Occupant engagement

Intent

To improve the performance of the building by enabling energy efficient behavior in building occupants.

Requirements

Establishment

Consumption feedback

Implement one or more modes of communication to inform occupants about the actual energy consumption of the building and/or their workspace. This may be done in real-time, or through regular reporting mechanisms, but must be communicated at least on a monthly basis. Occupants must be given information with a relevant comparison point; the comparison point(s) may either be comparable buildings or spaces, or historical energy consumption data for the same space (at least 1 years worth of data, or predicted usage if 1 years data is not yet available).

Occupant empowerment

Implement and maintain an occupant engagement program that involves communicating with, enabling and empowering building occupants to help meet the sustainability goals for the building. The occupant engagement initiative(s) must include the following minimum requirements:

1. Education – provide accurate, up-to-date, and catered information to building occupants about what their largest impacts are on the energy use of the building and where the largest areas for potential savings exist. This may be achieved through a one-time event like a competition or awareness week or month, but also must include some permanent educational components, which must be updated to account for any seasonal variations in energy consumption and building performance.
2. Enabling – occupants must be made aware of specific actions they can take to improve the performance of the building, not just the impacts they have on resource use in their building
3. Feedback to management – occupants must be provided a clear avenue for reporting building-related energy or water inefficiencies to building management

Establish performance goals and develop a way to effectively track the success of the program.

The engagement program must also address more than one building system: lighting, HVAC, plug loads. If occupants do not have direct control over lighting and/or central HVAC systems, alternative methods and strategies that support energy conservation for these systems are acceptable (e.g., window shade control and use).

The engagement program must not encourage behaviors that significantly affect the productivity of occupants or their comfort, such as lighting quality and thermal comfort.

Performance

Track and document the results of the occupant engagement initiative(s) against the established performance goals and identify areas for improvement. These results must be recorded on a regular basis and summarized for the performance period.