The future of sustainable building assessment tools : a case study in Australia

Sustainability issues in built environment have attracted an increasingly level of attention from both the general public and the industry. As a result, a number of green building assessment tools have been developed such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), etc. This paper critically reviewed the assessment tools developed in Australian context, i.e. the Green Star rating tools developed by the Green Building Council of Australia. A particular focus is given to the recent developments of these assessment tools. The results showed that the office buildings take the biggest share of Green Star rated buildings. Similarly, sustainable building assessments seem to be more performance oriented which focuses on the operation stage of buildings. In addition, stakeholder engagement during the decision making process is encouraged. These findings provide useful references to the development of next generation of sustainable building assessment tools.

An interactive and adaptive building layer : strategies for allowing people to become advanced building-users

This paper reports outcomes of a pilot study to develop a conceptual framework to allow people to retrofit a building-layer to gain better control of their own built- environments. The study was initiated by the realisation that discussions surrounding the improvement of building performances tend to be about top-down technological solutions rather than to help and encourage bottom-up involvement of building-users. While users are the ultimate beneficiaries and their feedback is always appreciated, their direct involvements in managing buildings would often be regarded as obstruction or distraction. This is largely because casual interventions by uninformed building-users tend to disrupt the system. Some earlier researches showed however that direct and active participation of users could improve the building performance if appropriate training and/or systems were introduced. We also speculate this in long run would also make the built environment more sustainable. With this in mind, we looked for opportunities to retrofit our own office with an interactive layer to study how we could introduce ad-hoc systems for building-users. The aim of this paper is to describe our vision and initial attempts followed by discussion.

Factors that influence Chinese TEFL academics' research capacity building : an institutional case study

Research capacity building has become a prominent theme in higher education institutions across the world. To build research capacity, it is necessary to identify areas of challenges academics face within the academia. This case study focuses on Chinese teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) academics with the purpose of identifying factors that influence their research capacity building. Six TEFL academics from a Chinese national university were interviewed and institutional research documents were analysed. Findings showed that obstacles and difficulties in conducting research were more related to departmental factors than individual characteristics. The institution was keen on developing a research culture, and encouraged research and publications. Departmental support for research was improving, but it seems that it was more generic than tailored to individual needs. The findings of this study provide implications for research administrators in further supporting TEFL academics’ research capacity building.

Green office interiors in Australia : lessons learnt

In 2003, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) launched their Green Star rating tools for various types of buildings in order to promote green building practice in Australia. Of these, the Green Star-Office Interior rating tool is designed for building owners, tenants and interior designers to assess the environmental impact of an interior fitout. It covers a number of categories, including Management, Indoor Environment Quality, Energy, Transport, Water, Materials, Land Use and Ecology, Emissions, and Innovation. This paper reviews the usage of the Green Star system in Australian office tenancy fitouts and the potential challenges associated with Green Star-Office Interior implementation. This involves the analysis of score sheets of 66 office interior projects across Australia that achieved Green Star certification. The percentage of green star points obtained within each category and sub-categories (credits) for each project are investigated to illustrate the achievement of credits. The results show that Emission-related credits and Innovation related credits are the easiest and most difficult respectively to obtain. It is also found that 6 Green Star office interior projects perform especially better in the categories of Energy and Ecology than 4 and 5 Star projects. The investigation of point frequency in each category provides prospective Green Star applicants with insights into credit achievement for future projects.

Influence of ventilation and filtration on indoor particle concentrations in urban office buildings

This study aimed to quantify the efficiency of deep bag and electrostatic filters, and assess the influence of ventilation systems using these filters on indoor fine (<2.5 µm) and ultrafine particle concentrations in commercial office buildings. Measurements and modelling were conducted for different indoor and outdoor particle source scenarios at three office buildings in Brisbane, Australia. Overall, the in-situ efficiency, measured for particles in size ranges 6 to 3000 nm, of the deep bag filters ranged from 26.3 to 46.9% for the three buildings, while the in-situ efficiency of the electrostatic filter in one building was 60.2%. The highest PN and PM2.5 concentrations in one of the office buildings (up to 131% and 31% higher than the other two buildings, respectively) were due to the proximity of the building’s HVAC air intakes to a nearby bus-only roadway, as well as its higher outdoor ventilation rate. The lowest PN and PM2.5 concentrations (up to 57% and 24% lower than the other two buildings, respectively) were measured in a building that utilised both outdoor and mixing air filters in its HVAC system. Indoor PN concentrations were strongly influenced by outdoor levels and were significantly higher during rush-hours (up to 41%) and nucleation events (up to 57%), compared to working-hours, for all three buildings. This is the first time that the influence of new particle formation on indoor particle concentrations has been identified and quantified. A dynamic model for indoor PN concentration, which performed adequately in this study also revealed that using mixing/outdoor air filters can significantly reduce indoor particle concentration in buildings where indoor air was strongly influenced by outdoor particle levels. This work provides a scientific basis for the selection and location of appropriate filters and outdoor air intakes, during the design of new, or upgrade of existing, building HVAC systems. The results also serve to provide a better understanding of indoor particle dynamics and behaviours under different ventilation and particle source scenarios, and highlight effective methods to reduce exposure to particles in commercial office buildings.

