Energy modeling Q&A: first some answers on cost, and then it's your turn to ask (or answer) some questions.

There is so much confusion about energy modeling--what it should cost, what benefits it offers, how to approach it--that clear statements addressing these questions are like a breath of fresh air.

When I was privy to a private email exchange that included a short treatise on this topic from Chris Schaffner, principal of The Green Engineer in Concord, Massachusetts, I got his permission to share it.

First, the question:

I've often heard that energy modeling generally becomes cost-effective on projects that exceed 50,000 square feet. Do you agree, or is there a better threshold?

And Chris's reply:

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Going to BuildingEnergy this year? There are a lot of exciting sessions to choose from.

Interdisciplinary, cutting-edge, and combining high-flown philosophical ideas with practical nuts-and-bolts advice, the BuildingEnergy Conference in Boston is not only close to home but also close to our hearts. Every year, we look forward to meeting with old friends and hearing a lot of new ideas. This year, the conference is slated for March 6 & 7, and we'll be presenting some new ideas of our own.

If you're going, don't forget to stop by our booth--#656--and say hi!

Building Resilience for Climate Risks

BuildingGreen founder and executive editor Alex Wilson will be giving a talk on resilience at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 7. As in his blog series on the topic and in an upcoming feature article, Alex will address a lot of interrelated issues in this session, including synergies between sustainable design and resilient design as well as the urgency of changing the way we build now. The session also looks beyond buildings to discuss land-use planning and local food systems. It's a hot, emerging topic, and we hope you'll be able to attend to hear the latest on this important issue.

Making Existing Windows Work Better

At 4 p.m. that same day, Peter Yost, our director of residential programs, will be sharing the latest results from research BuildingGreen is participating in with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Peter will take an objective, evidence-based look at which window attachments (a.k.a. window treatments) are proven to offer the highest energy performance in the lab and in the field. This research can help you help clients make informed decisions about existing windows. Making windows work better doesn't have to be expensive and doesn't have to mean replacement.

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It's easy to get lost in a sea of greenwash. Our updated GreenSpec criteria provide clear direction on what makes a product green.

BuildingGreen has been defining what makes a product green since the start of the GreenSpec directory in 1998--and we're repeatedly surprised by how far and wide our list of green attributes travels. The industry is not static, though, and it is our aim to continue providing a compass that points from today's best practices to truly sustainable materials management.

This month's EBN feature article on what makes a product green lays out our "green attributes" for 2012--a set of broad criteria and definitions, knit together with life-cycle thinking, that we use to evaluate products for listing in GreenSpec. Key changes from our last update in 2006 show both how far we have come and how much further we have left to go in achieving the kind of materials management that would support a sustainable society.

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There are plenty of products that simply aren't efficient, low-emitting, or sustainable. but here are some products that have a lot going for them, but also have some serious flaws.

At GreenSpec, we most often like to talk about our 2,200-plus listings of exemplary green products--listings from over 1,600 companies representing thousands of individual products. For ten years we have annually highlighted our Top-10 products of the year, for example.

Today we look at six products we rejected from GreenSpec, and why. There are plenty of products that simply aren't efficient, low-emitting, or otherwise sustainable enough for our standards, but here we've selected some products that have a lot going for them, but also have some serious flaws.

We hope that pointing out flaws can lead to product and industry change. EcoDomo's recycled leather tiles for flooring and walls are made from recycled leather scraps mixed with natural rubber and a binder made from Acacia bark. We originally rejected the tiles in 2006 because of concerns about chromium, a toxic heavy metal used in leather tanning. EcoDomo took our concerns seriously, and now their tiles are chromium-free and listed in GreenSpec.

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A pedestrian-friendly, walkable community was created in Annapolis, Maryland, making getting around without cars much more feasible. Photo: Dan Burden. Click on image to enlarge.

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LEED Minimum Program Requirement #6, requiring energy and water use reporting, is the most controversial and the most difficult to comply with. Our free webcast explains it step by step.

Free Webcast: LEED Energy Reporting Made Easy: Fulfilling LEED-2009 MPR #6

Tues. Feb. 28 | 1 p.m. Eastern Time

When the Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs) were introduced in 2009, it quickly became clear that MPR #6 would be perhaps the most controversial and the most difficult to comply with. Under the requirements of MPR #6, certified LEED-2009 projects are committed to sharing whole-building energy and water usage data.

Many projects have had questions about how to comply (and if they really have to!), and USGBC has taken time to build out its support for this requirement. Now, the support is there, and LEEDuser is here to help answer your questions--and make MPR #6 easy with this free webcast--register now!

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The Army is still going for Gold and Platinum despite recent legislation calling a halt to LEED spending.

The federal government has been one of the biggest supporters of LEED certification in the last few years, with the General Services Administration (GSA) requiring basic LEED certification for all federal buildings starting in 2003 and then upping that requirement to LEED Gold in 2010.

The military has been on the cutting edge of green building from the beginning. The Navy adopted sustainable design principles before LEED even existed, as we reported way back in 1998. The Army embraced LEED in 2006 and recently began the much more radical work of moving all its installations to net-zero energy, water, and waste. As Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy, and the environment, put it to EBN earlier this year, "Energy security is mission critical."

It doesn't cost more

We feared that might all change when we saw that the most recent military appropriations legislation requires explicit justification for any spending on LEED above the Silver level. What's worse, this decision pretends to be about money but appears to have been made over certified wood credits. (Watch this space for in-depth coverage of the "wood wars" in coming weeks.)

Hammack is having none of it. In a call with reporters yesterday, she reiterated the Army's commitment to net-zero and LEED and gave an update about some of the progress that's already been made. "We're finding it does not cost more to design and construct to LEED" standards, Hammack said.

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Lighter, more fire-resistant, and a better insulator, autoclaved aerated concrete caught on in the rest of the world ages ago. It's taking a lot longer in the U.S.

To read what manufacturers and distributors say about it, you'd think autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) was some kind of new, space-age environmental miracle.

Although it certainly has some nifty properties, AAC isn't new and isn't miraculous--but it's certainly popular in Europe, and has been for decades; according to one source, it accounted for 60% of all new construction in Germany in 2006. It has enjoyed pretty flat market share (of near zero) here in the U.S., though, since it was first introduced in the 1990s.

Is there space for AAC in the U.S. market? Should the green building community be working to make space?

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July, 2011 dust storm in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo: Militec, Inc. Click on image to enlarge.

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Will environmental product declarations end greenwashing for good? Not so fast.

This is Part 3 in our series on transparency.

Part 1: Why We Care About Product Transparency

Part 2: Why We Need "Nutrition Labels" for Building Products

We all want to know more about where our building products come from and what's in them. Finally, with the emergence of environmental product declarations, we're going to find out!

Aren't we?

The promise of the product transparency movement is huge, and we think this nascent trend is going to play a big role in sustainable manufacturing, design, construction, and operations in the next few years--one reason why we dedicated this month's EBN feature to product transparency.

But things aren't as simple as they might seem in this uncharted realm. There's more to environmental product declarations (EPDs) than meets the eye. And in many cases, there's less than meets the eye too. While many manufacturers are working hard to show leadership on true transparency, there is also a risk of insidious greenwashing like we've never seen before.

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