What Make's a Green Building "Green"?

Green Buildings are founded on the cooperation of ecology and development to benefit not only the environment, but also the builders, building owners, and the building’s inhabitants. The Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development describes five principles of green buildings: 

Energy efficiency and renewable energy resources – cost-effective energy technologies could reduce overall energy consumption in the United States and decrease the building and maintenance costs. 

Environmental impact – facilitating more positive impact on the surrounding natural environment by preserving the site’s natural characteristics. 

Resource conservation – conserving resources during the building process and during future operation.  Materials and ensuring an adequate fresh air supply. 

Community issues – locating building projects within biking or walking distance of public transportation, shopping, etc. Green buildings also blend into the community, preserving natural and historical characteristics, and utilize existing infrastructure in order to reduce sprawl.

Besides being environmentally sound, green building may also have a positive effect on the health of the building dwellers. Improving office lighting, temperature and noise control, and interior design can make workers more comfortable and productive, as well as save energy costs. Studies show that large productivity gains, decreased absenteeism and improved quality of work are some of the positive consequences of working in green buildings. According to Fisk and Rosenfeld, the research literature provides strong evidence that negative characteristics of buildings and their indoor environments influence the prevalence of several adverse health effects, including communicable respiratory disease (1). 

Poor indoor air quality and other factors, that green buildings attempt to ameliorate, can cause Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that SBS costs the nation nearly $60 billion in building related illnesses and lost productivity each year. Another estimate by Fisk and Rosenfeld sugests that SBS results in productivity losses of around 2%, costing an estimated $50 billion. With the average American spending approximately 90% of his or her time indoors, healthy indoor air quality is more important than ever (2). Green buildings directly address air quality and other health-related characteristics of office space. 

1. Fisk W, Rosenfeld A. Improved Productivity and Health from Better Indoor Environments. http://eande.lbl.gov/cbs/newsletter/NL15/productivity.html 

2. Environmental Protection Agency. " Indoor Air Quality Facts." AIA Environmental Resource Guide Topic VI.C 1-13 (July 1992).

OVERVIEW

In February 1994, Montana State University was awarded one of four NIST (National Institute of Standard and Technology) "Green Building" Demonstration Planning Grants to complete conceptual designs for a National Resource Center and to assess building technologies.  This effort, known as the Epicenter, is under the direction of Kath Williams, PhD.  The Gaines Green Building, to be built in 2000, is an Epicenter pilot project building.  In addition to the environmental benefits of green building design versus traditional building design, many socio-psychological and physiological benefits may be present for individuals who work and study inside of the building and those who visit or have other connections to the building.   While the environmental impact of green architecture is becoming well-understood, there is much more to learn regarding the interrelationship between humans and sustainable buildings.  A multi-disciplinary team has been assembled to assess a variety of aspect of the human interface with the proposed Gaines Green Building.

Goal of the Gaines Green Building

To enhance the aesthetic quality and design of work spaces to raise the quality of the work life for students, faculty, and staff.

To bring a higher priority for ecological values as a carry-over to human activities in other aspects of living and to model/communicate the value of ecological sensitivity to all who interact with or even know about the building.

To create a comfortable, safe, healthy and welcoming building for all students.

To encourage greater student/faculty interface and involvement.

To enhance research productivity for faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

To promote research methodology and laboratory management practices that are "greener" and less likely to cause harmful impacts on water, air, and other natural resources.

To enhance student learning and faculty teaching in two ways:

        a. by allowing faculty state-of-the-art teaching laboratories which will promote the use of a wider range of teaching/learning methods and techniques;

        b. by having the building become a part of the teaching process through the student observation and involvements in building functions and through educational displays housed in the building.

To draw positive national attention to MSU and further the University image as a forward-thinking, innovative, pioneering research and teaching institution.

To develop a set of tools for evaluating the performance of the Green Building from both the physical building performance perspective and the human interface perspective.

From May 1, 1999 until December 31, 1999 the Green Building Human Interface Research Team was funded for the initial phase to determine the appropriate research questions, models, methods, and instruments to be used for evaluation health, learning, productivity, and satisfaction associated with the Gaines Green Building.

PHASE 1

Outcomes of the initial phase

Developed the knowledge base of the research team.

Developed a web-site

Examined the feasibility of issues relative to data collection including faculty receptivity, class scheduling, building layout.

Identified research questions and focus area for investigation.Identified sampling plan, target populations, and key research variables.

Identified appropriate theories, modals, and conceptual frameworks upon which the empirical research will be based.

Identified, adapt/develop measurement protocols.

Developed data management and analytic strategies.

Prepared a manuscript for publication to disseminate process and outcomes.

Developed a formal research proposal to support the evaluation process by October 1, 1999 with an estimated start-up date of January 1, 2000.

 

Program/Projects

We are conceptualizing this endeavor as one program - Human Interface Research - with a variety of projects under that umbrella designed to evaluate the various goals of Green Building as related to health, learning, productivity, and satisfaction.  The projects are currently categorized as: Opinions Project, Learning/Teaching Project, Values Project, Physical Health & Exposures Project, Stress & Mental Health.  Each project has a lead investigator who is working with other team members.

