What's New

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.

Third Annual Jeffrey A. Johnson Award for Excellence
NBI is pleased to share the news that Bruce Nelson, Senior Engineer at the Minnesota Department of Commerce Office of Energy Security, has been named this year’s recipient of the Jeffrey A. Johnson Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Building Energy Codes and Performance. Congratulations Bruce!

Thanks to everyone who came out for our Open House at NBI’s second home in Vancouver. For those who couldn’t make it, click here to learn more about our newest office space and some of the things we’re doing to improve its energy efficiency.

Summer NBI News Is Now Available
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 .

New Buildings Institute Turns 10!

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. We’ll be sharing with you some of our accomplishments during the coming year. Stay tuned!

Where We'll Be

Dave Hewitt will be presenting at the 8th International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations in Berlin, Germany October 20-22, 2008. His topics will be Getting to Fifty: Moving Toward Low-Energy Commercial Buildings in the US and Green Building Performance Evaluation in the United States: Measured Results from LEED-New Construction Buildings.

Mark Cherniack, Mark Frankel and Cathy Higgins will be attending the Emerging Technologies Summit in San Diego, October 27-28. Mark Cherniack will be moderating a session on Fault Detection and Diagnostics. Mark Frankel will be moderating a session on Net Zero Energy in Commercial Buildings and presenting on LEED Building Performance.

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.

Cathy Higgins and Mark Frankel will be speaking at GreenBuild in Boston, November 19-21.

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.

Join DOE in a dialogue on how government, efficiency programs, utilities, industry, the design community, and others are working together to shape markets for SSL products, to maximize market acceptance and national energy savings. Voices for SSL Efficiency 2008, July 9-11 in Portland, Oregon, is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Energy Trust of Oregon, Puget Sound Energy, and Bonneville Power Administration.