Applying social practice theory to contemporary working practices in sustainable office buildings: Implications for the performance gap

The UK Government has committed to an 80% reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) against 1990 levels by 2050. Widening understandings of the environmental impact of the built environment have fuelled debates around how the environmental performance of buildings should be approached. The UK non-domestic building sector presents a significant challenge within the field of environmental performance of buildings and an imperative to improve performance has led to the emergence of green or sustainable building as a long-term solution.Sustainably designed buildings are increasingly present within the non-domestic building sector, however issues of discrepancy between environmental performance design targets, such as energy and water use, and actual ‘in-use’ performance have been widely reported and researched. The difference between predicted and operational building performance is termed the ‘performance gap’. Narrowing the performance gap is not limited to addressing technological, physical and economic aspects associated with design, but extends to social and psychological considerations. This research focuses on the performance gap with particular reference to building occupants and operational energy use. The dominant approaches to understanding the role of building occupants in the performance gap are situated within the disciplines of economics and psychology. Individuals are placed at the centre of analysis with a focus on changing behaviour. This research reframes the approach to understanding occupants, applying sociological theories of social practice and shifting focus from individuals to the collective actions or ‘practices’ occupants are engaged in. Thus, the focus of the research is not evaluating occupant behaviour as an approach to understand the impact of office building occupants on the performance gap, but evaluating the impact of the social practices office workers are engaged in within office buildings; the contemporary working practices. This research provides a conceptualisation of contemporary working practices that underpin the empirical study. Contemporary working practices in three BREEAM Excellent certified office buildings are then evaluated through the lens of social practice theory and implications for energy use and the performance gap are appraised. Research findings present novel insights into contemporary working practices and their implications for energy use, which may inform future office design and improve the efficiency of current sustainably designed office buildings. Implications for reframing the analysis of occupants in the performance gap are drawn out, and important subtleties of practice are revealed which impact on design for contemporary working. Issues of unpredictability of occupancy, multiple device use, shifts in peak energy use, design for functionality, handover and commissioning, standards and norms and cultural shifts emerge from this research. The conceptualised working practices underpinning this research form a key contribution to the body of knowledge around the performance gap. This research challenges established approaches to the performance gap in respect of occupants and demonstrates that understandings of webs of interlocking practices provides deeper and broader insights into how ways of living and working may be rendered more sustainable. The research provides new knowledge on how social practice theory can be applied to understand the contemporary working practices occupants are engaged in within sustainably designed office buildings, and the implications of these practices for energy use and the performance gap

Youth in Lebanon: Using collaborative and interdisciplinary communication design methods to improve social integration in post-conflict societies

In 1995, the World Summit for Social Development identified social integration as one of the three overriding objectives for social and economic development. This priority arose following a century that ended with the collapse of many states and the sharpening of strife around the world. Social integration was seen as a pathway to reinforcing common identities, supporting cooperation and lessening the likelihood of violence and conflict. For the past 20 years, governmental, academic and third sector organisations – with the United Nations at the forefront – sought to improve social integration. However their methods and interventions have commonly been restricted to policymaking and dialogue practices. Peacebuilding and reconciliation are affected by communication within and amongst different groups. Nonetheless, the potential for communication design to contribute towards social integration remains unexplored. This practice-led communication design research focuses on 18 to 30 year old youth in Lebanon – an extreme case of a politically, religiously, geographically, culturally and linguistically segregated post-conflict generation. The research adopts an innovative, interdisciplinary(1.) and collaborative(2.) approach, to explore the contribution of communication design methods towards social integration interventions. The interdisciplinary and collaborative case study process spans seven stages of practice: Discover, Delve, Define, Develop, Deliver, Determine Impact and Diverge. I developed this process with Darren Raven in 2010, and have been testing and refining it over the past five years through the socially-focused design projects of BA Design for Graphic Communication students and staff at the London College of Communication. This process builds on the Design Council’s Double Diamond design process by incorporating stages from the National Social Marketing Centre’s process. Through these stages, the research developed several innovative communication design methods: Explorations, a cultural probes toolkit exploring young people’s local context; Road Trip, an autoethnographic journey preparing the researcher; Connections, an effective method for recruiting stakeholders; Expressions Corner, a confidential diary room for understanding young people’s experiences, attitudes and behaviours; Imagination Studio, a collaborative workshop series for developing social integration interventions; Imagination Market, an efficient platform for piloting these interventions; and a Social Impact Framework; to evaluate the impact of the interventions and research. These methods enhanced candid input from young people, reduced ethical tensions, and improved their engagement with the research. The methods also involved youth and wider stakeholders in understanding and reframing the problem, invited them to generate and deliver solutions, strengthened their sense of ownership and therefore the sustainability of the research outputs, and finally, built their capabilities throughout the process. The social integration interventions developed and piloted through the case-study research ranged from a citizen journalism platform reducing media bias, to a youth-led internal tourism service encouraging geographic mobility. The evaluation of the 24-hour pilot interventions demonstrated a positive shift in young people’s willingness to integrate. The social impact and social value assessment suggests that effective social integration interventions – such as the ones developed and piloted in the case study research – have higher chances of delivering positive social and economic outcomes for the communities involved. This practice-led research presents a number of contributions, the most significant of which is a methodology, process and set of methods highly transferable across social integration challenges worldwide. The research also provides social integration theory and practice with a clear demonstration of the value and potential of communication design to advance interventions from replication to innovation. To communication design theory and practice, the research makes the case for the value of interdisciplinary and collaborative principles in enhancing rigour and social impact. Finally, to the Lebanese context, the research provides in-depth qualitative insights on social group dynamics, segments, and behaviours, which act as an evidence-base to underpin future local interventions. Beyond this thesis, the knowledge gained from this research will be disseminated to the various relevant communities of practice – including researchers, designers, policy makers, and community development workers – in the form of Creative Commons licensed design guidelines, as well as presentations, capacity building workshops, and academic publications. The dissemination of knowledge hopes to inspire and enable these communities to adopt, adapt and build on communication design methods when addressing social segregation challenges within their varying contexts. Notes in the text: (1.) Drawing on disciplines such as social, political, behavioural, and psychological sciences. (2.) Engaging multiple stakeholders including young people, civil society, institutions, topic experts and policy-makers

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia

The drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility in the supply chain. A case study.

Purpose: The paper studies the way in which a SME integrates CSR into its corporate strategy, the practices it puts in place and how its CSR strategies reflect on its suppliers and customers relations. Methodology/Research limitations: A qualitative case study methodology is used. The use of a single case study limits the generalizing capacity of these findings. Findings: The entrepreneur’s ethical beliefs and value system play a fundamental role in shaping sustainable corporate strategy. Furthermore, the type of competitive strategy selected based on innovation, quality and responsibility clearly emerges both in terms of well defined management procedures and supply chain relations as a whole aimed at involving partners in the process of sustainable innovation. Originality/value: The paper presents a SME that has devised an original innovative business model. The study pivots on the issues of innovation and eco-sustainability in a context of drivers for CRS and business ethics. These values are considered fundamental at International level; the United Nations has declared 2011 the “International Year of Forestry”