Bridging the gap between environmental sustainability and building operation in office buildings: Performance measurement based on user behavior

The Architecture-Engineering-Construction-Operation (AECO) industry is reshaping due to two major disruptions. First, the climate crisis underscored the urgency to reduce environmental pressures. The global debate on sustainable economies has emphasized the need for the sector to evolve, particularly in the operation and maintenance phase, which has the most significant potential to leverage environmental impact. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic changed social behavior, in particular, shifting work patterns toward more flexible modes and reducing office occupancy. While the variability in office utilization highlighted the need to rethink workspaces based on user behavior, existing tools cannot effectively measure the impact of Operation & Maintenance (O&M), limiting their usefulness for sustainable office management. To address the existing gap, this research introduces a model that measures environmental impact while accounting for space utilization and user behavior within office buildings. Based on the Ecological Footprint methodology, the model assesses eight impact sources: built-up, energy consumption, water consumption, food and drink, material consumption, mobility, waste generation, and trade-off potential. The calculations were tested on an existing office building as a case study through a Participatory-Action-Research (PAR) method, which allows the involvement of different stakeholders (e.g., building managers and users) in a research and development process. Demonstrating the model’s potential to guide different stakeholders toward a more sustainable office utilization, PAR facilitated the comparison of working-from-home and working-in-the-office impacts. Beyond energy efficiency, this research underlines the complexity of sustainable office building performance as a multi-faceted issue that should be tackled through the engagement of both building managers and users to promote effective sustainability practices. The practical impact of this contribution lays in the development of strategic actions to guide sustainable O&M of office buildings.