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Achieving an appropriate indoor environment quality (IEQ) is crucial to a green office environment. Whilst much research has been carried out across the globe on the ideal IEQ for green offices, little is known about which indoor environment New Zealand office workers prefer and regard as most appropriate. This study investigated New Zealand office workers' preference for a green environment.

Workers were conveniently selected for a questionnaire survey study from two major cities in the country – Wellington and Auckland. The perception of 149 workers was analysed and discussed based on the workers' demographics. The responses to each question were analysed based on the mean, standard deviation, frequency of responses and difference in opinion.

The results showed that workers' preferences for an ideal IEQ in green work environments depend largely on demographics. New Zealand office workers prefer work environments to have more fresh air and rely on mixed-mode ventilation and lighting systems. Also New Zealand office workers like to have better acoustic quality with less distraction and background noise. Regarding temperature, workers prefer workspaces to be neither cooler nor warmer. Unique to New Zealand workers, the workers prefer to have some (not complete) individual control over the IEQ in offices.

This study was conducted in the summer season, which could have impacted the responses received. Also the sample size was limited to two major cities in the country. Further studies should be conducted in other regions and during different seasons.

This study provides the opportunity for more studies in this area of research and highlights significant findings worthy of critical investigations. The results of this study benefit various stakeholders, such as facilities managers and workplace designers, and support proactive response approaches to achieving building occupants' preferences for an ideal work environment.

This study is the first research in New Zealand to explore worker preferences of IEQ that is not limited to a particular building, expanding the body of knowledge on workers' perception of the ideal work environment in the country.

This paper aims to illustrate the extensive benefits of qualitative data analysis as a rarely undertaken process in post-occupancy evaluation surveys. As a result, there is limited evidence of what occupants say about their buildings, especially for operational parameters, as opposed to how they rate them. While quantitative analyses provide useful information on how workers feel about workplace operational factors, qualitative analyses provide richer information on what aspects of the workplace workers identify as influential to their comfort, well-being and productivity.

The authors analysed 6,938 comments from office buildings worldwide on workers’ perception of workplace operational factors: design, storage, needs, space at desks and storage in their work environments. These factors were analysed based on the buildings’ design intent and use, and the associated comments were coded into positive, negative and balanced comments. The authors used a combination of coding, descriptive analysis, content analysis and word cloud to dissect the comments.

The findings showed that whereas workers rated these operational factors favourably, there were significantly more negative comments about each factor. Also, the Chi-square test showed a significant association (p < 0.01) between the satisfaction scale and the type of comments received for all the operational factors. This means that when a factor is rated high in the satisfaction score (5–7), there were fewer negative and more positive comments and vice versa. The word cloud analysis highlighted vital aspects of the office environment the workers mostly commented on, such as open plan design, natural lighting, space and windows, toilets, facilities, kitchens, meeting room booking systems, storage and furniture.

This study highlights the importance of dissecting building occupants’ comments as integral to building performance monitoring and measurement. These emphasise the richness and value of respondents’ comments and the importance of critically analysing them. A limitation is that only 6,938 comments were viable for analysis because most comments were either incomplete with no meaning or were not provided. This underlines the importance of encouraging respondents to comment and express their feelings in questionnaire surveys. Also, the building use studies questionnaire data set presents extensive opportunities for further analyses of interrelationships between demographics, building characteristics and environmental and operational factors.

The findings from this study can be applied to future projects and facility management to maintain and improve office buildings throughout their life cycle. Also, these findings are essential in predicting the requirements of future workplaces for robust workplace designs and management.

The authors identified specific comments on the performance of workplaces across the globe, showing similarities and differences between sustainable, conventional, commercial and institutional buildings. Specifically, the analysis showed that office workers’ comments do not always corroborate the ratings they give their buildings. There was a significantly higher percentage of negative comments than positive comments despite the high satisfaction scores of the operational factors.

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.

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.

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.

This study enables opportunities to promote collaboration between building managers and occupants by comparing perspectives on occupant energy impacts.

The purpose of this literature review is to investigate the reliability of self-evaluation as a method for measuring the effect(s) of indoor environment quality (IEQ) on the productivity of office workers. The aim of this review is to identify the various constraints to its adequacy in measuring productivity.

Thirty studies were selected from peer-reviewed sources and reviewed on their method of measuring productivity. These studies used self-evaluation (questionnaires or interview) as the sole method of measuring the effect of IEQ on productivity/performance.

This review provides insight on the insufficiencies and biases prevalent in self-evaluation. Various issues that compromised the reliability of self-evaluation results in an office environment were discussed. It was concluded that self-evaluation is not reliable and does not accurately measure occupant productivity.

This study has been a review of past studies and their findings. Further studies that will provide empirical evidence are required to solely test the reliability of self-evaluation in measuring productivity and the effect of factors such as IEQ on it.

The paper calls for further debate on occupant productivity measurement and how the various factors that affect it can be quantified into measurable entities.

This paper fulfils an identified need to revisit the technique of self-evaluation as a method for measuring occupant productivity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic viability of a new and innovative seismic damage resisting system (SDRS) device by conducting a feasibility study. The SDRS device has been patented and specifically designed to be implemented in multi-storey modular buildings in seismic regions such as New Zealand.

Using a case study approach, two sample modular multi-storey buildings were purposively selected for the study. A cost-comparison analysis was conducted using the SDRS device in the two buildings, by carrying out a measure and price exercise of the construction elements.

