#1 in 2010: Paving the Way to 2030

In May 2011 the American Institute of Architects (AIA) released its first 2030 Commitment Annual Report for 2010. This is an anonymous and voluntary reporting of architecture firms’ progress towards meeting the 2030 Commitment goals leading up to all new building achieving net zero energy performance by the year 2030. The target reduction for 2010 was a firm-wide PEUI (predicted energy use intensity) of 60% below the existing building stock average. The good news is that many firms were able to assemble the data and submit a report. The bad news is that the average PEUI reduction was 35.1%, far below the target. The largest reduction by a firm was 70.6%. I am proud to claim that distinction for EHDD Architecture. 

Packard Foundation 343 Second Street Office Building

The Exploratorium at Piers 15 & 17

 The short story is that we had two large net zero energy buildings in active design phase in 2010 – the 50,000 sq. ft. Packard Foundation 343 Second Street office building and the 330,000 sq. ft. new home of The Exploratorium at Piers 15 & 17 – and this elevated our results beyond any other design firm in the county. This proves the obvious: the best way to meet the 2030 Commitment is to start designing net zero energy buildings before 2030. The inability of most firms to meet the target reduction proves the same point. It is hard to get where we need to go with incremental improvements. Instead, it is going to take radical leaps forward to net or near net zero energy buildings in the near term to get to all net zero energy buildings in the longer term.

"The best way to meet the 2030 Commitment is to start designing NZE buildings now."

The reporting process is a challenge in itself, this despite the praiseworthy efforts of Greg Mella, Rand Ekman, Bill Worthen and the others who labored to set up the protocol. The hardest part is gathering up – or more aptly prying loose – the energy model reports from active projects for 2010 and trying to determine how trustworthy they are. While some projects use energy models to try to predict actual energy use, others are merely compliance models. What you end up with is a bunch of models that are often based on different assumptions of what they are measuring. In the end these predicted results are being compared against measured projects in the DOE’s (Department of Energy) Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) database. Therefore, all of our modeling should be moving towards trying to predict real use instead of playing by the artificial rules set by energy codes. 

The other challenge is that architecture firms these days do a lot of studies that stall in conception. I would recommend a change in the definition of applicable projects from “active design phase” to “projects finished with schematic design through construction.” Many projects are only beginning to get reliable energy models at the end of schematic design. Any predicted energy use earlier than that reflects aspiration, not perspiration.

"Energy literacy leads to energy efficiency."

After you gather your project data, the next step is to select the closest applicable CBECS benchmark category for your project to compare to. As you would expect there is no benchmark category for a 330,000 sq. ft. remodel of an historic pier building as a science museum that makes lightning as part of its exhibits. The CBECS database is widely known to be severely limited in scope, so you end up having to come to terms on your own with the benchmark category or EUI that most fairly compares with your building.

I will end on an up note by echoing what Jim Newman said on a blog post at buildinggreen.com about this year’s less than sparkling results:  “It is worth remembering that this process and the data itself are meant to help firms get better. The point of collecting and publishing all of this is improvement. The results are secondary….The results can help us track the effectiveness of those changes over time.” I encourage all firms to start tracking their energy use. Energy literacy is the first step towards energy efficiency.

Brad Jacobson, AIA, LEED® AP
Senior Associate