Beyond regulated energy: delivering long-term building performance

This submission contains eight peer-reviewed publications exploring issues related to the delivery of sustainable built environments and long-term building performance. It is argued that in the context of the drive to deliver sustainable built environments, the current focus on near-term regulated energy and climate change mitigation may not deliver long-term building performance and could ultimately result in premature building obsolescence. The work examines the role of occupant behaviour and demonstrates that behaviour change campaigns as ‘operational enablers’ have the potential to reduce energy use and may have the potential to improve occupant satisfaction and wellbeing. The work also demonstrates that climate change may have a significant impact on long-term building performance with knock-on impacts on energy use, health, wellbeing and satisfaction. It is demonstrated that the current approach to dealing with climate change risk in the regulatory framework may not be fit-for-purpose. It is noted that in order to deliver long-term performance there is a need for resilience and adaptive capacity. Alternative risk-based approaches, for implementation at the design stage or the operational phase, which account for the potential impacts of climate change are suggested. It is further suggested that occupant behaviour change tools and techniques may have the potential to contribute to climate change adaptation by providing additional adaptive capacity. The work included utilised a mixed method research approach including case studies, participatory action research and future studies. These approaches were used to explore current practice, the role of occupant behaviour and how such behaviour could be altered. They were also used to explore probable/possible (forecast) future scenarios requiring potential adaptation, which were considered in terms of preferred/desired (backcast) performance. The research presents an explanatory model considering the potential for occupant behaviour and climate change to contribute to a growing building-performance gap over time and suggests measures to minimise this gap