IES Blog

The theme of Greenbuild 2011 is ‘What’s Next?’ It couldn’t be more timely for our company.

What’s next for IES? Glad you asked. Our Founder and Managing Director Don McLean was talking at the booth all day yesterday about our vision – a better vision where IES can impact not only the architectural market, but a range of markets – from VCs to manufacturing, etc. This is certainly an exciting time for us.

As for the show itself, this is the first time USGBC has hosted Greenbuild outside the U.S.  People here seem to think this represents a big move for the USGBC in terms of working with other countries toward a bigger green movement.  And the one thing that everyone here is saying is “Wow, Toronto’s amazing!” The architecture here is pretty cool, a mix of modern and metropolitan. A lot of glass buildings – and in a city that gets such cold winters, energy performance is definitely a relevant topic and good market for Greenbuild.

The halls are split this year – and very far from one another! (My feet can vouch for that!) The North hall has been much busier than the South hall, but the energy in both halls has been high. The show is packed, and that’s exciting to see!

Traffic at the booth has been very busy. We’ve been doing trainings which have attracted some nice crowds. Nathan did a presentation with Peter Doo of Doo Consulting and Ron Moore from Perkowitz-Ruth Architects, where they talked about the Brickstainable Competition and talked about the winning design. (We’re so happy to be involved with Brickstainable – what a fun competition!) The winning design had a zero net energy goal, which is fantastic to see!

So far, so good here in Toronto! For another perspective, take a look at Daily Commercial News and Construction Record’s first-hand account of the show – ‘U.S. Canadian green building councils kick off Greenbuild conference in Toronto.’

I’m headed to the booth (2325N), so stop by and say hi today! And follow us on Twitter for live updates throughout the day.

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Tags:Architects, brickstainable, competition, design, Greenbuild, USGBC

This year’s Greenbuild theme seems particularly appropriate to us. Since our formation in 1994, IES has always been involved in the ‘What’s NEXT’. Back then, we took academic performance analysis thinking and technology, and created the first commercially viable suite of performance analysis software. Our expert consultants also worked closely with early adopters on its implementation and incorporation into the design process; helping to establish the backbone of today’s simulation market.

It was our involvement in these seminal projects which really set the stage for us, projects such as; Heathrow Terminal 5 right from the earliest concept stages, and BA “Waterside” Headquarters near London Heathrow. Since then IES has attained a unique position in the global marketplace delivering world-leading analysis expertise to help produce sustainable buildings.

For almost two decades, we have been pushing the ethos of integrated design and incorporation of performance analysis right from the earliest new-build and retrofit stages as the route to achieving truly sustainable, low-energy structures.

Now as the sustainability market is starting to catch up with this thinking, I’m seeing organisations beginning to understand the value and benefits of the IES approach. Consequently, we find our role changing. Increasingly organisations are coming to IES to help overcome technical or commercial barriers in getting their sustainability products and services to the market.

Consequently, we find ourselves today still working at the leading edge of building science, investigating how analysis plays a vital role in cutting through greenwash to deliver measurable sustainability. Whether that is designing or analysing a product range, regulatory system, building or entire communities/eco-cities.

IES has been approached in this capacity by Governments, ESCO’s, Venture Capitalists, software companies, product manufactures (both building and clean energy), regulation setters, voluntary rating system developers, and those managing large property portfolios.

So what’s NEXT? I certainly see this as the start of a new age in the role of analysis in a low-energy, zero-carbon built environment, as well as in the role of our company. At Greenbuild this year I’m spending a great deal of time discussing these developments and how I think analysis will develop and change the future face of sustainable cities and buildings.

Part of this is presenting at the GreenTech@Greenbuild event this Thursday 6th October. This is an exciting new event organised by the USGBC and Regenerative Networks which is designed to increase awareness and adoption of emerging disruptive technologies that provide exceptional solutions for the building industry.

Featured firms were selected for the significant advances they contribute to green building, so needless to say I was excited by the invitation. Watch this space for a recording of my presentation.

Or come along to our booth #2325N and say hello. I’m more than happy to discuss our innovation and expertise in creating cutting-edge building performance analysis tools, as well as the supply of related consulting and specialist services.

Plus, you can catch up with executives from Halcrow, Doo Consulting, Perkowitz + Ruth Architects, Building Momentum Group and Ambient Energy. Who will share first-hand insight on analysis and integrated design:
Wednesday, October 5
1:15 p.m. – “Analyzing Double Skin Façades for Different Global Climate Regions” (Halcrow)
2:15 p.m. – “Early Conceptual Analysis of the Brickstainable Winning Design” (Doo Consulting, Perkowitz + Ruth Architects)

Thursday, October 6
1.00 p.m. – “LEED Energy & HVAC Modeling of Roosevelt University Vertical Campus” (Building Momentum Group)
1.45 p.m. – “Optimizing an Atrium – Daylight and Mixed Mode Ventilation on Colorado State University Engineering II Building” (Ambient Energy)

Read more about our activities at the show here.

