78 International Journal of Green Computing, 5(1), 78-90, January-June 2014 Copyright © 2014, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. ABSTRACT There is an established body of knowledge about technical aspects of sustainable buildings however little research conducted into the post-occupancy relationship between sustainable buildings and occupiers based on the ‘form vs function’ argument (Reed & Bole 2009). There has been limited attention placed on the rela- tionship between technological advances and how occupiers interact and behave with these buildings (Wener & Carmalt 2006). Therefore this is a preliminary study into differences (if any) between (a) the expectation of occupiers and (b) their actual experiences. The data was provided by a survey of occupiers/tenants of sus- tainable buildings in Melbourne, Australia in 2012. The fndings demonstrated (a) occupants of sustainable buildings are primarily interested in their own personal comfort levels, (b) occupiers of 5 star sustainable buildings have the highest expectations of how their buildings operate however there also exists the largest gap between their expectations and actual experiences, and (c) the communication channels available to occupiers about the operation of their sustainable offce building and how they address problems are very limited. There is an urgent need to ensure future efforts to incorporate sustainability into new and existing offce buildings meet the needs of present and future occupiers without compromising short and long-term occupier satisfaction levels. Occupiers as the Critical Stakeholders in a Sustainable Building Richard Reed, Faculty of Business & Law, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Junaidah Jailani, Faculty of Business & Law, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia Keywords: Building Design, Obsolescence, Occupier, Perception, Sustainability, Sustainable Buildings INTRODUCTION Sustainability has received substantial interest in society and this has also gradually transferred into the built environment discipline (Reed et al., 2010). The interest by stakeholders in sus- tainability is a result of concern about climate change and global warming in the broader media. This trend was initially observed at built environment and property conferences, fol- lowed by an increased research in this emerging area. However the concept of sustainability has evolved over time and today means different things to different people (Lockwood et al., 2008). For example there are many types of sustainability and 50 different ‘shades of green’ which depends somewhat on the view of each stakeholder. Most organisations would argue DOI: 10.4018/ijgc.2014010106