by AF 1027 e5 — October 30, 2009—The Energy Trust of Oregon and Efficiency New Brunswick have added Advanced Buildings, a suite of tools and resources on best practices in energy-efficient, high performance building design, according to a recent announcement.
New Buildings Institute (NBI), a nonprofit organization aimed at improving energy performance in buildings, develops and maintains the Advanced Buildings program to help architects, engineers, building owners, and others take advantage of the benefits of energy efficiency strategies in commercial building projects.
Core Performance, the cornerstone of the Advanced Buildings program, is a direct prescriptive design path that results in low-energy buildings without the need for energy modeling.
The Core Performance Guide describes a set of 30 criteria that when applied together under an integrated design process results in buildings that are up to 30 percent more energy efficient than national building standards (ASHRAE 90.1 2004). Behind the protocol is an extensive modeling effort covering three of the most common building types and 16 U.S. climates, says NBI.
Core Performance can be applied to any size project, but works best on less complex buildings. Projects less than 50,000 square feet represent about 95 percent of new commercial construction, according to Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey data.
Buildings up to 100,000 square feet that apply Core Performance would qualify for LEED points—the two prerequisite points in LEED [2.2] Energy and Atmosphere Credit 1, and up to three additional points. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
For more information, see the Web site of the New Buildings Institute.
