Ongoing Performance of LEED Green Buildings

According to a recent press release from the USGBC, the ongoing performance of buildings is going to be getting a lot more attention moving forward, as they begin to implement what they are calling their Building Performance Initiative. The intent of the BPI, in the USGBC's words, is to "put in place a comprehensive data collection effort from all buildings that have achieved LEED certification; implement an appropriate analysis methodology of that data; and provide feedback to building owners so they have better information with which to address any performance gaps that stem from predicted building performance versus actual performance."

This data collection will become a mandatory part of LEED certification, and was first introduced into the LEED v3 Rating Systems, released earlier this Summer. Four BPI summits will be held across the U.S. this September and October, and will act as a way to pull together LEED participants and engage them in the data collection process and proposed methodology for collecting building performance statistics.

In November, at the annual Greenbuild Conference & Expo, which is being held in Phoenix this year, the gathered inputs of the four summits will be reported on, marking the First Annual Building Performance Summit.

Find out more about this year's Greenbuild Conference, If you would like to learn more about LEED, and in particlar find out how green power can be applied to your next project, please visit our website.

PERSONALLY SPEAKING

Putting together an ongoing system to measure, track, and suggest changes to the performance and design of a building is a great way to ensure that the intents and requirements of LEED are effective and strict enough to keep buildings performing efficiently long after they have received certification. In addition, these initiatives will also help the LEED Rating Systems evolve. A building that is designed and constructed to LEED standards may perform well from the get-go, but over time the calibration of systems will need adjusting, and unexpected factors may come in to play that mean things are not running properly or were not initially designed to the most efficient level possible. The Building Performance Initiative is there a fantastic move on the USGBC's behalf, and I look forward to hearing their findings this November in Phoenix.~Matt

Matt Kiszka is the Green Building Project Manager for Renewable Choice.