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Tags:Architects, design, Engineers, Environment, event, Greenbuild, IES, LEED, Modeling, Sustainability, sustainable, USGBC

This year’s Greenbuild Expo took place on June 29th & 30th at Manchester Central. The event attracted over 4,000 attendees which marked a 50% rise in visitor numbers from 2010’s event. Not bad eh?

So what is Greenbuild Expo and why should we stick it in our calendar? Well in a nutshell…

“The UK’s newest sustainable building and refurbishment event, an essential and informative event for the construction industry covering everything from training opportunities and renewable technologies to sustainable materials and legislation updates.”

Launching in 2009, Greenbuild Expo is an event still its infancy but these record figures represent the positive impact this event will have on our industry. It is great to see more and more sustainable building events taking place in the UK, and I also find it refreshing to see the green building flag being flown outside of London too.

IES were involved in this year’s event as Dr Sarah Graham; our UK Business Development Manager, hosted a seminar on day two in the Foyer room, where she focused on the use of software in the low-carbon design process, weaving in lean, clean, green principles. The session also looked at the difference between this and achieving compliance, how to combine the two, and how this all relates to the revived trend towards BIM and Integrated Project Delivery. You can view the presentation below.

So what will 2012’s Greenbuild Expo have in store? Well the organisers plan is simple – bigger and better!

One thing’s for sure - IES will be there (with bells on!)

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Tags:Building, event, Greenbuild, IES, software, Sustainability

I got the red eye out of Glasgow to arrive at this year’s Ecobuild exhibition a few hours out of its opening, and still feeling guilty about taking the plane instead of the train I entered the new location of ExCel right next to City airport (there really was no contest in ease of travel!).  The anticipation in the air was palatable!  What would this year bring?  Would the move to ExCel work?  Would the visitors come?

Having attended a similar show Greenbuild in Chicago in November last year for a disappointing 28,000 visitors (down from the estimated 40,000) we had no idea what to expect here…

…and WOW what a difference – in all honesty last year’s Ecobuild had felt stale and just a bit depressing, even with the 41,000 visitors – exactly like the market in general.  But this year spring was in the air and optimism abounded.

Ecobuild has finally arrived – It has been called “the world’s biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment and the UK’s largest construction event of any kind” for a while now.  However, this year it well and truly lived up to that expectation.  Plus, the international element was noticeably out in force with visitors and exhibitors from all over Europe and the rest of the world (maybe the close proximity to an international airport helped…).

In addition, the demise of Interbuild aka BEST was announced just prior to the show (for all you non-UK readers this was the UK construction industry’s behemoth show for many years).  The obvious conclusion being that our construction industry is all about sustainability now – it’s the norm!  An interesting problem for Ecobuild going forward will be how it keeps this specialisation and sustainable building innovation at the core of the show, while embracing the great news that the industry has well and truly changed its outlook over the last 5 years.  Back then the show only had 500 visitors, this year an estimated 50,000 came through the doors!

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), I was stuck on our stand for most of the show helping to speak to all you lovely performance analysis enthusiasts, and consequently I didn’t make it too much of the show, let alone any of the seminars.  My lifesaver was @PazzaArchitect who did a sterling job of keeping the #Ecobuild twitterarti up to date with live session tweeting.  Plus GAB (Green Architecture & Building) Report has undertaken a fantastic report of the show floor.  Check out all tweets with the #Ecobuild hastag for a review of the show and loads of funny pics ranging from the Dulux Dog to the Mr S&G Superhero at WhatTheHastag.

So what did we get up to then?  Interest from the non-converted IESVEers was definitely up, especially in the architect arena with many seeking us out from among the 1,300 exhibitors.  And for them we were offering a 2 for 1 special offer on our newly revamped VE-Gaia tool.  If you’ve ever wanted to incorporate sustainable performance analysis into your design process right from the beginning this is the tool for you.  Climate, LZCT, Energy, Daylight and much more…

Then on the UK Building Regulations side we launched our unique new guided VE-Navigator for UK Compliance 2010 for new-build compliance and EPC creation.  Visitors were able to discover the time saving, facilitation and QA functionality it offers at live demos on stand.  Plus, three new software packs from as little as £320 per quarter we launched to offer our customers a range of flexible DSM/SBEM & EPC solutions.

Our very own David McEwan was recorded talking about our presence at the show and plans over the coming year – listen to it here on Audioboo.

Then our very own IES Faculty educational series of free events was launched which will cover a wide range of performance analysis topics – book now if you want to attend places are filling up fast!!  The first session is a Modelling Masterclass scheduled for the 21st March in London. 

