by jbs090109 b3 — September 4, 2009—The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently launched its Building Performance Initiative.
It is designed to put in place a comprehensive data collection effort from all buildings that have achieved LEED certification; implement an appropriate analysis methodology of that data; and provide feedback to building owners so they can better address any performance gaps that stem from predicted building performance versus actual performance.
This initiative complements the announcement earlier this year that USGBC will require ongoing performance data from buildings as part of its certification under the latest version of LEED and beyond. According to USGBC LEED Senior Vice President Scot Horst, the LEED program was created to transform the way buildings are designed and constructed, but since a building’s day-to-day operation has a dramatic impact on its performance, owners and FMs need information about where the gaps are to be able to act on them.
Horst said USGBC is going to tackle a multitude of issues that affect the ability of a building to deliver high performance. These include energy modeling tools, properly timed energy models, quality building commissioning, proper goal setting/benchmarking, and coordination between design and operation. He stated that the biggest issue by far is the daily building operations, such as whether the occupants turn out the lights when they leave a room or leave the water running in the sink, and whether FMs have protocols for checking automatic controls and whether they know when those controls are malfunctioning.
USGBC plans to engage practitioners and thought leaders in establishing a national roadmap to optimize building performance by holding four Building Performance Initiative summits across the U.S. in September and October. Participants will have a chance to preview USGBC’s data collection agenda and proposed analysis methodology, and provide other feedback.
