A facilities management approach to rationalising occupants’ energy behaviours

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate building managers’ approach towards occupant energy behaviours and rationalises organisational energy culture concerning their strategy to address occupants’ preferences in New Zealand tertiary office buildings. Design/methodology/approach The research used grounded theory analysis by interviewing a purposive sample of 25 participants from a university. Also, semi-structured interviews were conducted with facilities managers, sustainability managers and building occupants. Findings The study results revealed that building managers oversimplify the multi-domain discomfort, energy impacts from occupant behaviours and the influence of social-psychology aspects on occupants’ actions. The organisational energy culture can be further improved by increasing occupants’ knowledge and awareness of energy, sharing energy feedback with occupants to make energy conscious occupants and giving them responsibilities to achieve the organisation’s energy targets. Originality/value This study enables opportunities to promote collaboration between building managers and occupants by comparing perspectives on occupant energy impacts.