Help NBI Tell Your Story

Ever since the first commercial Zero Net Energy (ZNE) building in North America (the Lewis Center at Oberlin University) came online more than 15 years ago, sharing successes and lessons learned has been a key piece in bringing ZNE to scale. We at NBI have been tracking ZNE buildings across North America to share as much information as possible to support these market transformation efforts. Our most recent Getting to Zero Buildings List, was recently released during the 2016 Getting to Zero National Forum on Oct. 12-14. We have detailed case studies on dozens of ZNE and Ultra Low Energy (ULE) projects and maintain the Getting to Zero Buildings Database, the only comprehensive filterable and searchable database of ZNE and ULE buildings in North America.

As ZNE buildings move from the realm of demonstration projects into the broader marketplace, more and more buildings are popping up all the time. We want your help in tracking these success stories so we can share them far and wide.

Have you worked to bring a ZNE building into the world? We would love to include your building in this prestigious list of high performance buildings on the continent. Or maybe you simply know of an exemplary building that we should know about. We’ve got a couple of ways that you can tell us about ZNE or ULE buildings.

  1. If you are (or were) involved in the design, construction, or operations of a ZNE building, and you would like to see that building publicized by NBI, download this form and send it back to us with more information about the building. Once you’ve filled it out, you can return email it to [email protected].

  2. If you know of a ZNE or ULE building but don’t have access to information about the building’s energy usage, design, construction, or operations, you can fill out this brief web form to tell us just the basics. We’ll take it from there!

Verified ZNE projects will be added to the Getting to Zero Buildings Database; emerging projects will be tracked via the annual list until they can be verified. The diagram below shows our process for tracking projects.

ZNE_Registry flow_4

Collecting real-world measured performance data makes it possible for us to determine which buildings can be listed as ZNE Verified, ZNE Emerging or Ultra Low Energy. Don’t be shy if your building hasn’t quite hit Zero just yet, buildings that have a publicly stated ZNE goal are listed as Emerging even if they haven’t hit that target yet. Wondering what these labels mean? Here’s a Guide to Frequently Asked Questions about how we make these designations and what we do with the information provided.

Don’t miss your opportunity to get some great exposure about your experience in the world of ZNE and change the world of commercial buildings for the better.

Alexi Miller, Senior Project Manager