The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) and the New Buildings Institute (NBI) worked together to create a report summarizing the results of their meeting last year, where industry experts planned for a future focused on commercial building performance outcomes.
The 2014 summit participants debated over issues and developed strategies on how to address them. They discussed performance outcomes for policy considerations related to energy codes, benchmarking, disclosure, and other topics.
There is a push for performance outcomes, which stems from a response to an increasing number of policy goals targeting better building efficiency as a way to cut energy use and associated greenhouse gases. Buildings account for 39 percent of carbon emissions in the United States and are a major contributor to climate change worldwide.
“In the past 15 years, we have seen significant advances in the way buildings are being designed to achieve high-performance goals,” said NIBS presidential advisor, Ryan Colker. “To ensure we’re seeing the benefits of those goals, we don’t want to rely on energy savings predictions. Actual, measured outcomes matter. The industry needs to use a holistic approach that puts the focus on real performance outcomes in order to achieve the energy efficiency goals expected over the life of a building.”
“As design features become more energy efficient, the proportion of building energy use associated with operations increases,” said NBI technical director Mark Frankel. “This means the role of building operators must be elevated and more focus-placed on occupant behaviors, especially related to growing plug roles. Better feedback mechanisms are needed to help design teams understand how their past projects are being used in order to improve energy models for future projects.”
Participants agreed compiling a collection of tools and resources for both policymakers and the industry is key. This would include case studies identifying and evaluating projects and programs focused on outcomes, advocacy tools to explain the benefits of the approaches used and best practices for adaption, and a how-to guide written in plain language explaining business case and risk.
They also discussed developing a method for gathering and storing building-level data to get more meaningful performance targets, which would drive better understanding of the gap between predicted and actual performance. Participants also thought developing pilot projects for testing concept components and government projects would help.
Read the Summit Report here.
