Green Behaviors and Green Buildings: A Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Public Housing Estates in Hong Kong

Chee Keong Khoo, Xin Li and Jianxiang Huang ()
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Chee Keong Khoo: School of Management, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China
Xin Li: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
Jianxiang Huang: Department of Urban Planning and Design, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-20

Abstract: A green building is believed to promote green behaviors from energy-saving to waste recycling. Green building certifications have attracted wide interest, and some were made mandatory for publicly funded developments in cities such as Hong Kong. Policymakers debate whether the city’s expanding public housing stock should be exempted from the green certification mandate for reasons of cost, while evidence of behavioral benefits in green residential buildings is thin, or non-existent for public housing estates. This paper describes a post-occupancy evaluation study on self-reported green behaviors in Hong Kong’s public housing estates. The study subjects are 400 occupants from two pairs of public rental housing estates with or without green certifications. A natural experiment was conducted, in which surveyed occupants were allocated to certified and uncertified estates via a random lottery, without significant differences in socioeconomic characteristics and propensity to green behaviors a priori. The results show that green-certified housing estates partially induced energy-saving behaviors, but not water saving or waste recycling, nor does it enhance satisfaction or green awareness. A certification alone is insufficient to induce behavioral changes, rather, efforts should be invested in conveying the green message, public education, and appropriate fiscal incentives.

Keywords: post-occupancy evaluation; green behavior; occupant satisfaction; public housing; green building certification; Hong Kong (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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