What's Wrong with Suburban Sustainability? A Comparative Analysis of LEED™ Certified Offices in Different Urban Site Contexts

Ihab Elzeyadi (University of Oregon)

The green building industry and particularly the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) certification system, promotes linkages between LEED™ certified buildings and their positive impacts on the triple bottom line approach of people, planet, and profit. Despite the favorability of this hypothesis, few studies have empirically shown a positive relationship between LEED™ buildings and their impacts on Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), sustainable behavior, and site-related experiences. This study’s objective is to examine the impact of suburban verses urban sites on office occupant’s satisfaction, multi-comfort; and their perception of health, productivity, and well-being in their work environment.

The study follow a comparative case-study approach based on a Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of a suburban and urban office building, controlling for building scale, typology, specifications, LEED-certification level, as well as organizational variables and drawing upon the LEED framework through which to compare how building occupants interact particular building or site features. The first is located in an urban setting with connected streets, alternative transportation access, and achieving all LEED sustainable sites (SS) credits, while the other is located within a suburban setting with substantially fewer achieved SS credits. Both buildings are mid-size offices with 120-150 occupants each. For this study, we assessed LEED credits achieved, land use and site variables, transportation behavior patterns, occupant’s well-being and perception of their work environment from standardized questionnaires (SPEQ™).

Results show that while suburban sustainable buildings might outperform similar buildings in urban settings in indoor environmental quality for its occupants, they lack urban connectivity and active behavior options that might impact occupant’s perceptions of their environment and their health. The study concludes with lessons learned in design, construction, and operation to deliver evidence-based strategies for urban sustainable buildings of the future.