Elsevier

Building and Environment

Volume 84, January 2015, Pages 105-113
Building and Environment

Indoor environment quality of green buildings: Case study of an LEED platinum certified factory in a warm humid tropical climate

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2014.11.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Investigate the indoor environment quality (IEQ) in factory buildings.

  • Investigate IEQ in the context of developing countries and tropical climate zone.

  • Identify the need for the climate responsive design for green buildings.

Abstract

The indoor environmental quality of a green building is expected to be better, more comfortable and more productive compared to a conventional building. Many studies have been undertaken on user satisfaction of green buildings. However, most of them placed focuses on office buildings in developed countries and temperate climates. Very few studies have been conducted on other types of buildings in developing countries and tropical climate zones. The research reported in this paper aims to investigate the indoor environment quality of a green factory building in a developing country with a warm humid tropical climate. Using a conventional factory as a control, a questionnaire survey was administered among pairs of comparable workers using a Systematic Sampling Technique. Physical measurements of several indoor environment quality variables in similar locations provided an opportunity to corroborate the survey responses. Results showed that thermal comfort, ventilation, and ability to control indoor environment of the green factory were comparatively less satisfactory. Acoustics, indoor air quality and work layout did not indicate a significant difference between the factories. Views to outside, lighting, cleanliness, furniture, and privacy were better in the green factory compared to the control. The study explored the reasons for poor rating of some of the green factory's indoor environment quality variables. This study confirms the need for green buildings to have a climate responsive design that is locally relevant.

Introduction

In response to the global environment protection movement, the construction industry has adopted the ‘green building’ concept with reasonable success. Results from past studies are mixed on the question of whether green buildings provide a comfortable, satisfying and productive work environment to their users. Proponents argue that a green building enhances indoor environment quality and improves occupants' productivity compared to a conventional building [1]. However, clients are sceptical whether additional capital costs involved in a green building could be justified despite these added benefits [2]. Published studies conclude that green buildings will become common once their benefits to people are proven, mainly in the form of productivity improvements that can be translated into financial gains [3].

Studies on productivity gains of green buildings are very limited and most have used Post Occupancy Evaluations (POE) based on opinion surveys [4]. The majority of these studies have investigated office buildings in developed countries located mainly in temperate climate zones. More research is needed in different work settings, developing countries and other climate zones. In that context the present study uses a factory located in a developing country in a tropical climate zone. The aim is to evaluate its performance regarding Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) compared to a similar conventional factory. The results are expected to contribute to the debate on the benefits of green buildings from a client's perspective.

Section snippets

Literature review

Green buildings have become popular in recent years and independent assessment tools have evolved in order to evaluate them. While a green building is expected to use resources efficiently, it is also expected to provide a conductive Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) to its occupants. In order to fulfil this requirement, unique features should be considered in the design to easily distinguish it from a conventional building. Some of these unique features are the provision of natural

Research methods

In order to overcome the knowledge gap identified above, this study aims to evaluate the user satisfaction of an LEED certified green factory in a developing country. This factory is located on the outskirts of Colombo (7° N latitude 79° E longitude), the capital city of Sri Lanka, which has a warm and humid climate that is typical of the tropics. This green factory was compared to a similar conventional (control) factory located in the same city. Selection of the control factory was carried

Survey results

In the 70 filled and usable questionnaires, 21% of workers were 21–30 years of age, 42% 31–40, 26% 41–50, and 11% 51–60. With regard to experience, 39% of respondents have worked in the same factory between 3 months to 1 year; 56% 1–5 years; and 5% 6–10 years. All workers are permanent employees and worked 6 days per week. Around 12% worked 5–6 h daily, 36% 7–8 h, and 52% more than 8 h. This indicates that most respondents spend a considerable amount of time in the factory and are competent

Results of physical measurements

In order to verify and explain the survey results, thermal comfort was ascertained in both factories using two physical parameters, air temperature and relative humidity. Physical measurements revealed that the green factory had a higher air temperature than the control factory in all fourteen points of the production lines (PL1 to PL20). However, there is no considerable difference between the air temperatures of the two factories' machine rooms. Fig. 2 illustrates the temperature range in all

Discussion

Physical measurements provided an opportunity to validate the user satisfaction survey results of this study. While the green factory was successful in achieving satisfactory results for views to outside, lighting, cleanliness, furniture, and privacy, it failed to impress on thermal comfort, ventilation and ability to control indoor environment. While it came as a surprise, the literature provides similar observations for many green buildings. Hua et al. showed that LEED platinum certified

Conclusions

This paper reported the results of a user satisfaction survey carried out among workers of a green garment factory located in a warm humid tropical climate close to Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. A corresponding survey on a conventional factory controlling for a majority of variables except the ‘greenness’ gave researchers an opportunity to compare the IEQ of the green factory. Eleven factors representing the IEQ were included in the survey with randomly selected pairs of workers of

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