The First Facility Management Blog

Nine million tons of carbon dioxide. $600 million in energy costs: that’s the potential savings represented by 100,000 copies in the Advanced Energy Design Guide series now in circulation. More than 88,000 of the publications have been obtained via free download since January 2008.

The series includes publications on small retail and small office buildings, K-12 school buildings, and warehouses and self-storage units.  The books provide guidance on how to achieve 30% energy savings over building code minimums based on ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1999.

Calculations show that if every guide downloaded resulted in a single building designed to save 30% beyond code minimum, the estimated energy and carbon savings would be 52 trillion btus and 9 million tons of carbon dioxide. With an average cost of electricity of 5¢ per kwh and gas at $7 per mmbtu, the estimated cost of energy savings is over $600 million.

The guides are developed by ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the U.S. Green Building Council, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

“ASHRAE is committed to energy optimization and producing guidance that will help move the building industry toward market-viable net-zero energy and carbon neutral buildings,” ASHRAE President Kent Peterson, P.E., said. “The call for these high performing buildings is transforming our industry, and the guidance in the Advanced Energy Design Guide series is useable technology guidance to help owners, architects, and engineers in accomplishing high-performing buildings.”

“This is proof positive that there are substantial economic benefits to green building strategies,” said AIA President Marshall E. Purnell, FAIA.  “Hopefully this will help convince skeptics of the value and payback of green building design and that practitioners will take advantage of this excellent resource so that we can move closer to reaching our shared goal of carbon neutral buildings by 2030.”

Upcoming publications in the series include 30% guidance books for highway lodging, existing buildings, and small health care facilities.

Nine million tons of carbon dioxide. $600 million in energy costs.

That’s the potential savings represented by 100,000 copies in the Advanced Energy Design Guide series now in circulation. More than 88,000 of the publications have been obtained via free download since January.

The series includes publications on small retail and small office buildings, K-12 school buildings, and warehouses and self storage units. The books provide guidance on how to achieve 30% energy savings over building code minimum based on ANSI/ASHRAE/ IESNA Standard 90.1-1999.

Calculations show that if every guide downloaded resulted in a single building designed to save 30% beyond code minimum, the estimated energy and carbon savings would be 52 trillion btus and 9 million tons of carbon dioxide. With an average cost of electricity of 5 cents per kwh and gas at $7 per mmbtu, the estimated cost of energy savings is over $600 million.

The guides are developed by ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and the U.S. Green Building Council, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy. The downloads are available at www.ashrae.org/freeaedg.

“ASHRAE is committed to energy optimization and producing guidance that will help move the building industry toward market viable net zero energy and carbon neutral buildings,” ASHRAE President Kent Peterson, P.E., said. “The call for these high performing buildings is transforming our industry, and the guidance in the Advanced Energy Design Guide series is usable technology guidance to help owners, architects and engineers in accomplishing high-performing buildings.”

“This is proof positive that there are substantial economic benefits to green building strategies,” said AIA President Marshall E. Purnell, FAIA. “Hopefully this will help convince skeptics of the value and payback of green building design and that practitioners will take advantage of this excellent resource so that we can move closer to reaching our shared goal of carbon neutral buildings by 2030.”

“IES is pleased to part of the team developing these important guides, whose success demonstrates that collectively the collaborating organizations are raising awareness about how to achieve energy savings and developing a receptive audience for future guidance on net zero energy and carbon neutral buildings,” said Rita M. Harrold, IESNA director of technology.

“The green building movement offers an unprecedented opportunity to respond to the most important challenges of our time, including global climate change, dependence on non-sustainable and expensive sources of energy, and threats to human health,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “Working with ASHRAE, AIA, and IESNA on the Advanced Energy Design Guide series is part of a critical collaborative effort to provide the industry with the tools it needs to make an immediate and measurable impact.”

Upcoming publications in the series include 30% guidance books for highway lodging, existing buildings and small health care facilities.

To reduce the building design industry’s impact on the environment, key leaders in that sector are collaborating to establish carbon-neutral buildings by the year 2030. The American Institute of Architects (AIA), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Architecture 2030, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), and the U.S. Green Building Council, supported by representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy, finalized an agreement of understanding in early May, establishing a common starting point and a goal of net zero energy buildings.

“This agreement allows the building design sector to move forward with designing buildings that use substantially less energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create spaces that are healthy and comfortable,” according to the groups.

While focused on designing net zero energy buildings, the ultimate goal is carbon-neutral buildings by 2030. In joining together, the groups recognize that “the building sector accounts for almost half of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. annually.”

