This lecture is open to the public and registration is not required.

Amid a quickly expanding sustainable building industry, an increasing area of research interest has turned to the educational and behavioral outcomes for occupants in green buildings. Predominantly rooted in the environmental education literature, empirical studies have mostly focused on the environmental knowledge outcomes in formal educational settings. However, little is known about how occupants’ behaviors are impacted through interacting within and with green buildings and more broadly, how behavioral patterns cultivated in sustainable buildings may spillover to other contexts. This presentation will propose the Positive Sustainable Built Environments model as a theoretical framework through which we can analyze how green buildings support or undermine occupant environmental behaviors and will discuss the results of a longitudinal study conducted with undergraduate students from six residence halls in the United States. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the direction of this research for future empirical and teaching projects that will triangulate the issues of sustainable built environments, human well-being, and community engagement.

Erin Hamilton is a dual doctoral candidate in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the School for Environmental and Sustainability. She is broadly interested in the relationships among people and the built and natural environments they inhabit. Specifically, her dissertation explores the cognitive and behavioral affordances of environmentally responsible behavior in green buildings. She has taught as a graduate student instructor at UM for 4+ years and views teaching as integral to the research and learning process. She has taught courses related to human-environment interactions, the psychology of behavior change, sustainable architecture and urbanism, and interior design. She received an M.S. in Design Studies: Environment and Behavior and a B.S. in Interior Design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a B.A. in Psychology from Texas A&M University.