Federal Agenda for High-Performance Buildings Released

The National Science and Technology Council has released a report detailing research and development opportunities for the federal government in the area of net-zero-energy buildings.

The report calls on federal agencies to support the design and construction of buildings that will: produce as much energy as they consume; double the service life of materials, products, and systems; halve the use of domestic water; and improve occupant health, productivity, and comfort.

It goes on to define steps these agencies need to take to achieve these goals, thus providing focus for a broad mandate given to the agencies in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (see

EBN

Vol. 17, No. 2). Both those acts directed federal agencies to support the development of high-performance buildings; the 2007 act specifically created the Net-Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative (see

EBN

Vol. 17, No. 9).

The report is available for download at www.bfrl.nist.gov/buildingtechnology/documents/FederalRDAgendaforNetZeroEnergyHighPerformanceGreenBuildings.pdf.