To reach that goal, AIA, ASHRAE, Architecture 2030, IESNA, and USGBC agreed to define the baseline starting point for their common target goals as the national average energy consumption of existing U.S. commercial buildings as reported by the 2003 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). CBECS data is a set of whole-building energy use measurements gathered by the DOE’s Energy Information Administration, which can be used to determine a national energy use intensity using kBtu/sqft-yr as the metric.

“The task we face is daunting,” Edward Mazria, founder and executive director of Architecture 2030, said. “Working separately, we could accomplish something significant in each of our respective spheres. But by working together, we actually have a chance to influence the course of history - and we will.”

“Establishing a baseline for reducing energy consumption is a critical step in the goal of curbing the emissions generated by the built environment,” said AIA president RK Stewart, FAIA. “From this baseline, the design and construction industry can use this reference point to ensure that new or renovated buildings are designed to operate in a smart, healthy, and efficient manner.”

“This agreement is a significant demonstration of the importance of an ongoing alliance among the key organizations responsible for building design,” Kevin Flynn, IESNA president, said. “Careful deliberations have resulted in agreed upon goals for addressing substantial reduction in energy use. IESNA looks forward to pursuing these goals in collaboration with the partnering organizations.”

The proposed new standard from ASHRAE, IESNA, and USGBC aims to provide a baseline for sustainable design, construction, and operations.

Comments will be accepted through July 9, 2007 at www.ashrae.org/publicreviews. The standard is being developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and will be the first of its kind in the United States.

Standard 189P (Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings) has been proposed in order to drive green building into mainstream building practices. It will apply to new commercial buildings and major renovation projects and will address key areas of performance including energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable site selection, water usage, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

“Standard 189P will become the benchmark for all sustainable green buildings in the United States because it is being developed for inclusion into building codes,” said committee chair John Hogan, chair of the Standard 189P Project Committee. “This means that owners and designers will have a consensus-based document that will set the minimum criteria that a building must satisfy in order to be considered a green building. The real impact of Standard 189P is that ASHRAE, along with IESNA and USGBC, is taking advanced energy conservation guidance mainstream for the general public’s benefit.”

Hogan also noted that the standard is not a building rating system per se, but rather a compilation of criteria that must be met in order for local building code officials to provide a Certificate of Occupancy for a facility.

Standard 189P is being developed using USGBC’s LEED® Green Building Rating System™, which addresses the top 25% of building practice, as a key resource. Upon completion, Standard 189 will be an ANSI-accredited standard that can be incorporated into building code. It is intended that the standard will eventually become a prerequisite for LEED certification.

Proposed Standard 189P will be available only during public review periods. Visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.

About ASHRAE
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of some 50,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.

About IESNA
IESNA is the recognized technical authority on illumination. For over 100 years, its objective has been to communicate information on all aspects of good lighting practice to its members, to the lighting community, and to consumers, through a variety of programs, publications, and services.

About USGBC
USGBC is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. USGBC’s membership includes more than 9,000 corporations, federal agencies, state and local governments, and nonprofits; and encompasses 65 local chapters and affiliates nationwide.

Building design leaders across the nation have united in establishing a benchmark by which The 2030 Challenge energy reduction targets can be measured.

After a series of discussions, Architecture 2030, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), supported by representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and Target Finder, established a common starting point.

The group agreed to define the baseline starting point, or benchmark, for their common target goals as the national average energy consumption of existing U.S. commercial buildings as reported by the 2003 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). The CBECS data is a set of whole-building energy use measurements gathered by the DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). The CBECS data can be used to determine a national energy use intensity (EUI) using kBtu/sqft-yr as the metric.

Agreement was also reached to use Site Energy Use Intensity (Site EUI) to measure reductions at this time. Site Energy Use is a measure of the energy consumed directly at the location of a building. Another option considered was Source Energy, which is a measure that accounts for energy consumed on site, as well as energy consumed during generation and transmission in supplying energy to the site. Although Source Energy may be a better expression of the carbon emission impacts of a building’s energy use, the group decided against using it as a measure because conversion factors that accurately express these impacts at the level of specific building and location are not yet available.

The establishment of this common starting point now allows project designers to move forward with developing buildings that meet The 2030 Challenge Targets for reducing fossil fuel energy consumption and the consequent greenhouse-gas emissions currently causing global warming. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Click 2030 Challenge, AIA, ASHRAE, DOE, IESNA, USGBC No Comments »

Written by: Gladys on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 6:44 am