New Buildings Institute Blog

Jurisdictions Prepare for a Wave of Embodied Carbon Policies

Posted on June 17, 2021 by Webly Bowles

Third-party rating systems like LEED have put pressure on building product manufacturers to disclose details about the environmental impacts of their products. In just the past 16 months alone, the environmental product declarations (EPDs) for concrete within the Embodied Carbon...

U.S. DOE announces support for national program on advanced water heating to cut carbon emissions and energy use

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Stacey Hobart

Clothes washer, shower, kitchen sink. These are the places where hot water lives. In fact, water heating accounts for a large share of energy use in buildings—up to 32% in single-family and multifamily homes. Today, the U.S. Department of Energy...

This Earth Day, Every World Leader Should Be Talking About Education

Posted on April 19, 2021 by Reilly Loveland

On his first day in office, President Biden recommitted the United States to the Paris Agreement, an international effort to address the climate emergency. In rejoining the Paris Agreement, the United States must define and commit to delivering greenhouse gas...

Checking in on State Energy Code Progress Toward Zero Energy

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Kevin Carbonnier

ACEEE’s 2020 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard was released in December with California reclaiming the number one spot from Massachusetts. This is based on five categories including utility and public benefits, transportation, building energy efficiency, state initiatives, and appliance standards, according...

New GridOptimal LEED pilot credit encourages designers to help solve grid issues

Posted on March 31, 2021 by Alexi Miller

In 2019, renewable energy provided more energy in the U.S. than coal. The last time this happened, in 1885, the Edison Electric Company had been running the first American central power plant for all of three years and was serving...

Future-Proofing Buildings for a More Resilient Tomorrow

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Webly Bowles

This is the second in a series exploring the COVID-19 pandemic’s relationship to buildings. In the first blog, Buildings’ Impact on Pandemics — we discussed how the building industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can help fuel pandemics. These blogs are...

Utility Administrators Share Expertise on Zero Energy Programs

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Webly Bowles

Urgency to address climate change, along with policy and market forces trending toward a smart, flexible grid, has led a growing number of utility efficiency program administrators to consider ways to increase support for energy-efficient, zero energy buildings. With the...

Denver Shows Leadership With Net Zero Energy Plan

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Sean Denniston

The City and County of Denver recently released a comprehensive plan to achieve net zero energy (NZE) in new buildings and homes by 2030, one of many initiatives being taking to meet the jurisdiction’s goal of an 80% reduction in...

Buildings’ Impact on Pandemics

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Webly Bowles

As the people across the globe respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, a concerted effort has been made to keep occupants safe as office buildings reopen, an endeavor that can inherently use more energy from carbon-intensive generation resources exacerbating climate change...

Five Questions with Smita Gupta

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Stacey Hobart

New Buildings Institute welcomed Smita Gupta as its new Director for Building Innovation in early February. We asked Smita five questions about her experiences over two decades in the energy and buildings industries. Here’s what she shared. Q: Welcome to...