Newsletter

Spring News from NBI

Getting to Fifty Summit
On March 7-9, 2007, NBI hosted the Getting to Fifty Summit at the Emory University Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia. This meeting brought together 60 innovative thinkers from design professional organizations, efficiency advocates, utilities, government, researchers and business. The Goal: Create a series of linked strategies to increase energy efficiency in new and renovated commercial buildings. The Getting to Fifty Summit spurred a wide variety of suggestions and strategies to accelerate energy efficiency in commercial buildings. View Summary and Recommendations of the Getting to Fifty Summit to get the complete story about this exciting event and learn what comes next.

The Next Generation of Advanced Buildings™
Advanced Buildings, NBI’s unique pathway to energy efficiency is being updated with an eye toward increased accessibility and flexibility. The new version, launching this spring, is a suite of technical resources, trainings and information that focuses on prescriptive efficiency options for buildings 20,000 to 80,000 square feet. Advanced Buildings: Core Performance offers a step-by-step simplified approach that will produce buildings that use 25 to 30 percent less energy than ASHRAE 90.1-2004 standards indicate. Currently utilities are offering Advanced Buildings to their customers in Vermont, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, with developmental work underway in the Northwest. As with the first version of Advanced Buildings, an improved prescriptive path to energy efficiency based on Advanced Buildings Core Performance may be part of USGBC's new LEED energy and atmosphere benchmark.

We look forward to sharing more about the release of this new version of Advanced Buildings in the coming weeks. For more information or to reserve a copy of Core Performance, contact Mark Cherniack, 509-493-4468, ext. 17.

Rooftop Results
NBI has been managing, for the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, the field performance monitoring and data analysis of a new generation of indirect evaporative/DX hybrid rooftop units that should provide 30 to 50 percent reduction in demand when fully commercialized. Utilities in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington are currently participating in the project. Currently all monitoring-based research is completed and documented, and the final report, due later this spring, awaits completion of the next step design recommendations. The demonstration showed that this type of cooling was applicable at all test sites. The eight demonstration units in four states will continue to be used after the formal end of the project, all with updated water controls and cores. Funding is currently committed to continue monitoring on two units in Sacramento, California. Another unit has been committed to a lab test by PG&E.

Improving School Energy Performance
NBI facilitated a "visioning" meeting among ten states to establish a National Collaborative for High Performance Schools. With multiple states developing programs, hundreds of High-Performance Schools will be built in the next few years. The meeting was organized and funded by Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships and the Kendall Foundation.

NBI Welcomes New Staff
We’re pleased to introduce Stacey Hobart, our new Communications Director. Stacey will work across NBI projects and programs to help communicate progress and accomplishments to you and others interested in advancing energy-efficient, high performance commercial building practices. Stacey has over 15 years experience working in the energy industry in the areas of project management, public affairs, energy efficiency and marketing. Most recently, as corporate marketing manager at the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, she was responsible for managing external communications to the organization’s utility stakeholders. Prior to that, Stacey managed marketing activities for NEEA’s commercial building program. Before relocating to the Northwest in 1998, Stacey oversaw the American Public Power Association’s research and development program in Washington, D.C.

Saving Energy, Growing Jobs
David Goldstein, Energy Program Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council and NBI Board President, believes a healthy environment and strong economy are highly compatible objectives. His new book, Saving Energy, Growing Jobs: How Environmental Protection Promotes Economic Growth, Competition, Profitability and Innovation, explains how and why this can happen by:

• profiling the unexpected success of early energy regulations
• exposing the myths of both environmentalists and anti-environmentalists
• offering guidelines for transforming the current political debate
• including suggestions for implementing a combination of incentives and regulations to speed the process

Saving Energy, Growing Jobs is available directly from the publisher and from online and traditional booksellers.

National Grid honored for Advanced Buildings
The Advanced Buildings Program for energy efficiency in commercial buildings is already proving itself to utility customers and now its value and its success have been recognized with a National Grid Chairman’s Award for Environmental Excellence. This award is provided to those business units that exemplify innovation in design, construction and practices that aid National Grid in its pursuit of excellence in providing services to its customers. Advanced Buildings is the type of initiative that is easy for design teams to grasp and implement on a large scale, resulting in substantial mitigation of the impact of the commercial construction marketplace on the environment. Congratulations to Michael McAteer and the entire Business Energy Efficiency Services team at National Grid.

To catch up on earlier news, check out our previous newsletters.