The construction industry could use a better contextual baseline than codes for measuring building efficiency against design strategy, says the executive vice president of James Construction, based in Carnegie, Penn.
Craig Stevenson, in a Construction Dive article, says a system such as Energy Star’s Energy Use Intensity (EUI) would provide a better way to measure efficiency and provide a better market-driven approach to sustainability. According to the Energy Star web site, “EUI is expressed as energy per square foot per year. It’s calculated by dividing the total energy consumed by the building in one year (measured in kBtu or GJ) by the total gross floor area of the building.”
EUI would create a common standard analogous to the miles-per-gallon standard in the automobile industry, Stevenson told Construction Dive. Codes can be too slow to catch up to the latest technology and techniques, he added.
Standards such as LEED may not go far enough to account for operations efficiency after a building is completed, he says. EUI, on the other hand, is measurable every year and provides a benchmark for the entire building and all energy-consuming systems.
Related Stories
| Aug 30, 2012
Public comment period is open for CRRC-1 standard
The CRRC-1 standard covers specimen preparation and test methods for measuring the initial and aged solar reflectance and thermal emittance of roofing products.
| Aug 30, 2012
LEED system's footprint reaches 2 billion sf, with 7 billion sf in the pipeline
About 7 billion more sf of commercial space is expected in the pipeline.
| Aug 30, 2012
Georgia drops LEED wood source standard on state projects
Currently, LEED green building standards only accept timber products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
| Aug 21, 2012
AGC offers second edition of the Federal Government Contractor: Ethics & Compliance Programs manual
This publication helps contractors appreciate the grounds for an alleged violation of the expected standards of business conduct and ethics, and to develop, implement, and document an effective ethics and compliance program.
| Aug 21, 2012
Federal Safe Building Code Incentive Act’s bipartisan support, no notable objection, bodes well for passage
The Safe Building Code Incentive Act would give states a little extra post-disaster federal funding if they enacted and enforced nationally recognized building codes for businesses and residences before disaster strikes.
| Aug 16, 2012
New York’s Barclays Center project accused of ignoring noise, pollution regulations
Construction crews racing to finish the Brooklyn Barclays Center are ignoring strict regulations to reduce noise and pollution, a new report by critics has found.
| Aug 16, 2012
Harness saves life of worker cleaning Washington state Capitol
Fall-protection equipment helped save the life of a worker who was cleaning the Washington state Capitol building in Olympia, after the platform he was using gave way.
| Aug 16, 2012
CSI webinar on August 21 focuses on electronic energy control
The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) is sponsoring a free webinar on August 21 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT) on electronic energy control.
| Aug 16, 2012
Public sector pushes sustainable building forward
Not usually noted for its innovation, the public sector has done the most to advance sustainable building, according to a recent panel of green building professionals.
| Aug 16, 2012
Canada’s first net-positive building under construction in Milton, Ontario
The GreenLife Business Centre in Milton, Ontario near Toronto is set to become the first net-positive energy building in Canada.
