Self-reported health and comfort of outpatient workers in six hospitals

As hospital workers are generally less satisfied with comfort than patients and limited information was available on health and comfort in outpatient areas, a PhD study was carried out on staff in outpatient areas. The study design, main conclusions and recommendations of this PhD study are discussed. To gain a more representative view of the...

Data-driven public transport ridership prediction approach including comfort aspects

The most important aspects on which passengers base their choice whether to travel by public transport are the perceived travel time, costs, reliability and comfort. Despite its importance, comfort is often not explicitly considered when predicting demand for public transport. In this paper, we include comfort level in a modelling framework by...

Reducing domestic energy consumption: A user-centred design approach

Energy use within the UK domestic sector is on the increase, causing significant environmental and social stresses. This increase in energy consumption is not only due to the rising proliferation of technological devices within the home, but also to their context of use, and the behaviours and habits attributed to and enacted through their...

Building renovation as an element for the sustainability of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil

Among the diverse initiatives that can be developed in the search of sustainability, universities assume important roles either by disseminating ideas or by implementing real world solutions and applications. Considered as durable products, buildings represent one of the biggest elements in our society that causes impact in the natural ambient....

Certification of passive houses: A Western European overview

According to the popular definition, passive houses have to reach a target energy demand for heating less than 15 kWh per square meter and per year. This criterion is used as a basis for quality assurance procedures and certification of passive house projects. This paper identifies the experiences in several western European countries concerning...