on cbsm of occupants and then measuring the results of those interventions to offer how models should be revised. And maybe you ran into that when only 1 person responded to your survey. Attached is a Phd on energy modeling I found interesting. Let me know what you think. Chris

Chris Hammer
Sustainable Design Resources
www.greenclips.com/sdr

The author of that PhD, Christoph Reinhart, spent the first years of his career at the NRC Institute for Research in Construction in Ottawa, where he further refined that work. Two software tools resulted: Daysim, which is an advanced daylight modelling program for designers, and Daylight-1-2-3, which incorporates thermal energy as well as daylight availability in a GUI that is more useful for instruction. Both are available through our web site: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/programs/irc/ie.html (free), as well as many publications on this and related topics (also free). Dr. Reinhart moved to the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2008.

Jennifer Veitch
National Research Council of Canada

Hello Chris and Jennifer,
Thank you very much for your comments and links to further information. This has shed some light on my research topic, and I will be able to incorporate this new information.
Kind regards,
Jacquie

Jacquie Taylor
Canada

Hi Jacquie

I'm not sure which province you're in but according to BC Hydro here in British Columbia, they estimate the potential of 2 to 25% energy saving through behaviour change.

There is some reluctance to spend resources on non-tangibles such as awareness campaigns in some camps. They feel much better spending capital on equipment that is straightforward to install and looks good in brochures. Part of their fear may be "slip-back" (for lack of a better term) which means that although a whole group of users, say building inhabitants, have changed behaviour they are worried that if there isn't ongoing resources and attention to keep the positive actions going that gradually there will be slippage and people will get lazy and not continue to do the behaviour. This can be especially true if there is a seasonal factor such as a two month break in the school system and a new group of teacher, or a new group of staff at a ski resort.

As an eternal optimist, I must point to the other side where some places in Australia have reached 95% compliance. More locally there may be an opportunity for you to get some data from a "soft green" building program called BOMA BESt (not a typo) which is part of the "Building Operators and Managers Association". One large property management company, Cadilllac Fairview, is a leader and runs a national green campaign called "Green at Work" which has great success in recycling in their office towers and large shopping malls. Part of their success is peformance targets and a staff newsletter. Now they are installing floor by floor meters in some of their skyscrapers. This would be an excellent opportunity for someone to conduct pilots, floor by floor, and see which messaging and group of tools (prompts, commitment, norms, etc) works best, assuming the occupants all have a similar demographic and there's no cross contamination so to speak.

Perhaps there's a similar property management group in your area you could collaborate with?

It's important to establish metric before you start. Consider a way staff can avoid hot water use (often heated by gas which has a high carbon footprint) and water reduction (lots of energy is used to transport water and wastewater and for filtration).

Two other resources for you: there's a free two day conference called the "Virtual Energy Forum" that has high caliber webinars and a virtual trade show floor and meeting rooms. It's starting tomorrow, Wed/Thurs June 16, 17.

Lastly, here's some info about LEED registered buildings. Although not on the topic you've chose but still important to know, that many (most) LEED buildings are not "commissioned" or set-up correctly and often perform worse than a regular building. The "commissioning" of buildings (getting them set up to run efficiently) has been largely overlooked in N. America because the cost come out of the builder's pocket as the owner/occupant reap the benefits. It's estimated to be wasting about 30 to 35% of the energy use through inefficiency. By hiring a commissioning engineer to tune-up your building it will cost $5000 in fee plus the cost of upgrades. Annual energy savings are in the $30,000 range but take about 5.5 years payback. Those are ballpark numbers by memory. The numbers are huge but I can't track down the email to forward it to you (I think it was emailed out from the company HB Lanarc). The good news is that there's new financial mechanism that take out a loan for the commissioning of the new building and the repayment goes onto the building for the next 20 years regardless of who owns the building.

Hope that helps,

Regards from Vancouver

Claudette Poirier
Canada

Claudette, I'd love to know where to find more information on this financial program: "The good news is that there's new financial mechanism that take out a loan for the commissioning of the new building and the repayment goes onto the building for the next 20 years regardless of who owns the building." If anyone knows of similar in the U.S. I'd be really grateful to you for passing that on.
Best,
Emily

Emily Barrett
Sustainability Manager
Town of Cary
United States

Jacquie,
Try doing a search for "Property Assessed Clean Energy".
In New York State two programs to reference are Babylon's Long Island Green Homes and Be2 Loan Program in Binghamton. There is also a successful program in Berkeley CA. As of 2009 the US Government has supported the use of federal funds for pilot programs and the Department of Energy has made funding available through the Energy Efficiency Community Block Grant Program.

Let us know what you end up doing.

Gregory Michel
United States

Emily,

This sounds like an application of the concept of Local Improvement Charges or LICs to finance energy efficiency measures. The Pembina Institute undertook at study for the federal government on this concept. You can find their report here: http://communities.pembina.org/pub/197

I too would like to know more about the program that Claudette wrote about. It sounds as though Vancouver has implemented an LIC program.

Heather Trueman
Sustainability Initiatives Liaison
University of Saskatchewan
Canada

Hi Emily

Yes, I believe it's called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). I goggled and found this link: http://www.pacenow.org/. As far as I understand, we don't have it yet in BC but they are looking into it.

Here's an intro:

"Many homeowners and commercial building owners would like to make their buildings more energy efficient, but the financing has always been an obstacle. One of the hottest new ideas to tackle this is Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs.

PACE mechanisms offer many advantages over traditional loans for financing energy efficiency retrofits. PACE financing helps property owners avoid the often substantial upfront costs of efficiency retrofits by offering longer repayment periods (usually up to 20 years) and tying the investment to the property, rather than the property owner, so that, in the event of a sale, the new owner assumes the payments and continues to receive the benefit of lower utility bills."

Good luck!

Claudette Poirier
Canada

Recently residential mortgage lenders in the US (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) have put the brakes on PACE loans for homes, but commercial PACE programs are apparently unaffected. Check out the recent New York Times article on PACE loans.

Gwen Farnsworth
E Source
United States
www.esource.com

Hi Jacquie,

My name is Dan Reaves and I am currently interested in a similar topic for my thesis project. I am trying to make the case for including behavioral engagement (whether through education or CBSM strategies or both) as a credit in the LEED rating system.

To do this, I am identifying LEED office space in my area and surveying/interviewing building owners and managers in order to discren whether or not an effort to engage the occupants in sustainable behavior has occurred. I will then compare the kWh / sqft in similar buildings (LEED silver to LEED silver, gold to gold, etc.) to understand the impact of occupant engagement in an office setting.

I would like to know if you would be willing to share with me your findings and/or your survey instrument. I have reviewed the literature and have not been able to find any such survey instrument.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dan

Dan Reaves
Institute for the Built Environment
United States