Occupants satisfaction towards indoor environmental quality of platinum green-certified office building / Nurul ‘Ain Najihah Sulaiman

The quality of the indoor environment has become a vital component for buildings due to the time spent indoors. To this extent, the performance of the indoor environment is considered as part of the greenery criteria by green rating schemes such as the Green Building Index in Malaysia. This study aim is to study occupants’ indoor environmental quality (IEQ) satisfaction of Green-Certified Buildings in Malaysia. This research applied a case study approach over two Platinum-certified office buildings. Post-occupancy evaluation is employed integrating full-scale measurement with an occupants’ survey with quantitative method. The measurement was carried out from May to August, and questionnaires were retrieved to evaluate occupants’ satisfaction with aspects of the indoor environment. Thermal comfort, indoor air quality, acoustic, lighting and furniture are considered as the main study variables. The findings of full-scale measurement indicated high relative humidity, and low air velocity and illuminance. While occupants reported overall indoor environment quality (IEQ) comfort, a significant correlation of variables was observed. The main sources of dissatisfaction were identified as overcooling around 24 °C, high relative humidity (RH), around 70% RH, glare, and background noise around 51.9 dB. Statistically, a significant difference between occupants’ responses to IEQ was identified, although Building A is labelled with a Platinum certificate. This study comprehensively assesses the IEQ performance of GBI Platinum-certified tropical office buildings. At the end, I can conclude that end-users of Building A which is one of the GBI Platinum-certified, preferred to work in open areas with more natural light than the minimal lux level.