Developing a Focus for Green Building Occupant Training Materials

With the shift from conventional to green buildings a need emerges to train staff on how to work within them. Building occupants control many of the green building technologies, which makes it necessary to educate occupants on the differences between using a green building versus a conventional building in order to secure the green building's success. The breadth of information that is necessary for an occupant to know in order to change their behaviors to be in accord with the high performing building they occupy makes it necessary to use a systematic method to reduce the information provided in trainings. This study employs a decision matrix approach as an objective means to narrow the focus of the training. A case study is used to implement the methods developed in this study. A focus group evaluated the effectiveness of the decision matrix. Results from the focus group showed that staff was active in waste reduction behaviors, but not in energy efficient actions. This supported the outcome of the decision matrix in finding relevant, necessary information for the training.