Building Energy Resilience

Everyone is talking about building retrocommissioning – they just don’t know it. Retrocommissioning is the art of analyzing a building’s current performance and implementing measures to reduce the operating cost while improving the functionality of the building’s systems. (Commissioning is the term used to describe this process when it is applied to new buildings, so ‘retro-commissioning’ evolved as the term for when the building has been around a while.)

Efficient air-handling systems? Here’s one simple strategy that I advocate for on every project I can – direct drive fans. Why? No belt losses (energy) and less maintenance (money).

We often hear a question that goes something like this from building owners: “Why do I need an independent design review? I hire the best architects and engineers.” It’s a reasonable question — asked so often in my opinion because those of us in the architecture, engineering and construction industries have done such a poor job answering.

Energy resilience will result from energy solutions for buildings that allow communities to improve building energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and increase our energy options. I’ve been struggling with the barriers to increasing energy resilience in our built environment for my 30-year career. I have known since I was a teenager that the way we live is unsustainable and have been dedicated to changing that. Yet while I’ve been part of numerous success stories, they comprise only a small patchwork of policy and programmatic innovations and a few projects with progressive building owners who were willing to move beyond the norm. It is simply not enough.