IES Blog

Last week, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, linked to a report containing 111 recommendations to improve NYC building codes.

According to the article, the task force, led by Urban Green Council, “was charged with recommending green changes to the laws and regulations affecting buildings in New York, bringing them to the next level. The 111 recommendations largely impact new construction and renovations.” The full report can be found here.

What is most interesting (and disturbing) is the letter at the beginning of the report.

Buildings in New York City account for nearly 80 PERCENT of its greenhouse gas emissions. More than buses, cars and taxis. And in a city with more than 10,000 cabs alone, the fact that buildings are the largest contributor of greenhouse gases is astounding. But the city is trying. In December 2006, Mayor Bloomberg committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30 percent by 2030, which will require substantial changes to building infrastructure.

What struck me about this report is that the changes are for buildings old and new. And they don’t have to do with LEED or Architecture 2030, although those benchmarks are an added bonus. This report provides New York City the changes needed to remove impediments to green building practices, ultimately resulting in greener, healthier buildings for all New Yorkers. Let’s see what we can learn from the city that never sleeps.

We will be hosting monthly AIA Continuing Education System- registered training courses at the Center for Architecture in New York City, these courses will be held over two days every month, starting on March 2-3 and 4-5, and will focus on BIM and performance analysis, utilizing IES’ <Virtual Environment> software.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Building, Engineers, LEED, reduce

Are you watching closely? Turns out, the new take on the gold, silver and bronze medals is more than just a funky new shape. In an effort to reduce electronic waste, each medal was made with a tiny bit of the more than 140,000 tons of e-waste that otherwise would have been sent to Canadian landfills. And that’s not the only eco-friendly thing about the 2010 winter games.

The Olympic Village in Vancouver has received LEED certification. According to The Vancouver Sun, “The athletes’ village in Vancouver’s southeast False Creek can now be called the greenest community in the North America - possibly the world - Mayor Gregor Robertson said Tuesday morning, as he announced the entire neighbourhood had received a certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.”

Yesterday, “Platinum certification was awarded to the $1-billion, 32-hectare South East False Creek neighbourhood development project based on a variety of factors including its proximity to the downtown core, affordable housing, green buildings and habitat restoration. The Olympic Village is the second development in the world to receive Platinum certification.”

Some of the examples of the design elements of the buildings throughout the athletes’ village are green roofs, cisterns to catch rainwater, passive solar design, upgraded insulation and windows as well as carpets and paint with low or no VOC.

When the announcement was made on Tuesday, USGBC chair Tim Cole called the athletes’ village a “remarkable example” of what is possible.

Lance Hosey, in his Op-Eco blog, looks over the sustainability claims by Olympic organizers that the Vancouver games are “the greenest games ever.” Supposedly, various forms of waste mitigation and energy efficiency will take down the games’ carbon output by 15 percent. But the land-grading methods used to make ski slopes at Whistler are among the most permanently destructive. And, of course, the organizers can’t help it if the air travel involved in bringing people to the games amounts to the annual belchings of 30,000 cars.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Awards, Building, LEED, reduce, USGBC

We love coming back from the holidays to good news. According to Environmental Leader, and specifically by research released by Zpryme, the U.S. green building market is set to grow 146 percent by 2013.

According to the Environmental Leader article, “The commercial sector should get a boost from the news that major real estate firms have signed up for a pilot program that would help building owners, prospective tenants and buyers ascertain the energy efficiency of a building. The Building Energy Quotient program – Building EQ for short – is administered by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).”

We are looking forward to the results of the Building EQ program. Given our position in the industry, it is (and has been from the beginning) our hope that buildings are as energy efficient as possible. For new buildings, this starts from the earliest stages of design. For retrofits, there are many changes architects can implement during the remodel to ensure a building not only reduces its energy usage, but also reduces it carbon emissions.

On another note, and for a little fun to start your new year off right, our partners at Autodesk have created RetroFits, a game to help raise awareness about the benefits of better, greener buildings. Stop by and check it out! Buildings continue to be the #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. But we can make them more energy efficient, little by little.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Architects, ASHRAE, Autodesk, Building, Engineers, reduce, USA

Have you been trying to keep up with all the Greenbuild round-ups as much as me? This Reuters article gives a great overview of the event. And if you are tired of reading, these pictures at Greenbuild’s Flickr page and here at Treehugger also sum it up quite nicely.

However, even though all the excitement of the show is over, the topic of sustainability is here to stay.

The key to green or sustainable (depending on your preference or definition!) building is realizing that we need to engage in it so much it becomes the norm. This is not a fad, this is the new way of doing things! We’re getting there, but we’ve got a long way to go, and it’s going to require a lot more effort, integration, shake-up of today’s conventional design process, and most of all education, check out Greenbuild365. We were all worried about just how high the level of greenwashing would be at the show – but the theme of Greenbuild this year seems to be the lack of greenwashing, look at Greenbiz’s article on this. Which is an encouraging step forward – showing industry understanding is gradually maturing.  But I agree with Joel, that is not to say the show was a hype-free zone.

