NIBS, NBI issue guidance document to help communities achieve energy goals

The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) and the New Buildings Institute (NBI) have released Implementing an Outcome-Based Compliance Path in Energy Codes: Guidance for Cities, a document that provides guidance to help communities achieve energy goals.

The document contains a new approach to code compliance to shift the focus towards actual, measurable energy results. This strategy can begin impacting energy influencing measures not currently included in the nation’s model energy codes, according to a news release.

The free document includes code language that can be incorporated directly into a jurisdiction's energy code. Jurisdictions can use the draft regulatory language as a framework to align their high-level energy goals through their building codes, the release says.

For details, visit http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.nibs.org/resource/resmgr/docs/OBP-CityLevelGuide.pdf

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.