PHASE 2

The following are the six areas of research concentration that are being addressed in Phase II.  These activities are currently in progress and will be completed by September 30, 2000.

Area 1 - Publication

During Summer/Fall ‘99, the Green Gaines Building Human Interface Research Team prepared a manuscript describing the health and productivity evaluation activities in which we had been engaged since May 1999.  A manuscript was submitted for review for publication in February, 2000 and was not accepted.  The team is considering a revision and resubmission.

Area 2 - General Chemistry Labs

During Summer/Fall 1999, discussions were held with Dr. John Amend (Chemistry) regarding his grant application proposing curricular changes and how the human interface project might articulate with his plans.  Four of the six laboratories in which general chemistry is taught are scheduled for "greening" in the summer of 2000.  This provides for a natural experimental setting for the development and initial testing of protocols.  A wide variety of parameters must be measured to adequately assess the impact of the built green environment on human health and productivity.  The team is developing protocols for assessing some of these parameters including:  human behavior patterns, faculty-student interaction patterns, students’ adherence to tasks, time allocation on explanation vs analysis, grades, teaching evaluations, class attendance, health profiles, satisfaction with the laboratory experience, and attitude toward the laboratory environment. Observational protocols were developed, seven graduate students were trained, and data collection was begun in April, 2000.

Area 3 - Environmental Values

During Summer/Fall 1999, preliminary work was done to locate measures of environmental values.  Based on a thorough literature review, it is evident to the team that no instrument exists that is appropriate to the measurement that will be necessary for the Green Project here at MSU.  Thus, an instrument will need to be developed.  Tool development is an exacting and arduous endeavor and that work will be initiated. T his will necessitate completion of the literature review, refinement of our theoretical model, and the actual development of the measure.  The development process will include qualitative techniques involving individual interviews and focus groups, the refinement of existing items, and an expert panel review which will result in the selection of appropriate items for a environmental values scale.  The initial testing of the instrument will be conducted. The long-term goal is to develop a psychometrically sound, short, and easily administered survey instrument.  The premise for needing such an instrument is that the presence of a green building on campus will impact the MSU community’s values and environmental behaviors.  Two focus groups with faculty, staff, and students have been conducted, data transcribed, and analysis begun to identify themes.  These themes will form the basic constructs for the development of the Environmental Values Scale.

Area 4 - MSU Profile

In order to detect change in a battery of key parameters of human health and productivity, it is necessary to have a student profile for both those exposed to the green teaching environment and those not exposed.  The profile contains measures of stress, social support, mental health, physical symptoms, productivity/performance, and demographic information. Preliminary work was started, in Phase I, on this Web-based instrument.  We have continued refining the questionnaire and the technology necessary to establish this profile. The survey has been entered onto the Web and students randomly selected for participation.  The data collection period began the fourth week of April, 2000, with invitations to participate sent to students either by e-mail or by a postcard to their place of residence.

Area 5 - Time Use

Graduate chemistry students and faculty are primary groups to study as they will have high exposure to the new green environment, and they have major teaching responsibilities with regard to chemistry laboratory learning experiences.  One of the premises of green architecture is that student-teacher time will be increased and enriched.  The team is initiating the development of a protocol with which to quantitatively and qualitatively establish time-use patterns of graduate students and faculty to determine the current student-faculty interaction patterns.   In addition, the protocol will gather data to establish a base-line data set with current time allocations for work hours in the building.  This time data will then be compared to data collected after the Green Gaines Building is constructed to determine if the building has created any changes in time use.  Particularly, information on time spent in research and time spent with students will be compared.

Area 6 - Environmental Sensitivity

The evaluation of student sensitivity to the environment is an essential component of understanding the impact of the built green environment on human health and productivity.  Two portable pieces of equipment will be pilot tested. First, a telemetry-based heart rate monitor, proposed for use in several aspects of the overall human health and productive study for the assessment of physiological stress, will be used to conduct heart rate variability analysis.  In particular, a protocol will be developed for summarizing volumes of data collected during "free living" conditions, i.e., non-laboratory constrained activities.   Second, a portable light meter exposure will be evaluated.  A means for summarizing these light exposure data, when collected over multiple days for the same person, must be determined.  Equipment has been purchased, two graduate research assistants identified, and plans developed to conducted this area of research during the Summer semester.

Conclusion

The research outlined in this Second Phase Report is the logical extension of the work that the Green Gaines Building Human Interface Research Team has engaged in since May, 1999.  All of our endeavors are based on a pre-post model. We are developing the protocols and measures necessary to evaluate the impact of the built green environment on human health and productivity.  Because the science is in a novice stage it is particularly important that we have sound, adequate, and appropriate pre-measures of multiple human and environmental (building) parameters prior to the onset of the green construction.  These pre-construction measures will serve as the basis for comparison after the building is operational and students, faculty, staff, and others have had adequate exposure to the built green environment.  We recognize that the work (evaluation of the built green environment on human health and productivity) that we are undertaking is an extensive and extended process and that the real outcomes will not be fully apparent for some years after the Green Gaines building is in operation.

 

 

Funding:  National Institute of Standard and Technology