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New Buildings Institute - 10 Years in Review

Since December 1997, New Buildings Institute has worked with national, regional, state and utility groups to improve energy efficiency in commercial new construction. By advancing technologies and design practices, advocating for better codes and providing national leadership, our efforts have contributed to making buildings better for people and the environment. Take a look back at some of the highlights of our first ten years.

 

What's New

New Buildings Institute has received an award from the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program. NBI’s proposal, Evidence-Based Design and Operations, was ranked number 1. The largest piece of work is an NBI-led whole buildings measured performance project, very much related to our work with USGBC and the Measured Performance Steering Committee. Other projects in the proposal, all related to improving the real work performance of buildings, include plug load examination (with Ecos Consulting), Fault Detection and Diagnostics (with Purdue University and Western Cooling Efficiency Center), daylighting tool testing/development (with Architectural Energy Corporation and California Lighting Technology Center).

Promise vs. Performance: A Deeper Shade of Green, published in the October edition of Architect Magazine, addresses the performance of LEED-rated buildings and explores the findings of NBI’s USGBC-commissioned report “Energy Performance of LEED for New Construction Buildings.”

NBI Announces New Board Members
As attention on green, high performance building has grown, so has NBI. Four new directors were seated in early August:

  •  Marge Anderson, Energy Center of Wisconsin
  •  Martha Brook, California Energy Commission
  •  Mark Eggers, New York State Energy Research & Development Authority
  •  Brendan Owens, U.S. Green Building Council

As we welcome these individuals to our Board we'd also like to acknowledge the contributions of outgoing Board Members Brian Henderson and John Wilson and thank them for their long-standing service to NBI.

NBI News
NBI is growing and changing. Learn about progress on our latest efforts to improve the efficiency of new commercial buildings by reading our latest newsletter. Want regular updates?

LEED Energy Performance Project
NBI has just released the broadest study to-date of measured energy performance of LEED buildings. The study gathered whole building energy data from 121 LEED NC buildings across the country that had been occupied for at least one year.

On average, LEED buildings are delivering the anticipated savings, performing 25-30% better than national average or modeled baselines. Individual building results, however, display a high degree of scatter, with some performing much better than average and some much worse. These and other results from this exploratory study suggest several opportunities for improved feedback tools, follow-up research on actual performance factors, improved modeling guidelines, and LEED program refinements. For more information, contact .

Where We'll Be


Barb Hamilton will be attending the annual conference of the Illuminating Engineering Society in Savannah, Georgia, November 9-11.

Mark Cherniack will be presenting a session on "Building for the Future: Building Codes and Green Building Initiatives" including Advanced Buildings Core Performance at the American Public Power Association's Energy Efficiency Summit in Indianapolis, November 12-14.

Mark Frankel will be speaking at GreenBuild in Boston, November 19-21. Cathy higgins will also be attending.

 


Links We Like

The goal of the Commercial Buildings Initiative is to transform the commercial buildings sector into one that routinely builds zero-energy buildings for every type of use—office towers (both client-owned and leased), industrial facilities, shopping malls, hospitals, schools, government facilities and the like.

The High Performance Buildings Database, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, collects information from buildings around the world, ranging from homes and commercial interiors to large buildings and even whole campuses and neighborhoods.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently pubished Assessment of the Technical Potential for Achieving Net Zero-Energy Buildings in the Commercial Sector. This report summarizes the findings from research conducted at NREL to assess the technical potential for zero-energy building technologies and practices to reduce the impact of commercial buildings.

"Buildings of the future" - this is the guiding concept of EnOB, energy-optimised construction (the name EnOB is an abbreviation of the equivalent German term). The research projects sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) involve buildings which have minimal primary energy requirements and high occupant comfort, with moderate investment costs and significantly reduced operating costs. Learn more about the various areas on which EnOB research is focused, and about the testing of new concepts, technologies and materials in model projects.

 

 

 
making buildings better for people and the environment

   
 

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