Comparison of Health and Well-Being Aspects in Building Certification Schemes

Tajda Potrč Obrecht, Roman Kunič, Sabina Jordan and Mateja Dovjak
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Tajda Potrč Obrecht: Department of Building Physics, Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Roman Kunič: Chair of Buildings and Constructional Complexes, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sabina Jordan: Department of Building Physics, Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Mateja Dovjak: Chair of Buildings and Constructional Complexes, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: The quality of the indoor environment is becoming increasingly important because people are spending the majority of their time indoors. This has led to an increased interest in the field of health and well-being of users of buildings and to the development of various assessment schemes dealing with this issue. In this study, LEED O+M Building Operations and Maintenance (hereinafter LEED O+M ), BREEAM In-Use and DGNB Buildings In-Use were compared with a specialized BCS WELL that is focused on the health and well-being of building occupants. The aim of the comparison was to evaluate to what extent the selected building certification schemes (BCSs) cover the aspects of health and well-being in buildings. Based on the analysis, it was found that the observed BCSs mostly pay attention to indoor air quality, light and thermal comfort. In other areas, only certain topics are covered or the topics have a different focus. Another important finding of the study was that certain aspects that are important for the health and well-being of the occupants are not dependent only on the building design but also on the management of the building and the services provided within the building. This kind of information is especially valuable for building developers, managers and owners so they know how to improve health and well-being in a building. The present study provides them with a comprehensive overview of the certification schemes that are widely used in current practice.

Keywords: building certification schemes; health; well-being; sustainable buildings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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