Why trust the Head? : key strategies for transformational school leaders for building a purposeful relationship of trust

Trust is widely recognised as one of the key qualities that a successful leader needs to bring about change within their organization. Browning’s study aimed to identify practices which a school leader can effectively use to inspire, build, and maintain trust between themselves, their staff and Chair of governing body. The study was undertaken in two phases. Phase One was the identification of four highly trusted transformational leaders from the Australian independent schooling sector. Phase Two was a multicase study of the four school leaders. The findings provide practical advice for school leaders wishing to have a positive impact on the outcomes of the students in their school.

Optimisation of indoor environmental quality and energy consumption within office buildings

This research investigated airborne particle characteristics and their dynamics inside and around the envelope of mechanically ventilated office buildings, together with building thermal conditions and energy consumption. Based on these, a comprehensive model was developed to facilitate the optimisation of building heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, in order to protect the health of their occupants and minimise the energy requirements of these buildings.

Building distributed leadership for effective supervision of creative practice higher research degrees : final report 2014

Building distributed leadership for effective supervision of creative practice higher research degrees is an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded project, conducted in partnership between Queensland University of Technology, The University of Melbourne, Auckland University of Technology, University of New South Wales and University of Western Sydney. The project was initiated to develop a cooperative approach to establishing an understanding of the contextual frameworks of the emergent field of creative practice higher degrees by research (HDRs); capturing early insights of administrators and supervisors; gathering exemplars of good practices; and establishing an in-common understanding of effective approaches to supervision. To this end, the project has produced: • A literature review, to provide a research foundation for creative practice higher research degree supervision (Chapter 3). • A contextual review of disciplinary frameworks for HDR programs, produced through surveys of postgraduate research administrators (Section 4.1), and an analysis of institutional materials and academic development programs for supervisors (Section 4.2). • A National Symposium, Effective Supervision of Creative Arts Research Degrees (ESCARD), at QUT in Brisbane in February 2013, with 62 delegates from 20 Australasian Universities, at which project findings were disseminated, and delegates presented case studies and position papers, and participated in discussions on key issues for supervisors (Appendix 1). • Resources, including a booklet for supervisors: 12 Principles for the Effective Supervision of Creative Practice Higher Research Degrees, which encapsulates attitudes, insights and good practices of experienced and new supervisors. It was produced through a content analysis of interviews with twenty-five supervisors in creative disciplines (visual and performing arts, music, new media, creative writing and design) (Printed booklet, PDF, Appendix 3). • A project website to disseminate project outcomes , which holds project findings, relevant references, and a repository of case studies and position papers by supervisors and program administrators. • A call for papers for a special issue ‘Supervising Practice: Perspectives on the Supervision of Creative Practice Research Higher Degrees’ of ACCESS Journal: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural & Policy Studies (ERA ranked A quality) in 2014 (Appendix 2). • A community of supervisory practice initiated through project partnerships, a national symposium where supervisors from across Australasia met in dialogue for the first time, resource sharing, and joint publishing opportunities. • A set of recommendations for supervision capacity building and academic development, produced through the triangulation of literature and contextual reviews, analysis of institutional frameworks, interviews with supervisors and national dialogues. It is anticipated that the project’s outcomes will support experienced and new supervisors in this emergent field, and so benefit HDR students, and will enable creative disciplines to build supervision capacity, and so to accommodate growth in postgraduate enrolments. Funded as a pilot project, the project set out to establish a robust research base to provide a foundation for future work involving sharing good practices, resource building, and designing effective approaches to academic development for supervisors. Recommendations that were produced out of this project include the need to extend beyond generic, formal training for supervisors to academic development that harnesses and extends distributed leadership; focuses on local, disciplinary contexts; has a strong emphasis on case studies; provides diverse resources; and facilitates dialogue between supervisors. Recommendations also include developing frameworks for mentoring new supervisors and building a national network to facilitate cross-institutional discourse, disseminate good practices, and share insights into the management of risk factors, ethical issues, and preparing candidates for examination. As a pilot investigation, the outcomes of this project lay the ground for this future work.

The influence of internal load density on the energy and thermal performance of air-conditioned office buildings in the face of global warming

Internal heat sources may not only consume energy directly through their operation (e.g. lighting), but also contribute to building cooling or heating loads, which indirectly change building cooling and heating energy. Through the use of building simulation technique, this paper investigates the influence of building internal load densities on the energy and thermal performance of air conditioned office buildings in Australia. Case studies for air conditioned office buildings in major Australian capital cities are presented. It is found that with a decrease of internal load density in lighting and/or plug load, both the building cooling load and total energy use can be significantly reduced. Their effect on overheating hour reduction would be dependent on the local climate. In particular, it is found that if the building total internal load density is reduced from the base case of “medium” to “extra–low, the building total energy use under the future 2070 high scenario can be reduced by up to 89 to 120 kWh/m² per annum and the overheating problem could be completely avoided. It is suggested that the reduction in building internal load densities could be adopted as one of adaptation strategies for buildings in face of the future global warming.

