Energy Star tax credits
Concerns brought up by Howard McKew of Engineered Systems magazine in the July 2009 issue. He said “Owners, Please Demand More from your IPD team” (Integrated Project Delivery ) McKew cites the fact that the new IPD approach being promoted by the AIA is possibly a lawyers dream to make money in this economic downturn. But then he gets to the point I would like to emphasize.
“If we aren’t careful, the IPD process will be just another project delivery method where, in this case if things go well, the owner will have paid a premium in incentives to the designer and the builder for doing their jobs. What about the long-term benefits of the building systems meeting their operating budget? What about the facility group who should have been a partner in the process, rather than business as usual when it comes to turning over the job to the building operators?
He then goes on to list items that will make this process completely sustainable
* Establish an operating budget in the initial phase of the job as part of the OPR (owner’s project requirements) for utility costs and O&M costs;
* System training for the building operators early in the IPD process;
* Use of other “smart software” (programs with multiple applications) during the design and construction and continued use of these programs by the owner’s personnel in the years following the project completion;
* The implementation of building system monitoring, measuring, and benchmarking process in the performance phase (formally the warranty phase);
* The seamless integration of automatic controls system design with building system commissioning (HVAC, electric, plumbing, security, etc.);
* The integration of third-party TAB with the designer, similar to the designer and trade contractors working together with BIM.
In my opinion, this list is fairly sufficient!
Revit Family Library Screen
Let’s not pay lip service to sustainable and green building practices anymore. Why not do energy modeling on the design concept from the very beginning! We have the software (Revit, et al) now. Let’s use all of its capabilities!! Lets bring it into play in the early stages.
Owners should demand better results in the major operating costs: lighting and HVAC Energy usage. Achieve major improvements over the code baseline (ASHRAE 90.1, et al).
For so long, architects and builders have only thought about energy at 25% or 35% design. Owners, ask the AEC (architects/enginmeers/construction) team to look at the whole picture. (LEED GOLD? The highest Energy Star rating? )
A long standing design and construction rule is, “The earlier a change is made to design, the less expensive to incorporate it in the final product.” The incremental return on investment will be high, maybe infinite, in fact because the incremental cost of paying the designers to implement this upfront is very low. And the savings fall right to the bottom line!
Building information modeling and energy modeling do more than save initial building costs. In theory, BIM permits the architects engineers, contractors and construction managers to put ALL of the data into the “model” as they go. Read my report on BIM for more information.
We have the tools and the training, all we need is the will to do it.
