Occupants’ Energy-Efficient (EE) Habit and Environmental Concerns: A Correlation Across Countries

This paper examines the relationship between building occupants’ energy-use behaviour and their environmental concerns across two contrasting national contexts, Nigeria and the United Kingdom. The relationship between energy-use behaviour and environmental sustainability concern has received limited attention in the literature; this study therefore investigates whether building occupants share comparable energy-efficiency (EE) habits and levels of environmental awareness across countries. Drawing on a post- occupancy evaluation (POE) survey of occupants in ten case-study office and university buildings five in Nigeria and five in the UK the study used an online, self-report questionnaire to compare occupants’ behaviour, environmental awareness and concern in relation to their interaction with installed building services. Two hundred questionnaires were distributed and 166 were returned (valid n = 163; an 82% response rate). Data were analysed using aggregate frequencies and relative index analysis (RIA), and non-parametric statistics comprising Spearman’s rho (rs) rank-order correlation (two-tailed), Pearson’s chi-square (reported as the likelihood ratio) and Cramér’s V. The results indicate a positive correlation between occupants’ intention, habit, awareness and willingness to help reduce building energy use in both countries. Occupants’ knowledge of building energy use was high in both countries, but this did not translate into comparable awareness of building energy-efficiency performance (BEEP) or of buildings’ carbon footprints. Awareness of climate change correlated with EE habit at rs = 0.512, while awareness of BEEP correlated with EE habit at rs = 0.448, both significant at the 5% level. No statistically significant difference was found between the two countries in occupants’ EE habits or environmental awareness. The findings imply that strengthening occupants’ awareness of building-specific energy-efficiency performance not only generates climate-change awareness but offers owners, facilities managers and policymakers a practical, low-cost lever for reducing building energy use and carbon emissions in both developed and developing contexts. Assessment