Past Projects
Past VERiS Projects
The team is currently developing reliable and valid measures for assessing a culture of sustainability in specific organizational contexts (e.g. a business, institution or office building).
Realizing the full potential of green-certified government office buildings in promoting employee mental health, Dr. Manuel Riemer, Wilfrid Laurier University
Poor employee mental health has become one of Canada’s most prevalent and costly occupational health issues. It is well established that better indoor environments in office buildings are correlated with more satisfied occupants and with higher levels of wellbeing. It is also commonly assumed that green-certified office buildings, such as the new Edmonton Tower, provide superior working environments with beneficial outcomes on wellbeing and productivity. The empirical evidence in regard to these benefits is encouraging, although limited and inconsistent. The study will address current shortcomings that may explain the variability in the empirical findings. Starting with a strengthened theoretical foundation and a broadened understanding of wellbeing, our research will explore three key research questions:
1. What are key differences in experienced wellbeing and productivity of government employees in newly developed green-certified buildings compared to retrofitted green-certified buildings and traditional buildings?
2. What are the key factors contributing to the positive mental health and productivity benefits of green-certified buildings for government employees?
3. To what degree and through what processes does a newly developed green-certified building contribute to a positive culture of sustainability within the building?
Using a longitudinal multiple case-study design, we will compare environmental (e.g., air quality), survey (e.g., perceived wellbeing), and qualitative data (e.g., subjective experience of the building) collected within the new Edmonton Tower (built to LEED-Gold standard) with data from two comparison sites in Edmonton (a retrofitted building with BOMA-Level 1 certification and a traditional building). In addition, we will collect survey data regarding key outcomes (wellbeing, productivity, and sustainable behaviours) and a variety of relevant contributing factors (e.g., culture of sustainability) from 30 government buildings of various types within Alberta. Our integrated knowledge mobilization strategy will allow us to disseminate evidence-based information on the human impacts of sustainable buildings and on ways to create workplace settings that better support employees’ mental health.
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Poor employee mental health has become one of Canada’s most prevalent and costly occupational health issues. Better indoor environments in office buildings correlate with greater occupant satisfaction and wellbeing. It is assumed that superior working environments in green-certified office buildings support wellbeing and productivity. While empirical evidence is encouraging, it is limited and inconsistent.
Our study addresses several of the current shortcomings that may explain the variability in the empirical findings. Starting with a strengthened theoretical foundation and a broadened understanding of wellbeing, our research explores key research questions such as:
- What are the differences in experienced wellbeing and productivity of government employees in newly developed green-certified buildings compared to retrofitted green-certified buildings and traditional buildings?
- What are the key factors contributing to the positive mental health and productivity benefits of green-certified buildings for government employees?
We are exploring these questions in partnership with the City of Edmonton. A majority of their employees recently moved into a certified LEED green building. We used a variety of measures assessing, among other things, occupants’ satisfaction with physical features, psycho-environmental potential; and negative and positive wellbeing and physical health in this and two comparison buildings.
There is a growing understanding that a focus on changing individual-level environmental behaviors, or personal practices, is insufficient to create the societal transformation needed to effectively address anthropogenic environmental degradation including global climate change. Instead, another form of engagement – environmental action – is needed. Several gaps in the empirical research on effective programs for youth engagement in environmental action motivated our multinational group of researchers, representatives of community organizations, and youth environmental leaders to develop Youth Leading Environmental Change (YLEC), a program that is driven by a theory of engagement that combines several youth-engagement strategies with a high likelihood of impact in diverse settings, derived from the current knowledge base in this area.
Coordinated by CEJRG, the collaboration allowed YLEC to maintain a consistent format and approach while remaining adaptable and relevant to the particular features of each country’s environmental, social, economic, and cultural contexts. Just as the issue of climate change is interdisciplinary, so too is our collaboration, involving academic partners from such fields as:
- Community Psychology
- Education
- Sociology
- Economics
- Geography
- Business
- Environmental Studies
Together we conducted a comprehensive longitudinal mixed-method quasi-experimental study evaluating the impact of YLEC on program participants across six countries (Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, India, Uganda and the United States of America). The results showed that the YLEC workshop led to a meaningful personal transformation for participating youth resulting in environmental action.
The project has produced:
- A facilitator’s manual;
- An evaluation of a Psychology, Environment and Action course taught at Wilfrid Laurier University; and
- A special issue of Ecopsychology edited by Riemer and Dittmer called Youth Leading Environmental Change. This journal is the only peer-reviewed journal that places psychology and mental health in an ecological context to recognize the links between human health, culture and the health of the planet.
This study examined the factors that sustain and disable one’s long-term motivation after attending an environmental engagement program. The study examined the Camp Suzuki in the Rouge program, which was facilitated by the David Suzuki Foundation. The program goal was to raise awareness about Rouge Park, which is Canada’s first urban national park. The study employs a mixed method design where both surveys and interviews are used to better understand participants’ program experiences in terms of their change in motivation towards the environment, the actual commitment to the environment and engaging their community, and the overall impact of the program. The aim of the study is to gain a better understanding of what factors contribute to long-term motivation in order to make environmental engagement programs more efficient and effective.
Building on pilot research that indicates the importance of complex interventions for environmental change, this case study investigated the efficacy of a workshop-style intervention on raising critical consciousness of environmental factors on students employed by Reduce the Juice (RTJ).
These four workshops conducted over the summer, each focused on a particular theme (e.g. the ecological model, urban planning and design, government and policy, and environmental justice). The workshops were designed to help the students develop an understanding of the multiple levels of influences that impact individuals’ environmental and transportation choices.
This intervention intended to help the students develop knowledge and skills to help them in the short term, with their RTJ work as community educators, and in the long term as environmentalists. The students’ experiences were explored phenomenologically through recordings of the workshops, qualitative interviews, journal entries from the RTJ team leaders, and questionnaires regarding the students’ previous environmental and general community involvement.
Reduce the Juice (RTJ) is a youth-driven community education initiative in Waterloo Region. They employ high school students during the summer to canvas their neighbourhoods and persuade local residents to reduce their carbon footprint and air pollution by changing their transportation and energy-intensive household behaviours.
This evaluation of their 2009 campaign includes a pre-post comparison group design to evaluate the impact of the high school students on residents. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with residents to explore the type of challenges they experienced in trying to change their behaviours and habit and what has helped them along the way.