Determinants of Residential Building Occupants’ Behavior in Sustainable Living a Questionnaire Survey in Hong Kong

Abstract

Green building movement has been playing a major role in sustainable urbanism as well as current architectural development. In addition to its energy achievement, it could be influencing our living style according to some Environment and Behavior (EB) studies. EB research showed that there are transactions between individuals and their physical setting that could change each other’s performance. In its application on environmental problem, widespread human lifestyle change was suggested as the core factor of sustainability. To understand occupants’ behavior for improving the performance of green buildings, this paper studied four demographic variables (income, educational level, household size and area of apartment) and one variable about environmental belief for two pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) (control of shower time and recycling) in sustainable living. A questionnaire survey was carried out to analyze these PEBs of over 400 staff from a property management company in Hong Kong. The study was made from an intent-oriented perspective. The result showed that environmental belief and area of apartment appeared to be the strongest predictor for control of shower time and recycling respectively. Interestingly, educational level and household size were found independent of the studied PEBs. This suggested that both personal belief and external factor can explains PEBs. It is a primary study aimed at solving the slow green building development in Hong Kong. The author expects to identify variables which could activate PSBs to engage in green building movement. The next study is about the actual impact of these PSBs on the performance of green buildings.



Author Information
Chan Hei, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Lau Stephen Siu Yu, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Paper Information
Conference: ECSEE2014
Stream: Social Sustainability & Sustainable Living

This paper is part of the ECSEE2014 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon