2012 is going to be a great year! Just ask “the godfather of green” Jerry Yudelson. Builder magazine featured his 10 predictions for the next 12 (well, 11 now – where does the time go?) months.

Take a peek.

I’m particularly excited about #3 – LEED-EBOM (Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance) Will Gain Momentum.
“We’re going to see this move to other sectors,” he says, particularly among hotels with strong convention and meeting businesses who want to be able to market their eco-friendliness. Grocery stores, hospitals, and retail centers are moving in the same direction, with features such as solar panels on top of Walmarts or department stores. “Last month, President Obama and former President Clinton announced the Better Buildings Initiative. It’s only $4 billion, so it’s not huge. But still, this is stuff that moves markets. When you have two presidents pushing something, it does get people’s attention. More and more building owners are realizing that they don’t want to be late to the party.”

As I mentioned earlier this week in my post, Congrats to the LEEDing states!, around the IES offices, we’re hoping 2012 is the year of LEED-EB: O&M. Let’s reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose…we’ve only got one Earth, and it’s getting pretty crowded.

What are your predictions for the rest of 2012?

Earlier this month, the USGBC released its 2011 list of top 10 states for LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings per capita, based on the U.S. 2010 Census information.

Here’s the breakdown, courtesy of Buildings.

What I found most interesting in the article, though, was this fact.
In December 2011, USGBC announced that LEED-certified existing buildings outpaced their newly built counterparts by 15 million square feet on a cumulative basis. A focus on heightened building performance through green operations and maintenance is essential to cost-effectively driving improvements in the economy and the environment.

I had also stumbled across this article on TIME – LEED From Behind: Why We Should Focus on Greening Existing Buildings. The article states, “A study by the Preservation Green Lab of the National Trust for Historic Preservation shows building reuse almost always has fewer environmental impacts than new construction—which means we’d be smart to spend at least as much time renovating existing buildings as we do lionizing fancy new green construction.”

So while many new buildings are looking to go LEED at the onset of the project, I would like 2012 to be the year of LEED-EB: O&M. How can we as an industry put our knowledge and expertise towards making our world a more energy efficient place, using what we’ve already got?

It could be a sign of the times. The economy still isn’t great, so focusing on upgrading existing buildings rather than fronting cash for brand new buildings makes economic sense. And as USGBC gets ready to finalize the LEED 2012 standards, there is a chance there will be a revival in excitement for the rating system. What do you think? Can we make 2012 the year we focus on reusing buildings, so to speak?

In closing, I’ll leave you with the quote in the article that I think should be the mantra for 2012 building… “The greenest building is one that is already built.” -Carl Elefante

Well, we made it to Chicago. We weren’t going to let a little “winter storm warning” stop us from the biggest HVAC show of the year!

The energy has been great at the show so far – lots of excitement for the industry. Prior to the floor opening, there was big news from ASHRAE. The go-to source for standards and education for this industry, ASHRAE got a facelift, complete with a new logo and a new tagline…

Shaping Tomorrow’s Built Environment Today

Given our focus at IES this year, we are thrilled to see ASHRAE’s commitment to pushing the built environment in the 21st century. As ASHRAE President Ron Jarnagin stated, “integrated design is the cornerstone of sustainable buildings.” As the ‘Hub’ for sustainable design advancements, we look forward to joining ASHRAE in the conversation, promoting the importance of utilizing quantifiable performance information to design truly sustainable buildings.

We’ve also been following the conversation on Twitter. Kimberly Schwartz, managing editor of The ACHR News, tweeted a great picture (http://pic.twitter.com/6u2IsRSd) from the show floor yesterday afternoon, adding “…the aisles are still crowded! There’s a good buzz in the air.”

But the highlight of our day yesterday? Well, we’ll just let the image speak for itself…

See you on the show floor!

Another year, another blog about LEED

There’s never a shortage of opinions when you bring up the topic of LEED.

Last year, we blogged about whether or not LEED certification was working, questioning the goals of the program. We decided that if the goal is to increase awareness for better design and sustainability, regardless of whether or not a building ultimately achieves certification, then the program is succeeding. The way we see it, a better building is a better building, certification or not.

After reading a recent article in the Orlando Sentinel, the question of whether or not “going green” impacts a business was one I thought I’d weigh in on.