All in all, Greenbuild 2009 was a great show for us and, by the sounds of it, the vast majority of attendees. We’re looking forward to 2010 in Chicago. And for the next 364 days, will be working to get the message out that green building is here to stay, and that performance analysis has a key role to play.

Tweet This Post

1 Comment

Tags:Building, Greenbuild, Sustainability

National Bike Week

Hello everyone,

It’s the UK’s National Bike Week starting from tomorrow, and we thought it would be really nice to join in!

On Wednesday morning we will provide breakfast for all members of staff who cycle to work that day, which will be good for all those hangovers from the birthday party on Tuesday night, although we’re not encouraging drunk cycling!!

If you are interested in taking part in any other cycling events in Glasgow here are the best of the bunch:

On the 21st of June there is a Heaven or Hell Charity fundraising ride. One route, two options! You can enter the event either do a 25 or 50 mile ‘CHSS Canal Cycle Challenge’, or you can take on the ‘CHSS Ultimate Duathlon’ the longest duathlon in Scotland!

For some family friendly fun why not head to Pollok Park for a cycle and a picnic.

For those that want to join in but don’t have a bike - why don’t you “celebrate life, music and saddle burn” with the folks at the Admiral Bar.

For more events in your area take a look at the Cycling Scotland website, it is FULL of fun activities!

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:bike week, cycle to work

Great news for all our US AIA members - the majority of our training courses have been registered with the AIA CES program - allowing you to gain AIA CES Learning Hours when you undertake them.  Twelve courses also count towards the new mandatory Sustainable Design credits.

Our FREE online introduction to IES is included in this - providing 1 LU hour and also counting towards the mandatory Sustainable Design credit.  Register here to attend.

Our expertise in sustainable design, both in creating analysis software and providing expert consultancy services, helps educate on how to leave a greener footprint within all stages of the design process.  The courses include sessions on solar analysis, artifical/daylighting design, and natural ventilation.  See our website for more information.

We commend the AIA Board for taking notice and making sustainable design a mandatory course requirement through 2012.  This initiative shows the importance of the growing emissions challenges within the industry, and the need to solve them immediately.

Read more about AIA CES Sustainable Design credits here…

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:AIA, AIA CES, daylight analysis, energy analysis, free, natural ventilation, solar shading, Sustainable design

gbXML.org has formed a new Green Building XML (gbXML) Advisory Board which is comprised of 11 member companies, including IES.

The independent board is comprised of eleven (11) member companies that all have an interest in maintaining the gbXML schema as an open standard. The schema is the mostly widely used metadata format for transferring intelligent building information to facilitate thermal, energy, carbon, and water analyses associated with buildings.

The first meeting of the gbXML Advisory Board was held on April 21, 2009. The following companies were represented: AiRNAB, Autodesk, Bentley, Cadsoft Corporation, Carmel Software, EDSL, Greenspace Research, HVAC Solution, Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), Trane, and Wrightsoft.

Click here to read the full gbXML.org press release.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:BIM, building energy analysis, building information modelling, gbXML, Green Building, green building XML

This year at our annual Christmas Conference, in amongst round-ups of the year, we crowned our very own “One Team” IES Apprentice. Each team had to come up against our very own Sir Alan, Nick and Margaret. They had 45 minutes to create ways that we could advertise for recruitment, there were a huge variety of presentations; we had songs, we had dancing, but our winners really encompassed what’s it like to work here.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Christmas, One Team, Working at IES

Our friends at SketchUp have just launched SketchUp 7 – and the great news is our IES VE plug-in is compatible with this brand new version.  Plus our latest version of the plug-in, which can now take SketchUp groups and components in account, is due out later this week. 

SketchUp 7 is even more intuitive and includes tools for power users, plus it’s easier to find and share models with the world.  Learn more and download at sketchup.google.com or view the great What’s New in SketchUp 7 video below:

Also this Thursday at 12.30 Chris Cronin of SketchUp fame will be presenting with us at GreenBuild at stand #1447.

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:plug-in, sketchup

In the UK this week The Energy Savings Trust announced that half of us would be greener if we had a bit more time in our day! To help us with this they have provided us with three useful tools to help us manage our time;

• The first is an “Energy Saving Clock” which allows you to choose the amount of time available and it throws up tasks that you could complete in that time.
• The other is the “Energy Saving House” that shows the savings that you can make in those all important pennies as well as CO₂ emissions.
• The third, which I think is the most valuable, is a new community site Britain Unplugged which allows people to discuss and share their ideas for energy savings, post videos and get hints and tips from their blog. Like an energy savers support group!

Also this week a bit of Display Energy Certificate spotting is taking place over at Building Magazine, after a disappointing start they have decided to encourage people to do their own spotting. A £20 Amazon Gift Voucher to the person who visit the most public buildings seeking DECs by Wednesday the 5th of November. Why not email sustainability@cmpi.biz to enter!

Tweet This Post

No Comments

Tags:Britain Unplugged, Building Magazine, DECs, Display Energy Certificate, The Energy Savings Trust