Plus Richard Qunicey of IES and Tristan Kershaw from the University of Exeter’s Centre for Energy and the Environment presented at the UKGBC Big Tent on the village Green on ‘Is Adaptation our industry blind spot?’ Can climate data help buildings cope over the long term?  The Prometheus research project was covered to analyze how weather data lets you assess a building’s ability to adapt to climate change.

Phew what a busy week!!  Finally thanks you to all for your interest, enthusiasm, wit and inquisitive nature.  See you there next year!!

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Tags:Architects, Building, education, Greenbuild, IES, software, Sustainability, VE-Gaia

I landed back in the UK last month, and due to the usual backlog being at a show creates, the Christmas break, and to be honest it’s just been hard to find the time to sit down and reflect on last year’s show!  So here I am trying to turn all those conversations and discussions into a cohesive review of our experiences at the world’s largest green building show where an estimated 30,000 people came together to learn, share, discuss and network.

Last year Greenbuild returned to Chicago’s McCormick Place West, the site of Greenbuild 2007 – but with twice as much space!  If you didn’t make it along yourself, believe me the show was massive with an estimated 1,800 booths!!  Actually one could argue too large.  As an exhibitor at the show for the last 5 years we’ve seen it go through a number of changes; its size being the biggest.  Last year was a turning point; instead of it being a green building exhibition it felt as large and comprehensive as any conventional building show.

Maybe I’m a cynic but when I see the likes of Vinyl exhibiting it feels like the specialism and possibly some of the value has gone from the show floor – is this a bad thing when we want green building to become the norm for the sake of the planet?  Or is it just helping cloud the real issues with even more greenwash? Or greenmist?

There’s a show here in the UK called 100% Design that takes the unusual step of limiting the number of exhibitors and setting panel selection guidelines to keep the level of innovation and design quality high.  An idea for Greenbuild perhaps?

Comment below to let me know your thoughts…

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was a unsuccessful show, just that the volume of noise at the show which makes it hard to stand out as exhibitor must also make it hard for visitors to pick out the solutions of real interest.

However, on a different note, although I didn’t manage to get along to any, I heard the seminars were especially informative and inspirational.  The show has ended but we do have an opportunity to watch some videos online and hear from some of the speakers that rocked the show this year.

So what did we get up to last year?  Well with all the noise we’ve been making recently I’d sincerely hope you didn’t miss the launch of our ASHRAE 90.1 VE-Navigator solution which is designed to speed up and make LEED Energy Modeling easy.  Also, not to leave out the Architectural market, we doubled the analysis capabilities of our VE-Gaia early stage analysis tool and announced a partnership with Trelligence to incorporate IESVE analysis into their Affinity programming and schematic design tool.  Phew we’ve been busy!!  You can see Don our founder and CEO being video interviewed about this online at Buildaroo.

One of the most interesting announcements at the show from our perspective was from the USGBC regarding their new LEED Automation program designed to link LEED Online with third party technology companies offering better collaboration and a more streamlined document submission process for users seeking LEED certification.  Read more at Eco-Structure.

Plus, a first for us last year, we had a number of customers and partners spend their time with us on stand, presenting and talking about their experiences using our software and what we’re doing together.  Building Momentum Group, HGA and Trelligence were all excellent IESVE sales people, even if not on the payroll!!  While some of our key customers who have been testing the ASHRAE 90.1 VE-Navigator over the last 6 months as we’ve refined it were kind enough to let us know their thoughts.

Actually, I’d like to pick up on this point and say a BIG THANK YOU to them, as well as all of our valued customers who regularly wax lyrical about our products to their peers and give us valuable feedback that helps us stay at the cutting edge of Building Performance Analysis year on year.  Oh and I mustn’t forget our highly skilled consultants who regularly push the limits of the software on leading analysis projects around the globe – 7-years plus working with Wal-Mart on their store optimization plan now that’s something to talk about if only we could go into detail!

To wind up, I’d like to congratulate the USGBC Leadership Award winners and Brian Wolfe of HKS who was the winner of our very own VE-Gaia competition.  I blogged about it from the show here…

Edwina

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Tags:ASHRAE, Building, Greenbuild, Greenwash, LEED, software, USGBC

After weeks of anticipation and around 250 entries, we are happy to announce the winner of our Global VE-Gaia contest. The envelope please…

(Drum roll followed by dramatic pause)

And the winner is…Brian J Wolfe of HKS!

