Performance Assessment of Green Rated Built Environment Using Post Occupancy Evaluation: New Perspectives

Green Building Rating System is one of the important mechanisms developed in last few decades
worldwide to achieve sustainability in Built Environment life cycle. The early generations of Green
Rated Built Environment from India have occupied for several years now. Therefore, it has become
inevitable to assess whether these Built Environment are living up to expectations in their objective
terms. Post Occupancy Evaluation is a process of systematic monitoring of building's performance
with predefined parameters and objectives after it is occupied for few years. Present research focuses
on assessment of Green Rated Built Environment on the basis of Performance Parameters. Indoor
Environmental Quality (IEQ) and Energy Efficiency are two Performance Parameters identified for
present research. Seven Green Rated Institutional/office projects have been selected for Post
Occupancy Evaluation. Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) has rated three projects and Green
Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) has rated remaining four projects. All seven Green
Rated Built Environments are located in warm and humid climatic zone of India. Questionnaire
Survey, on site measurement of Indoor Environmental Quality parameters and Energy Consumption
Records are selected as a tool to assess performance of Green Rated Built Environment. The
outcome of Post Occupancy Evaluation implemented on identified Green Rated Built Environment
establishes a fact that award of Green Rating to a Built Environment will only achieve its sustainability
objective if performance of Green Rated Built Environment is periodically monitored and validated with
respect to identified parameters and their local standard provisions.