Open Collections

Green marketing research tool for developers

University of British Columbia

Market researchers employ various tools to determine whether certain products and features are likely to succeed. In real estate development, the process typically entails examining the demographics and characteristics of the market area and reviewing long-term national, regional, and local customer preference trends for a given product. Conventional market research compares existing products serving similar customers, often overlooking the possibility of new products or new customers. Conventional market research typically asks questions only about historic market performance of comparable products ("comps"). This practice may be one of green building's greatest barriers, because comps do not necessarily give an accurate reading of the appeal of the new, greener product. However, while the comps used in conventional market research examine similar projects, the analogs used in creative feasibility enable the researcher to pick and choose among projects, or specific features, much more widely without being limited by circumstances. Therefore, first of all, a reliable database of analogs has been created by collecting a large number of authentic case studies and associated performance statistics. Secondly, a faster, easier and more precise search engine has also been developed to enable the extraction of accurate analogs from the database and apply them to a certain building in this study. Utilizing the tool developed in this study, reasonable green designation levels that are now cost effective and more sustainable compared to conventional buildings have been established. These results assist developers forwarding understanding achievable environmental performance goals in green buildings that use little of energy, little of virgin materials and give little of negative impacts on natural environment in future.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-11-24

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15646

Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace