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University campuses are one of the major consumers of electricity. Therefore, it is important to investigate factors related to electricity saving. This study aims to examine the key drivers in achieving efficient electricity management (EEM) practices in public universities.

To achieve the objective, 23 drivers of EEM practices were identified through a comprehensive literature review and an empirical questionnaire survey was performed with 1,386 electricity end-users of three public universities having staff and students’ halls of residences in Nigeria. The collected data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 21) to identify the number of components that could represent the 23 identified drivers.

The relative importance index ranking results indicated that 18 drivers were critical. The top five most critical drivers were understanding of the issues, understanding the vision and goal of an energy management programme, knowledge and skill, risk identification and good and effective communication among relevant stakeholders. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the underlying grouped drivers were raising awareness, top management support and robust energy management team, risk management and stakeholders’ participation. This study also indicates that the most dominant of the four underlying groups was raising awareness, which highlights the role of increasing awareness and public consciousness as a significant catalyst in promoting EEM practices in public universities.

Geographically, this study is limited to the opinion of respondents in public university campuses in Nigeria. Although this study could form the basis for future studies, its limitation must be considered carefully when interpreting and generalizing the results.

This paper has highlighted a few drivers of EEM practices in public universities. The results of this study present scientific evidence that can be used as a basis for formulating public policies that could be incorporated into the energy management regulations of university buildings. It is most important for policymakers to pay adequate attention to the most critical drivers especially those that are related to the “raising awareness” factor to promote sustainable campuses.

This study provides practical knowledge for university management to develop effective methods to implement the identified drivers of efficient and sustainable electricity management on the campus. This study also contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of energy management.

The growth rate of the aging population raises the demand for and challenges of public and subsidized (P&S) housing for the elderly. The decline in elderly ability increases their dependence on the quality of facilities provided by their residential apartment. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated indoor built environment–quality of life model for the elderly in P&S housing estates.

A questionnaire survey, including scales for 4 quality of life (QoL) domains (physical health, psychological health, social relationships and overall QoL), and 13 indoor built environment (BE) components were identified. In total, 365 survey data were collected from the elderly in 18 political districts of Hong Kong, while reliability analysis, multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling were adopted in the data analysis.

Based on the congruence of results of these statistical analyses, it was revealed that: furniture and fixtures predict all the four QoL domains of the elderly; lighting and color induce social relationships; and overall QoL is predicted by distance and handrails.

Several recommendations were made in accordance with the research results, such as review minimum spacing requirements to provide walking distance for elderly physical activity, investigate the micro-climate for appropriate building orientation, consider the changing body size of the elderly for supply of furniture, use warm colors with high levels of illumination, and so on.

Although the overall impacts of innovation and innovative practices have been emphasized in recent years, the effect on the growth of firms in Nigeria have not been proven. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of innovative practices on the growth of quantity surveying firms (QSFs) in Nigeria.

The study adopted the quantitative correlational research design in which a well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from QSFs in South-West, Nigeria. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis to investigate the effect of innovative practices on the growth of QSFs.

The study reveals that there is a significant increase in the growth indices used for assessing QSFs, while all the innovation variables were found to be reliable. Based on the result of multiple regression analysis, the relationships were identified as follows: quantity surveying (QS) software influenced the size growth of QSFs; QS software and services affected client growth and profit growth; and all innovation practices impacted asset growth of QSFs.

Although the use of software tools has been found to negatively affect the size of QSFs and other growth indices, there is need for them to embrace innovative software applications for more quality service delivery. In addition, QSFs should formulate strategic objectives that will guide them in taking informed decisions for diversification.

The outcome of this study provides information and direction for innovation practices required to bring about the growth of QSFs.

Construction professionals (CPs) are often exposed to various challenges and pressures at work including urgent deadlines, high demands, uncertainty in tasks, and complex problems, which may induce stress and affect performance directly. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training has been used for several years to reduce stress among various types of people, such as nurses, teachers, and family caregivers, but its application to CPs with highly dynamic environment remains uncertain. This study aimed to investigate the impact of MBSR training on the performance of CPs via an intervention study involving two groups (MBSR and control).

Participants in both groups were assessed using a questionnaire survey and a semi-structured interview at the pre- and post-intervention stage. Multiple research methods were used to derive quantitative and qualitative analyses, including factor analysis, independent t-test, Pearson correlation, and contextual analysis.

The findings overall confirm that MBSR has a direct effect on CPs, improving their mindfulness characteristics and enhancing performance by reducing their stress.

A number of practical recommendations are made such as (1) arranging standard eight-week MBSR training for CPs; (2) giving special leave for attending the full mindfulness training; (3) establishing a suitable environment in the office for meditation;(4) allowing CPs an opportunity to pause at difficult moments to create space to respond instead of simply reacting; and (5) expressing love and kindness through gratitude, recognition, and regular feedback.

This research can be considered as valid evidence to convince construction organizations conducting MBSR to the CPs, which is indeed not too remote to enhance their performance as well as the holistic construction performance.

Personal characteristics, such as age, marital status, education level and gender, vary among elderly residents in residential apartments. These characteristics may influence the elderly residents’ satisfaction with the facilities provided in their residential apartments. To ensure appropriate facilities management (FM) items are provided for the different categories of elderly people, it is necessary to understand their basic needs. Therefore, this paper aims to compare the satisfaction with FM items among elderly people with different personal characteristics in private domestic (PD) buildings.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among elderly people with different personal characteristics in PD buildings to collect information about their levels of satisfaction with FM items. A total of 41 FM items and four characteristics of the elderly, namely, age, gender, marital status and education, were identified in this study.

The result shows that satisfaction with natural daylight was significantly different among elderly people of different genders, while the one-way between-groups ANOVA indicate that satisfaction with the size of bedrooms, turning spaces at doors, temperature in bathrooms and/or toilets, colour, accessibility and ease of closing or opening the doors were significantly different among elderly people belonging to different age groups and of different marital status and education level.

Designers and private developers are therefore recommended to increase the sizes of bedrooms, install windows on opposite sides of walls in the flats and ensure there is an adequate light reflection ratio for wall and floor colours, to accommodate elderly people’s special characteristics.

Quality of life (QoL) for elderly residents of care and attention (C&A) homes has become an important consideration, given the increasingly aging population. Due to the number of hours such residents spend indoors, the quality of the facilities can contribute to their day-to-day QoL. This study aims to investigate the effect of facilities management (FM) on the QoL of Chinese elderly people living in C&A homes.

A survey of perceived satisfaction with the components of FM and QoL was carried out with a sample of residents. A total of 18 FM components and five QoL domains, including physical health, independence, psychological health, social relationships and living environment, as well as overall QoL, were identified.

The findings show that physical health is influenced by accessibility, doors and windows and signage; independence can be improved by enhancing accessibility, water supply, lighting and ventilation; accessibility, water supply, distance and doors and windows all predict psychological health; social relationships are improved by lighting and ventilation; distance impacts positively on the living environment; and overall QoL is predicted by lighting, ventilation, accessibility, doors and windows, handrails, recreation and signage.

The study recommends that designers and facilities managers review the micro-climate settings to harness available natural lighting and ventilation, introduce bimetallic strips to the heating systems to maintain a suitable water temperature and install large, easy-to-understand and graphic signage for straightforward wayfinding in C&A homes.