In 2006, Architecture 2030 took a bold step: Challenge everyone involved with the built environment — designers, owners, government, utilities, operators and tenants, everyone — to reach for the goal of Zero Net Energy by 2030. Using the average performance of the American building stock at the turn of the millennium as the starting point, Architecture 2030 then set a series of target reductions that would take us to that goal: reduce energy consumption by 60% by 2010, 70% by 2015, 80% by 2020, 90% by 2025 and Zero Net Energy by 2030.

For over 10 years, New Buildings Institute has been producing whole-building prescriptive design guides that deliver significant energy savings over energy codes. Starting with E-Benchmark, followed by the Core Performance Guide and now the New Construction Guide, these  guides have led the way to high performance in small commercial buildings. The Core Performance Guide even became the technical basis for the significant improvement in stringency in the 2012 edition of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

Since its release, the New Construction Guide has become the premier prescriptive path to high performance for small commercial buildings. It can be used to meet the energy prerequisite in both Version 4.0 of Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) and the Northeast version of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) Standard. The prescriptive compliance path for the City of Boulder’s energy code — at 30% more stringent than ASHRAE 90.1-2010, the most stringent energy code in the country — is based on the New Construction Guide. And now, the New Construction Guide offers a prescriptive option to meet the 2015 target of the Architecture 2030 Challenge.

The New Construction Guide is composed of three increasingly stringent tiers. The “70% solution” for the Architecture 2030 Challenge combines elements from all three tiers with limited onsite renewable energy production. NBI is proud of this collaboration with Architecture 2030 and pleased to offer owners and design teams another option for meeting the 2030 Challenge.

For more information on using the New Construction Guide to meet the 2030 Challenge, visit: https://newbuildings.org/sites/default/files/nbi_ab_2030_Factsheet.pdf.