About the Sustainable Post-Occupancy Evaluation Survey (SPOES)

The SPOES is an online survey that asks occupants about their satisfaction with the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of their physical environment. Questions follow the B3 IEQ Guidelines and include the categories listed below.

1. Acoustic Quality
2. Appearance
3. Cleaning and Maintenance
4. Daylighting Conditions
5. Electric Lighting Conditions
6. Furnishings
7. Indoor Air Quality
8. Privacy
9. Technology
10. Thermal Conditions
11. Vibration and Movement
12. View Conditions

Supported Building Types for B3 projects

• The following building types are required to complete the SPOES:
  • Offices / Laboratories
  • Classrooms / Training Centers
  • Residence Halls

Exempt B3 Buildings

• A B3 building is exempt if there are not at least 25 occupants, e.g., employees, students.
• An email address must be available for each occupant so the questionnaire can be sent to him/her.
• POEs have not been developed for all building types. Therefore, the building is exempt if its building type is NOT listed in the “Supported Building Types” above.

Development of the SPOES Questionnaire

Goals of SPOES questionnaire development were to:

• reflect recognized IEQ components used in sustainable guidelines, in this case, the B3 Guidelines;
• meet research standards for validity and reliability;
• clearly communicate results through an IEQ Scorecard;
• use metrics that can be compared to benchmarks and other buildings; and
• provide useful data for program evaluation and feedback.

An interdisciplinary team was formed at the University of Minnesota to develop the questionnaire, data collection method, and analysis strategy. The questionnaire went through piloting, pre-testing, revisions, and analysis for reliability and validity. The questionnaire addresses a range of environmental scales, from an individual workstation to an entire facility, and it reflects industry standard IEQ categories and attributes (which are the measurable independent variables within each category). The dependent variable is occupant satisfaction. The purpose of conducting the POE is to determine which of the categories (thermal, lighting, acoustics, furnishings, etc.) influence occupants’ satisfaction with their interior environment. SPOES provides a quantitative analysis of occupants’ satisfaction and helps direct attention to both successful areas as well as areas that need improvement. Reports on the development, testing, and subsequent case study findings can be found in the Journal of Green Buildings, International Journal of Sustainable Design, Journal of Learning Spaces, and Design at the Edge.

The SPOES questionnaire can be used by architects, interior designers, facility managers, and business/building owners to identify a building’s IEQ Score. The IEQ Scorecard can range from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied). It uses the mean score of all variables to illustrate how well the overall IEQ performs in terms of satisfying building occupants. By prioritizing the problem areas identified by SPOES, business owners and facility managers are empowered to make changes that enhance satisfaction and reduce recruiting and training expenses.

Below is an example of a building’s IEQ Score…you’ll receive this score and analysis of all findings in a reader-friendly report.