Building occupants are a valuable source of information for indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and its effects on health, comfort, satisfaction, self-reported performances, and building performance. There are no standardized methods to survey occupants. A brief literature review has been conducted to collect and describe features of IEQ questionnaires. Ten surveys have been identified and analyzed in terms of type of evaluation, objectives, investigated topics, number of applications, integration with physical measurements, questionnaire structure, types of questions and answers, length of time to complete, languages, and distribution and gathering strategies.

The indoor environmental quality of an office building certified A+ according to CasaClima (Italian energy rating method) was assessed using the Italian translation of the survey developed and used in more than 420 buildings (47000 respondents) by the Center for the Built Environment, University of California, Berkeley. The results show a high level of satisfaction with the indoor environmental quality in the building is , with 93% of participants satisfied.

Attraverso un questionario elaborato dal Center for the Built Environment dell’Università della California gli occupanti della Camera di Commercio di Bolzano sono stati invitati a dare un giudizio sulla qualità degli ambienti in cui lavorano.

La qualità degli ambienti interni può essere valutata chiedendo direttamente agli occupanti, attraverso opportuni questionari, un giudizio sul loro luogo di lavoro. Secondo ASHRAE, USGBC e CISBE questo è il metodo più efficace. Ora è disponibile una versione in lingua italiana del questionario più utiliz-zato negli Stati Uniti (versione demo: www. cbesurvey.org/survey/italian). Attualmente l’esecuzione del test è gratuita.

In this study the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of an energy efficient 9400 m2 Italian office building was investigated using an Italian-language version of the Center for the Built Environment’s web-based survey. This survey allows the building’s IEQ performance to be compared against a large database of previously surveyed buildings. In addition, it permits the specific causes of dissatisfaction to be identified. The study building was compared with 66 buildings having LEED certification. The analyzed building obtained scores higher than the median of the 66 LEED buildings in the categories: acoustic quality, thermal comfort, general satisfaction, air quality and office furnishings, and lower than the median in: cleanliness and maintenance, office layout and lighting. The subcategories: visual and acoustic privacy scored low. For these, layout and operational interventions were proposed. The building survey showed that high simulated energy efficiency and high measured IEQ can be accomplished simultaneously.