Indoor environmental quality performance - Screening through mandatory workplace assessments: How mandatory physical workplace assessments can be used in developing new danish indoor environmental performance labels for publicly owned buildings in the future
Translated title
Indoor environmental quality performance - Screening through mandatory workplace assessments
Authors
Woxholt, Kristian Løhde ; Wolff, Lasse Gang
Term
4. Term
Education
Publication year
2024
Submitted on
2024-01-10
Pages
72
Abstract
In Denmark, all public workplaces must carry out workplace assessments (APV) at least every three years to evaluate employees’ well-being and working conditions. The APV is a systematic tool that often uses questionnaires covering both the physical and psychological work environment. Some questionnaires collect useful information on indoor environmental performance, while others do not. Because they are rarely designed by experts in indoor environment or qualitative methods, the questions are often too general or shallow, leading to incomplete analyses. Each municipality develops its own physical APV with full freedom in method and in the type and number of questions. There is also no uniform way to label or summarize results, which makes it difficult to compare indoor environmental quality. The National Association of Municipalities in Denmark (KL) has developed a model for assessing indoor environmental quality that follows requirements and guidelines in the Danish Building Regulations (BR18). KL aims to use the indoor-environment-related questions already present in APVs to capture occupants’ perceptions in municipal buildings and to design strategic key performance indicators (KPIs) that support bench-learning between municipalities. This study tested that approach in a single case building. We collected and analyzed two types of data: physical measurements and responses from a pilot questionnaire. Using KL’s model, we assessed indoor environmental quality and examined the advantages and limitations of each data source. Findings show that measurements are effective at locating comfort concerns in individual rooms, but on their own they rarely reveal the underlying causes. The questionnaire provides valuable context, helping to identify likely sources of indoor environmental problems and to gauge occupants’ satisfaction. Together, the two methods offer a more complete picture. Based on the case, we present practical recommendations for evaluating indoor environmental performance with KL’s model and for improving future APV questionnaires and use of the model so that results become more comparable and useful for municipal benchmarking.
I Danmark skal alle offentlige arbejdspladser gennemføre arbejdspladsvurderinger (APV) mindst hvert tredje år for at vurdere medarbejdernes trivsel og arbejdsmiljø. APV’en er et værktøj til at evaluere forholdene systematisk via spørgeskemaer om både fysisk og psykisk arbejdsmiljø. Nogle spørgeskemaer giver nyttig viden om indeklimaets kvalitet, mens andre ikke gør. Fordi spørgeskemaerne sjældent udformes af fagfolk inden for indeklima og kvalitative metoder, bliver spørgsmålene ofte for generelle eller for overfladiske, hvilket giver ufuldstændige resultater. Hver kommune udvikler desuden sin egen fysiske APV med frihed i valg af metode samt type og antal spørgsmål. Samtidig mangler der en ensartet måde at opgøre og mærke resultaterne på, hvilket gør det svært at sammenligne indeklimaets kvalitet på tværs. Kommunernes Landsforening (KL) har udviklet en model til vurdering af indeklimakvalitet, som følger krav og vejledninger i Bygningsreglementet (BR18). KL ønsker at bruge de indeklimarelaterede spørgsmål i de nuværende APV’er til at belyse brugernes oplevelser i kommunale bygninger og til at udvikle strategiske nøgletal (KPI’er), der kan indgå i grundlaget for bench-learning mellem kommuner. I dette studie afprøvede vi tilgangen i en casebygning. Vi indsamlede og analyserede både fysiske målinger og svar fra en pilotafprøvning af spørgeskemaet. Med KL’s model vurderede vi indeklimakvaliteten og kortlagde styrker og svagheder ved de to metoder til dataindsamling. Resultaterne viste, at målinger er gode til at finde komfortproblemer i enkelte rum, men at det er vanskeligt at udpege årsagerne ud fra målinger alene. Spørgeskemaet gav værdifuld kontekst, hjalp med at identificere sandsynlige kilder til indeklimaproblemer og bidrog til at vurdere brugernes tilfredshed. Samlet set giver de to metoder et mere fuldstændigt billede. På baggrund af casen fremsætter vi anbefalinger til, hvordan indeklimaperformance kan evalueres med KL’s model, og hvordan modellen og APV-spørgeskemaer kan forbedres fremover, så resultater bliver mere sammenlignelige og anvendelige til læring på tværs af kommuner.
[This apstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
Keywords