Factors affecting the indoor environmental quality in Sri Lanka: green vs. conventional hotel buildings

Abstract

The hotel building sector is now using sustainable design and construction practices thereby helping to prevent environmental pollution. Green building practices are capable of promoting a healthy and comfortable indoor environment for hotel occupants (including guests and staff). Some criticism has been made by occupants of green buildings on the accuracy of the certification process and the performance of LEED certified buildings. Therefore, this study is aimed at identifying the key factors affecting the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) of green buildings compared to that of conventional hotel buildings by evaluating building performance. Firstly, a literature survey was conducted to identify the importance of IEQ in green buildings and the methods of evaluating IEQ performance. Subsequently, key and sub factors relating to IEQ performance identified from the literature review were validated through expert interviews. A questionnaire survey and semi structured interviews were used as data collection techniques by making use of two green buildings and two conventional buildings. The data was analysed using Mann-Whitney U-test and “Nvivo 10” software. The analysis revealed that green hotels provide an overall IEQ performance that is higher than that of conventional hotels. However, factors such as lighting, acoustics and the degree of personal control that occupants have on the indoor environment were comparatively less satisfactory in green hotels. The paper also discussed the reasons for the low satisfaction of IEQ in respect of these factors. Finally this study confirms that the hotel industry needs to consider a climate responsive design to ensure a better IEQ and pay attention to post occupancy evaluation throughout the life cycle of a building.