Paula Melton at Environmental Building News talked with Lucid’s Director of Engagement, Andrew deCoriolis, as well as other software designers, property managers and researchers about occupant engagement. As we find out in the EBN coverstory article below, from the offices of Microsoft to colleges and universities to households, building occupants are increasingly being made aware of and accountable for their own energy and water use.
Melton explores three main approaches to occupant engagement: 1) designing for feedback, 2) transforming social norms, 3) creating incentives. From the article:
At its pinnacle, occupant engagement describes a building-wide culture in which empowered building occupants are aware of and accountable for their own energy and water use, waste disposal habits, and use of toxic chemicals. But the process of creating that culture—including decisions made by architects and engineers as well as building managers, employers, and other stakeholders—is also called occupant engagement (or sometimes, more clinically, “behavior change”).
… Connecting energy data and existing social media networks is a key component of student engagement. “You need to meet people where they are,” deCoriolis emphasized, and “create a social context for why they’re going there” for energy data. A competition gives students this “social context” in which to track their energy and water use and to make public commitments to changing habits.” Read the full article…
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