by Brianna Crandall — June 10, 2016 — Legrand, North America, global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures, has just released its latest installment in a series of white papers examining trends and drivers in the rapidly expanding high-performance buildings (HPB) market.
The white paper, entitled “Where is ‘High Performance’ for Buildings Headed?,” evaluates the growing range of performance attributes that today’s buildings are expected to achieve, and observes that significant gaps remain in the influential mechanisms that shape the HPB landscape.
According to Legrand’s research, for today’s buildings to be considered “high performance,” they must optimize across multiple attributes, including not only energy efficiency and sustainability, but also productivity, security, and functionality, and they must do so cost-effectively throughout their lifetimes.
Yet, as Legrand’s research shows, the building performance mechanisms available in the market today do not comprehensively address or incentivize all of these attributes.
The paper underscores an area of increasing attention in the HPB arena: building occupants. Legrand explains ways in which HPBs deliver greater economic, social, and environmental value for both building owners and occupants. By focusing on occupant health, comfort, and security, companies can reap a return on their investment through employees who are more productive in their daily work environments.
Legrand also discusses the progression of smart, sustainable spaces in HPBs, offering several examples of technologies that building owners and facilities managers are deploying to effectively enhance the sustainability and performance of their buildings, including sensors that measure temperature and automatically adjust lighting according to a space’s occupancy.
Susan Rochford, vice president of Energy Efficiency, Sustainability and Public Policy for Legrand, North and Central America, pointed out:
Our latest white paper shares all of the current trends taking place in high-performance building construction. We published it to encourage dialogue within the building community about the path to achieving the full potential of high-performance buildings, ultimately leading to the development of effective solutions that will meet the unique needs of all stakeholders in the industry.
This white paper is one of a three-part series of educational research that discusses the status, regulations, policies, and other key variables that are shifting the performance expectations of today’s built environment.
To read the white paper, “Where is ‘High Performance’ for Buildings Headed?,” click on the link in the FacilitiesNet press release from Legrand.