The Headquarter Honda dealership in Florida is LEED Platinum. Only nine other buildings in the state — all of them constructed for educational, military, aerospace or government purposes — share this rating. An exceptional accomplishment when you look at it comparatively. But as Kevin questions, “Does securing that mark of planet-friendly excellence help sell Accords, Civics and Odysseys?”

Maybe not. But for the owner of the dealership, the energy savings alone seem to be worth the certification. “According to estimates based on more than a year’s worth of utility bills, the 30 percent premium will be recouped in a decade, Esteve said, which in the long run will make the building cheaper to own than one with a more conventional design.”

I’m not going to tell you that LEED certification is a necessity for every building. But I do think you should consider the requirements as part of your building process. If nothing else, a focus on implementing various energy-saving technologies and being aware of factors such as daylighting and the like will ensure a building will be viable for many years to come. LEED Platinum or not, that’s something we can all appreciate.

IES sat down with 16 architects, engineers and contractors at the Denver Revit Users Group last Thursday for a roundtable discussion. The result? Some great conversation about how best to utilize Building Information Modeling, a sustainable building analysis tool.

IES worked with Colorado-based Ambient Energy, a building performance and sustainable design consulting company, to showcase some of BIM’s more practical uses. The relatively new technology doesn’t just spit out data and geometric designs anymore. More and more often, we are seeing BIM taking on a different role. The spatial relationships and geographic information can help architects and engineers out in a big way; from daylight penetration to average temperature and wind direction, analysis software is an integral part of sustainable design.

An IES and Ambient Energy project at Colorado State University in 2011 proved the point. Faced with the challenge of designing a more efficient atrium for the school’s Engineering II building, Ambient Energy consultants used IES’ VE-Pro software to test and verify their various energy efficiency concepts. Daylight and mixed mode ventilation analyses run early in the schematic redesign process determined which window and ventilation solutions would work best with maximized use of natural daylight. The end result was a more efficient atrium with a much smaller carbon output. You can view the video case study for this project on the IESVE YouTube page.

This type of integrated design process is something we expect to see a lot more of as sustainable design continues to work its way into the commercial space.

With 2011 officially in the books, the IES team thought it was time to take a look back at the hottest green technology and sustainability stories this year had to offer. Even with some of the fallout from the Solyndra and Beacon Power bankruptcies – assets are being sold off as you read this – 2011 served up some really interesting innovations. From the military and car manufacturers to solar and wind power, Earth Techling sheds a little natural daylight on the must-reads in its “2011 Green Technology Year in Review”.

What I find most interesting is that while wind and solar power definitely took their licks this year, they are far from being down for the count; just ask Walmart and Costco customers.

You may be surprised to find that [Walmart], which sells everything from shoes to shower curtains, also happens to offer a selection of renewable energy devices, including a 600-watt wind turbine. Costco members will soon be able to add solar power systems for clean energy solutions at home alongside power tools and pancake mix on their shopping lists.

The best part about these products is that they are cheap. For around $800, you can lower your electricity bill and increase energy efficiency for years. It will be interesting to see how the commercial market will react as the cost continues to drop for these types of technologies. If the residential market is any indication, solar and wind power might be more affordable than ever in the commercial sector. The sustainability goals and LEED certifications that many building owners and property managers seek might be a little easier to attain in 2012.

2011 was a busy year for IES! We made some upgrades to our award-winning software, consulted with a number of architects and engineers on some exciting projects, and we launched a series of training sessions and architectural seminars throughout North America. These Road Show events proved to be successful, and something we plan to continue in 2012. But for now, a recap…

Starting off in Chicago and Denver in August, our Road Show carried on to Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, Houston and other great cities across North America through the rest of the year. Our Road Show gave us a great opportunity to connect with both existing and new IES users face-to-face. We were able to show them capabilities of the software, including many of the new features launched this year, and answer any questions they might have about our suite of products. We were also able to establish relationships with various local groups, and we love all the contacts we’ve made throughout North American this year!

Our final training event of the year was in Washington, D.C. last week. There were a lot of new faces, and we had a very successful event. Thanks to our hosts at AECOM!

