The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has launched the Building Performance Initiative to collect and analyze data and assess the performance of buildings certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system.
The initiative is designed to create a comprehensive data-collection effort from buildings that have achieved LEED certification. The initiative also creates an appropriate analysis methodology of that data and provides feedback to building owners and LEED project teams so they have better information to address performance gaps that stem from predicted building performance versus actual performance.
This initiative coincides with an earlier announcement that will require ongoing performance data from buildings as part of their certification under LEED Version 3 and beyond.
A building’s day-to-day operations have a dramatic impact on its performance, and without better information, a manager cannot identify inefficiencies and improve operations.
A number of factors affect a building’s ability to deliver high performance, including energy-modeling tools, properly timed energy models, quality commissioning, proper goal setting and benchmarking, and coordination between design and operation.
But the biggest issue by far is the way occupants use the building daily. Do they forget to turn off lights when they leave rooms? Do they leave water running in sinks? Do managers have protocols for checking automatic controls? Do technicians know when those controls malfunction?
USGBC will hold four Building Performance Initiative summits across the United States this September and October. Participants will have a chance to preview USGBC’s data-collection agenda and proposed analysis methodology and provide other feedback. USGBC will share input from these meetings at Greenbuild on Nov. 11-13, in Phoenix.