LED lighting design strategies to enhance window appearance and increase energy savings in daylit office spaces

Vertical windows are the most common and simplest method to introduce daylight to interior spaces of office buildings, while also providing a view and connection to the outside. However, high contrast ratios between windows and surrounding surfaces can cause visual discomfort for occupants and can negatively influence their health and productivity. Consequently, building occupants may try to adapt their working environment through closing blinds and turning on lights in order to improve indoor visual comfort. Such interventions defeat the purpose of daylight harvesting systems and can increase the forecast electric lighting consumption in buildings that include such systems. A simple strategy to prevent these problematic consequences is to reduce the luminance contrasts presented by the window wall by increasing the luminance of areas surrounding the window through the sparing use of energy-efficient supplementary lighting, such light emitting diodes (LEDs). This paper presents the result of a pilot study in typical office in Brisbane, Australia that tests the effectiveness of a supplementary LED lighting system. The study shows an improvement in the appraisal of the visual environment is achieved using the supplementary system, along with up to 88% reductions in luminance contrast at the window wall. Also observed is a 36% reduction in the likelihood of user interventions that would increase energy usage. These results are used as the basis of an annual energy simulation of the test office and indicate that supplementary systems could be used to save energy beyond what is typically realised in side lit office spaces.

Improving the impact of luminance contrast on the window appearance in a conventional office room: Using supplementary lighting strategies

High contrast ratios between windows and surrounding surfaces could cause reduced visibility or discomfort for occupants. Consequently, building users may choose to intervene in lighting conditions through closing blinds and turning on the lamps in order to enhance indoor visual comfort. Such interventions increase projected electric lighting use in buildings. One simple method to prevent these problematic issues is increasing the luminance of the areas surrounding to the bright surface of windows through the use of energy-efficient supplementary lighting, such Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). This paper reports on the results of a pilot study in conventional office in Brisbane, Australia. The outcomes of this study indicated that a supplementary LED system of approximately 18 W could reduce the luminance contrast on the window wall from values in the order of 117:1 to 33:1. In addition, the results of this experiment suggested that this supplementary strategy could increase the subjective scale appraisal of window appearance by approximately 33%, as well as reducing the likelihood of users’ intention to turn on the ceiling lights by about 27%. It could also diminish the likelihood of occupants’ intention to move the blind down by more than 90%.

Building teachers' pedagogy practices in reasoning, to improve students' dispositions towards mathematics

Drawing on participatory action research, this study identifies the pedagogies necessary to advance reasoning, which is one of the proficiencies from the Australian Curriculum Mathematics, and explores how reasoning leads to greater productive disposition. With the current emphasis on STEM in schools, this research is timely. This thesis makes an original and substantive contribution to the understanding of why and how teachers can most effectively advance student proficiency in reasoning through targeted instructional strategies and style of instruction. The study explores the ways in which teacher practices, when focused on reasoning, enhance the disposition of students towards greater mathematical proficiency.

Thermal building simulation using the UKCP09 probabilistic climate projections

This article investigates how to use UK probabilistic climate-change projections (UKCP09) in rigorous building energy analysis. Two office buildings (deep plan and shallow plan) are used as case studies to demonstrate the application of UKCP09. Three different methods for reducing the computational demands are explored: statistical reduction (Finkelstein-Schafer [F-S] statistics), simplification using degree-day theory and the use of metamodels. The first method, which is based on an established technique, can be used as reference because it provides the most accurate information. However, it is necessary to automatically choose weather files based on F-S statistic by using computer programming language because thousands of weather files created from UKCP09 weather generator need to be processed. A combination of the second (degree-day theory) and third method (metamodels) requires only a relatively small number of simulation runs, but still provides valuable information to further implement the uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. The article also demonstrates how grid computing can be used to speed up the calculation for many independent EnergyPlus models by harnessing the processing power of idle desktop computers. © 2011 International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA).

Efficient building management with IP-based wireless sensor network

Existing Building/Energy Management Systems (BMS/EMS) fail to convey holistic performance to the building manager. A 20% reduction in energy consumption can be achieved by efficiently operated buildings compared with current practice. However, in the majority of buildings, occupant comfort and energy consumption analysis is primarily restricted by available sensor and meter data. Installation of a continuous monitoring process can significantly improve the building systems’ performance. We present WSN-BMDS, an IP-based wireless sensor network building monitoring and diagnostic system. The main focus of WSN-BMDS is to obtain much higher degree of information about the building operation then current BMSs are able to provide. Our system integrates a heterogeneous set of wireless sensor nodes with IEEE 802.11 backbone routers and the Global Sensor Network (GSN) web server. Sensing data is stored in a database at the back office via UDP protocol and can be access over the Internet using GSN. Through this demonstration, we show that WSN-BMDS provides accurate measurements of air-temperature, air-humidity, light, and energy consumption for particular rooms in our target building. Our interactive graphical user interface provides a user-friendly environment showing live network topology, monitor network statistics, and run-time management actions on the network. We also demonstrate actuation by changing the artificial light level in one of the rooms.