Also in D.C. last week was our final architectural seminar of the year. Approved by the AIA for Continuing Education System credits, our seminars offer hands-on training focusing on conceptual analysis in sustainable design. Participants who are AIA members receive 2.5 learning unit hours.

Thanks to everyone that joined us this year, and to all of our customers and partners who helped us out with venues and our presentations. We’re looking forward to meeting more of you in 2012 as we continue to hit the road. Next year, we’re heading to Omaha, Seattle, Kansas City, Nashville, St. Louis, Birmingham and more. Stay tuned for more details about when we’ll be in a city near you!

In the architecture and design realm, keeping it simple often yields the best results. Keeping it sustainable doesn’t hurt either.

A push by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), as highlighted in a recent article in The Washington Post, supports this idea. All across the United States, AIA chapters are “taking a stand for visibility, transparency and sustainability.” Brick and mortar no longer separates the AIA buildings from the public, something that becomes clear if you’ve seen the new building of the AIA’s chapter in D.C.

Thomas Corrado, project architect with the Washington firm that created the design, described the concept as “clear, simple and concise.” He went on to say that “the idea was about how to make the space a connection between architecture and the person on the street.”

What I find most interesting about this new open-door style is its appeal to the public. As the United States pushes for a greener, more efficient future, anything that can draw in the public to gain some traction is positive for the sustainability industry as a whole. When pedestrians peer through the floor-to-ceiling glass of the D.C. building, for instance, they see an open gallery that currently showcases the winners of a recent design competition. Next month, the gallery will feature an exhibit on art nouveau architecture from Brussels.

Another example of the AIA’s new design efforts is the soon to be completed Center for Architecture and Design in North Carolina.

The nation’s only AIA building to be built from the ground up, it was designed by Raleigh-based architect Frank Harmon after a statewide competition. Inside, the lighting adjusts to demand, monitored by a donated state-of the-art computer server that responds to the amount of daylight admitted. Early modeling projects energy savings as high as 64 percent.

As we head into 2012, we look forward to seeing the AIA’s new push for design transparency continue to generate public appeal and translate to more sustainable designs nationwide.

There has been a lot of negativity surrounding the state of the job market, new construction and business development in the United States. Sometimes it’s unavoidable. Turn on the television, read a newspaper or grab a magazine and you’re bound to see it. But if you’re in the green, clean or low-carbon sector, there appears to be a big light at the end of the tunnel.

A green jobs infographic released by JobVine highlights some promising statistics. Take a look at green construction, for example. In 2005, only $3 billion was spent on non-residential green construction in the United Sates. In 2010, that number skyrocketed to $54 billion. The best part? Non-residential green construction is predicted to be $145 billion by 2015. These are figures that anyone in this space can smile about. With President Obama continuing to push green tax incentives and loan programs, the future is looking good.

“As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs – but only if we accelerate the transition. Only if we seize the moment.” – President Obama

From the nationwide increase in green jobs to the projected growth of green construction, it seems the industry is indeed seizing the moment!

It’s true that the U.S. government’s investments in green technology haven’t always paid off – just ask those who picked up office furniture, industrial supplies and T-shirts last month at the Solyndra bankruptcy auction. But that doesn’t mean additional funding is gone, especially with President Obama and former President Clinton’s recently-announced plan to invest $4 billion in energy upgrades to public and private buildings nationwide.

A recent article on Politico.com explains the duo has teamed up for the latest installment of President Obama’s “Better Building Initiative.” Government officials say the plan, which is meant to spur job growth and energy efficiency, avoids many of the problems of previous loan guarantees. How? By relying on both government and private investments; $2 billion from each over the next two years, to be exact. But what’s perhaps most interesting about this plan is what it says about the United States’ dedication to green technology and more energy-efficient commercial and industrial buildings.

Obama [was] joined by Clinton during a Washington, D.C., event Friday to sign a memorandum for a minimum of a $2 billion commitment from federal agencies over the next 24 months. The money will go toward hiring contractors to perform energy efficiency and other green upgrades at federal facilities. There also will be a $2 billion private-sector commitment, covering up to 1.6 billion square feet of commercial and independent property and involving roughly 300 manufacturing plants.

In this case, the U.S. government’s decision not to dwell on past mistakes certainly appears to be a good thing for the green building and energy efficiency industries at large. Here’s looking to a greener and more efficient future!