What's New
The Office of the Future is a consortium
of some of North America’s largest and most progressive
energy utilities committed to finding new ways to address
energy efficiency in the commercial buildings market. Learn
about the consortium and the Advanced Energy Office program.
Get the news about NBI by reading our latest
newsletter now available at http://www.newbuildings.org/newsletter/2009-06_newsletter.htm
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the
first-of-its-kind bill to address the threat of global climate
change. The American Clean Energy and Security Act
of 2009 intends to “create clean energy jobs, achieve
energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition
to a clean energy economy.” The bill includes provisions
on improving energy efficiency in building codes and cites
NBI’s Core Performance criteria as one of the standards
to be considered for better codes. For more information on
Core Energy Codes, visit the Codes page
of the NBI website.
New Buildings Institute’s work in
the areas of advanced lighting technologies and practices
was cited in the June issue of Buildings magazine,
in an article entitled “Lighting
Controls for Existing Buildings” by Craig DiLouie.
 Nominations
are Now Open! The Jeffrey A. Johnson Award for Excellence
in the Advancement of Building Energy Codes and Performance
recognizes a leader or a team for sustained service of the
highest caliber in the pursuit of energy efficiency goals.
This award honors Jeff’s memory, and exemplifies his
enthusiasm, motivation and drive for innovation, and his can-do,
no-fear attitude for making a difference. For details and
to nominate an individual or group of individuals, visit the
Award
Criteria page. Please submit your nomination no later
than July 6, 2009.
NBI and the American Institute of Architects jointly
submitted a proposal for the 2012 IECC to achieve
20-30% energy savings in commercial buildings. The Proposal
is largely based on measures contained in the Core Performance
Guide.
Mark Frankel, NBI’s Technical Director,
was named chair of the board for the Cascadia
Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, at the organization’s
Living Futures Conference, in May. He will serve a one-year
term.
Core Performance has been adopted as part
of a stretch
code for Massachusetts. The new rules would make new commercial
buildings under 100,000 square feet up to 30% more energy
efficient than current standards and reduce carbon emissions
by nearly 40%. Click here for more
information on advanced codes.
NBI is excited to announce that it has has
teamed with the US Department of Energy to create an improved
Getting
to 50 buildings database. The new database provides detailed
case studies for buildings that perform at least 30% better
than the CBECS average for their type. In keeping with NBI’s
focus on measured performance, the detailed
search features allow the user to select buildings where
actual energy use data is available. NBI is very happy to
be teaming with DOE to provide practitioners with examples
that will get us to energy performance that is 50% better
than code . . . and beyond.
Advanced Lighting Guidelines 2009
is coming this fall. Long the definitive source on how to
achieve good lighting, the
new edition will be available online - more current, more
searchable, and more comprehensive. Sign
up now to be notified when ALG 2009 goes live.
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Dave
Hewitt will be presenting Net-Zero Energy Opportunities
for the Commercial Sector at the 