Center for the Built Environment

Can a building be friendly to both the environment and its occupants? According to a detailed survey taken of occupants at the Carnegie Institute for Global Ecology, the answer is an unqualified yes. When this airy, daylit building on the Stanford University campus was completed in 2004, the building was predicted to use 45% less energy than permitted by code and 40% less water than office building” as one of the Top Ten Green Projects of 2007. What’s remarkable about the Global Ecology building is not only how efficient it is, but also how highly the building’s users—a team of 45 researchers—rate the building. 100% of the survey respondents were satisfied with air quality. Occupants enjoy good thermal comfort, too, with satisfaction results in the 99th percentile. Acoustics, lighting, and office layout, likewise, ranked high. Overall, the Carnegie Institute’s building has received one of the highest overall occupant satisfaction ratings of over 300 buildings CBE has surveyed.