IES Blog

We all know that buildings are responsible for most of our water consumption and more than their fair share of carbon dioxide emissions, in fact Australian’s have the 4th highest carbon footprint.  So just what is Australia doing about it?  Well quite a bit actually.

The New Labour Government (ALP) have been in power since November 2007, and within weeks of entering office had pushed forward with ratifying Kyoto and setting up an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).  The ETS has unfortunately been delayed due to the current global financial crisis but it targets a 25% reduction on 2000 levels by 2020, equivalent to stabilising levels of CO₂ to 450 ppm.  Permits are set to start at $10 a tonne with market trading to begin in 2012.  In essence the Australian government is keen to mandate green.

Australia lags the UK and US in terms of its green building initiatives, but momentum is growing especially within the property industry which is keen to future-proof its assests.  Many of the industry’s leading building owners, investors and developers have signed up to the Green Star Business Partnership and pledged their support to adopting this rating system.  These include ASX 200 firms like Lend Lease, Stockland and Multiplex.  

A building’s performance is measured using a number of regulatory and voluntary schemes in Australia; like Green Star, Nabers, BCA Part J, and Nathers etc.  As in the US, there is a large variation in climate types across Australia; from mild temperate to tropical.  This means sustainable solutions and techniques to improve building performance and ratings need to be varied and well understood.  For example, Canberra has a large diurnal range and is therefore more suited to passive solar and thermal mass, whereas Queensland may find systems to combat large latent gains and control of humidity more important.

IES has had a presence in Australia since 2006.  Our consulting services and <Virtual Environment> software, with its powerful analysis capacity, has helped many in Australia deliver more energy efficient, better performing and future-proofed buildings.  We’ve worked on 6 Star Green Star projects such as the refurbishment of the new AEI HQ in Canberra, and share a growing sense or pride and responsibility with Australia’s burgeoning green building industry.

Last month the company’s founder and MD, Dr Don McLean visted us here in Australia and we went on a roadtrip across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - 3 seminars to 80+ people and 17 face-to-face meetings in 3 days!!!  Australia’s M&E Engineers, are the best in the world, and it was great to receive such positive feedback from them on the new HVAC features in the latest version of our software (V6).  Comments like “we’ve been using IES for 4-5 years now and it just gets better and better!” were music to our ears, making all the hard work worth while!

Our other architect orientated new additions were also met a very positive response - one customer commented; “I don’t believe you can do that by pressing one button”…the button was pressed…”Wow you can! Brilliant!”

I can’t wait to see what the next 3 years bring - it’s definitely very exciting times…

Roger

Sydney Opera House

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Tags:Australia, BCA Part J, Green Building, Green Star, Green Star Business Partnership, NABERS, Sustainability

Have you heard the latest?  Just issued at the end of last month, the USGBC announced that as part of LEED v3, they will be requiring all projects pursuing LEED certification to comply with a new performance requirement.

They provide three options for fulfillment:

- Recertify the building on a two-year cycle with their existing buildings program - LEED-EBOM

- Provide the building’s energy and water usage data annually

- Building owner allows USGBC to access data directly from the utilities provider

So, what do you think?  Me, I think this is huge.  But in a positive way or a worrying way?

Initially LEED v3 seemed like it would completely revamp the building certification program and really get to the bottom of critical items – add new credits, drastically edit existing ones, add new categories. 

In the end, LEED v3 was mainly a realignment of the existing LEED rating systems to set up for the next big move.  And that’s what it looked like, until this latest requirement associated with LEED 2009 was issued.

On paper, I couldn’t agree more, there is a big disconnect between building design/construction and building operations.  Very few architectural design firms perform a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) or something similar to inform and improve future design.  Same goes for engineers, contractors and others in the field.

As someone in the field of analyzing the real or virtual performance of a building, I fully recognize the importance of this dataset.  The question is how will this information be shared so that the general public can benefit?  Will the USGBC be making public this new database similar to what the Department of Energy does with the CBECs database of commercial energy uses and costs? 

The reaction I’ll be curious to see is from the owners.  Is this request just too much?  Will it discourage some owners from pursuing LEED?  Especially those that are new to the arena and still unsure.  I’m not sure, based on my experience and having worked with the full spectrum of owners: developers complying with regulations (i.e. Boston’s Article 37) to non-profits pursuing sustainability regardless (i.e.  The Audubon Society).

In the end, this is the right move forward.  USGBC is about market transformation.  This will start changing the norm.  However, critical at this juncture is the execution, dissemination and utilization of this new measure and the information collected.  If not handled properly, it may be perceived by the general public as a way for the USGBC to make more money through LEED-EBOM.

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Tags:building energy analysis, building performance, Green Building, LEED, performance data, Sustainable design, USGBC

Check out this great round-up of sustainable analysis tools exhibited at AIA by Lachmi Khemlani, founder and editor of AECbytes www.aecbytes.com/feature/2009/AIA2009_EnergyApps.html.

It includes our new VE-Gaia tool which we previewed there… “IES, the leading vendor in the performance analysis field, introduced a new application, VE-Gaia, to add to its already substantial product repertoire.”

However, it was her comments in the conclusion that really struck a chord with me. It is very encouraging to have finally reached a point where the importance of analysis tools and optimisation of building performance in sustainable design is becoming widely recognised. Enabling this ease of use and access to analysis tools is at the very center of our entire ethos. These are very exciting times for us!

“The increase in the number of analysis tools is a testament to the increasing importance of sustainable design in architecture and the need to optimize building performance. Unlike in the past, when performance analysis was primarily the purview of energy experts, academics, and research institutions, they are now becoming a part of the mainstream architectural toolset, with interfaces that non-technical people can also easily use and understand. Of course, the maxim of “garbage in, garbage out” very much holds true for sustainable design tools as well, and it is easy to be seduced by the colorful diagrams and charts and omit to question the veracity of the input and the accuracy of the output. It’s terrific that we have finally reached the point where the input of building geometry to the analysis tool directly from a BIM application has become a commonplace feature—but we have to keep in mind that geometry is only one of the inputs, and that an accurate analysis depends upon a whole host of other input data that has to be specified correctly as well. It is here that the experiences and insights of an energy expert come in and play a critical role in the design of sustainable buildings. Thus, while it is great to have the tools with their ever-increasing capabilities, it is important to not forget the human element that is ultimately needed for the creation of successful sustainable architecture.”

Lachmi has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specialising in intelligent building modelling; she both consults and writes on AEC technology.  Read the full article and sign up to her newsletters at www.aecbytes.com/feature/2009/AIA2009_EnergyApps.html.

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Tags:AIA, BIM, building energy analysis, building information modelling, building performance, energy analysis, energy modelling, Green Building, performance analysis, Sustainable design, VE-Gaia

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.

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

As the dust settles from the recent US presidential elections, the US emerges with Barack Obama as the President Elect.  He will be officially taking office on January 20th, 2009 and will start to move ahead on some of his objectives that he supported during his campaign road.  One objective in particular is to focus on how the US can work towards a more sustainable environment.   The USGBC has taken this objective and started to structure and push forward an agenda for Washington.

The Business Week article, Obama’s Green Building Agenda, gives a brief overview of the plan which is based on four major targets and has an aggressive edge that I think will help push the US forward to the goal of a more sustainable environment and lifestyle.

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Tags:Green Building, USGBC