With the quality of entries extremely high, Brian managed to impress us with his answer detailing how he felt “VE-Gaia = Sustainable Projects.”  Brian went on to explain the early sustainable analysis role VE-Gaia could play at HKS within its DesignGreen team, which he is part of.  His detailed and lengthy answer showed he really understood how VE-Gaia could make a difference in his day-to-day work, and that he was ready to get going using its features on real-life projects as soon as he could.  I’ve included some extracts from his entry below…

“IES’s program VE-Gaia seems to meet the wish of seamless workflow by providing many features. One of the most beneficial features is the Energy/Carbon Simulation. In the discussions of what is important to reducing Green House Gas (GHG), some groups say that project teams should focus on reducing the energy demand. Others say it’s more important to focus on reducing the carbon footprint. The fact of the matter is that this is similar to, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” 

“I believe that the IES feature Energy/Carbon Simulation would be of great benefit to design teams. By allowing teams to see how their design decisions can reduce the project’s carbon footprint, teams can better understand the project’s impact when compared to reduction of vehicle use, trees cut, etc. The reduction of the carbon footprint in turn translates to a more energy efficient building, hence energy efficiency.”

“By being able to determine the affects of the design decisions, teams will be able to proceed with confidence that the project is a quality project. For society to continue to enjoy the valuable resources nature offers and NOT compromise its future, project teams must develop sustainable projects. With so many different factors that contribute to providing a project that is sustainable, teams need assistance. Any program that allows the team to work seamlessly through design and sustainable analysis will not only provide that team a distinct advantage, but the team will have the satisfaction of knowing that it has done its part in seeing that the next generation’s future is not compromised.”

Brian has won a one-year stand-alone license for VE-Gaia, the company’s revolutionary architectural green building analysis tool.  He will also receive a three-part training course for two people, with a certified IES consultant. The total grand prize is valued at $1,840 / £1,200.

Brian was officially announced the winner at our booth at Greenbuild in Chicago yesterday.

Many thanks to all who participated in our contest.  The feedback you provided us is priceless.  As always, we remain committed to improving our products every day to better serve you, and we also hope that you will continue to help us help you make our world greener, one project at a time.

Once again, thanks to all the contest participants and congratulations Brian!

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Tags:competition, Greenbuild, software, Twitter, VE-Gaia, winner

We’re going to Greenbuild in Chicago next Tuesday, will we see you there? We are exhibiting at booth #516, where we will join hundreds of exhibitors in discussing our newest initiatives and showcasing our work.

The Future of LEED Energy Modeling is here! Find out all about our exciting new LEED Energy modeling tool, the VE-Navigator for ASHRAE 90.1. Designed by experts in the field and already live project tested by users, it streamlines the calculation and submission process. Don’t miss exclusive live demos from our booth #516, click here for more information.  Talk to our experts and find out how you can be the first to access this new tool!

ECO-FRIENDLY easy scan If you’re visiting our stand with a smart phone then download the Scanlife app from your appstore (compatible with Apple, Windows, Blackberry, Ovi and Android), but why I hear you cry? You’ll have to stop by our booth to see!

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Tags:ASHRAE, downloads, Greenbuild, LEED

Yesterday, the UK Green Building Council’s chief executive Paul King urged architects and builders to reduce carbon emissions as a result of the built environment by 50 percent by the year 2020 (BD Online). At the annual conference in London yesterday, he said, “We have the technology and the know-how in the industry, but we haven’t managed to mainstream these yet.”

According to the UKGBC, buildings are responsible for 44 percent of the UK’s CO2 emissions, a number that needs to be drastically reduced if we hope to solve the global climate crisis. Following our recent attendance at Greenbuild , we know people are on board with change. But what is it going to take to get us there?

Read our PDF research paper on “Building Simulation as an assisting tool in designing an energy efficient building: a case study” to understand our take on how you can start to incorporate these techniques and technologies into the design process right from the early stages.

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Tags:Architects, Building, climate, Environment, Greenbuild, reduce

Now a protest on smoking in LEED buildings was not quite the sight I expected to see as a rocked up for the first day of Greenbuild! I believe the protesters were referring in particular to the newly certified ARIA resort and casino in Las Vegas which allows smoking on the casino floor.

On closer inspection and investigation however, it appears that the casino itself was excluded from the LEED submission, which only covers the hotel resort tower and convention center.

“The USGBC already has awarded LEED Gold certification to ARIA’s hotel tower, convention center and theater; as well as Vdara Hotel. CityCenter’s remaining venues are poised to receive a combination of Silver and Gold LEED ratings.” (For full article click here)

But even if it had been included smoking could be allowed in designated areas with measures taken to avoid second-hand smoke in other areas according to EQ Prerequisite 2: Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) Control. See the blog and comments at Cooper Green Design for more detail.

I wonder if the protesters knew this or if it would make much difference to them? However, it does raise some interesting questions about what LEED should and can demand of facilities, and how boundaries are set. Though I believe the Minimum Program Requirements (MRP) in the latest version of LEED (2009) would now not allow this kind of exclusion.

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Tags:Greenbuild, LEED, Sustainability

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.

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Tags:Building, Greenbuild, Sustainability