Page 12 - InnoRenew CoE International Conference 2024

The effects of human activity and behavior in the offi ce. Assessing

the environmental sustainability of offi ce buildings through the
Ecological Footprint approach

Chiara Tagliaro ¹*, Alice Paola Pomé 2

1 Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering, via Ponzio 31, 20133, Milano, Italy,
chiara.tagliaro@polimi.it 3
2 Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering, via Ponzio 31, 20133, Milano, Italy,
alicepaola.pome@polimi.it
* Corresponding author

In recent years, the rising importance of sustainability in both the international political debate and the scientific

field highlighted the importance for the built environment and construction sector to increase awareness on its
practices and policies. Especially, building operation and maintenance have been identified as the most relevant

phase on which the sector must focus in order to decrease its environmental impact. Moreover, the Covid-19
pandemic induced more flexible ways of working which have changed the patterns in space utilization while

decreasing the permanence of people in the office. In this context, it is urgent to rethink the office space through
careful evaluation of users’ utilization and behavior. However, there is still a gap in accurate impact assessment
of in-use office buildings.

This research proposes an original calculation model to measure the environmental impact while revealing the
effects of human occupation and behaviors. The model, based on the Ecological Footprint indicator, identifies

eight impact sources (built-up, energy consumption, water consumption, food & drink, material consumption,
mobility, waste generation, and trade-off potential). The effectiveness of the model has been demonstrated by
adopting a Participatory Action Research method that allows to involve stakeholders (such as facility managers
and employees) across the research development process. Calculations and results are reported from one case
study of a company. This shows the potential of the model in showing the multifaceted impact of office buildings
on the environment while enabling the engagement of office end-users and facility managers towards a more
sustainable use of the workspace.

Besides carbon emissions and energy efficiency, the Ecological Footprint indicator can contribute to addressing
the issue of effective sustainability practices within office building use by adopting more conscious utilization
and behaviors.

Keywords: office utilization, human behavior, environmental sustainability

12 11–12 SEPTEMBER 2024 I IZOLA, SLOVENIA