The research results showed that the SDRS device is an economically viable option for mitigating seismic damage in modular multi-storey buildings in New Zealand. There is an average of 7.34 per cent of cost reduction when SDRS is used in modular multi-storey buildings when compared to other seismic resistance systems such as base isolation, moment resisting frames and friction damper systems.

The economic viability of the SDRS presents an opportunity for its usage in modular design and construction of multi-storey buildings. SDRS system is also applicable to other building typologies and construction methods. The use of SDRS also aligns with the current national objective to provide more affordable and resilient housing within a limited time; the opportunity is considered significant in New Zealand, including for export and manufacturing.

The confirmation of the SDRS device’s economic feasibility is the original contribution of the authors.

This paper aims to develop an integrated and comprehensive framework for building and property management (BAPM) for state schools in New Zealand. The results are expected to clarify the complicated process and provide a guide for school boards to manage their property effectively and efficiently. It also seeks to explore the relationship between the key stakeholders and how this impacts the BAPM.

In addition, to review literature, qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 16 top managers in state schools. The data analysis results were used to develop the framework using the integration definition for process modelling.

The findings contribute to understanding the processes in the BAPM in state schools of school board members by adding input, output, control and mechanism elements in each activity of the processes. The systematic models with main activities and people involved are presented as a guide for school boards in state schools in New Zealand. Challenges and issues in the processes are also identified to draw further study for both school boards and the Ministry of Education.

The research was conducted with the participation of stakeholders who are sampled from top managers in state schools in New Zealand. A larger scale of participants from other schools may generalise the findings further.

The research findings are based on the needs and requirements of the stakeholders to understand, implement and control the BAPM for their schools and aid them to achieve the best value for money spending on the management.

The paper highlights the complexity of the BAPM in schools, presents the roles and responsibilities of the school stakeholders and proposes a systematic framework to assist the school managers in this management process.

Better identification of comfort preferences and occupant behaviour drivers is expected to improve buildings’ user-centred designs and energy operations. To understand the underline drivers of occupant behaviours in office buildings, this study aims to evaluate the inter-relationships among occupant energy behaviours, indoor environmental quality satisfaction, user control and social-psychological factors influencing occupant behaviours in New Zealand offices.

Using an occupant perception survey, this study identifies the occupant behaviour patterns based on multi-domain comfort preferences. A case study was conducted in five office spaces of a university in Auckland, New Zealand. Data were collected from 52 occupants and analysed using descriptive and binary logistic regression analysis. Indoor environmental quality, user control, motivational, opportunity and ability factors were the independent variables considered. A model to predict the behaviours using environmental, building and social-psychological aspects was developed.

The results showed that the primary sources of indoor environmental quality discomfort were related to thermal and air quality, while occupants’ indoor environmental quality satisfaction correlated with their comfort preferences. The outcomes emphasise how the connection between building systems and occupants’ comfort preferences affect the choice of occupant behaviours in offices. Also, the primary occupant behaviours were drinking hot and cold beverages, opening/closing windows and internal doors and adjusting clothing. The binary logistic regression analysis showed that occupants’ perceived user control satisfaction is the main driver for increasing window actions. No other independent variable showed a statistically significant association with other behaviours.

This study adopted a novel approach to assess the combined effects of comfort preferences, occupant energy behaviours and various environmental, building and socio-psychological factors for modelling energy-saving behaviours in office buildings.

This study aims to answer the ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions about the key role players’ influence on the overall productivity outcomes in the lifecycle of residential buildings procured through the traditional route.

A mix of exploratory and descriptive research methods was used to obtain feedback from 179 role-players involved in various phases of the residential building lifecycle (RBLC) in New Zealand. Empirical data were analysed using content analysis, multi-attribute method and Friedman’s two-way analysis of variance.

Results showed that designers, building owners, main contractors and project managers were the greatest influencers of the productivity outcomes in the RBLC. The priority drivers of these key role-players’ influences on the RBLC productivity outcomes comprised poor brief interpretation, inclination to lowest tender, inadequate prior risk analysis and miscommunication of owner’s requirements and preferences to service providers, respectively. By taking proactive steps to redress their productivity inhibiting acts/omissions as identified in this study, the various role-players could contribute to significant improvement of productivity outcomes in the building lifecycle.

It was not possible to interview all participants that made up the representative random samples from each role-player group due largely to workload related excuses. As a result, the findings and the conclusions may not be generalised beyond the study scope. However, the study achieved its purpose, as the main intent was to provide hypothetical constructs that could guide further confirmatory/experimental studies for residential buildings as well as for other building types.

A succinct and easy-to-follow model was developed as implementation pathway for operationalising the key findings of the study in the industry. The model highlights the Owner-Architect-Contractor Influence Triangle (OACIT) as the 20 per cent of the solutions that could deliver 80 per cent of the productivity improvement in the RBLC.

This study re-examines productivity issues not only from a life-cycle perspective but also from the perspectives of the majority of the key role-players. In addition, the OACIT concept offers a novel productivity improvement tool; it stresses that productivity in the traditionally procured building lifecycle could be optimised if the architect could focus greater attention on brief articulation and the issuance and review of design and specification information. Also, the owner should adopt productivity-enhancing procurement and contract strategies and emphasise more on value-addition and less on lowest tender price.