Date: February 01, 2012

This research on energy efficiency and occupant behavior in multi-tenanted buildings provides valuable insights into the challenges that confront the goal of achieving a 50% energy reduction in commercial buildings in the Greater Philadelphia region by 2014 (gpichub.org). Our research questions are grounded in a framework that investigates both direct and in-direct effects on energy use taking into account such factors as developer/owner requirements, building design and systems, construction outcomes, and building operator and occupant behavior. Research design and methods are drawn from the tradition of post occupancy evaluation (POE) research and entail both primary and secondary data collection via semi-structured interviews of tenants and members of the developer/owner team, an occupant survey, building walk-throughs, focus groups, utility bill and building automation system sensor log analyses, and building performance benchmarking.