During Building Innovation 2014 – the National Institute of Building Sciences second annual Conference and Expo, the Institute will celebrate its 40th anniversary as an advocate for the building industry and explore innovative solutions for Advancing Life-Cycle Performance. The weeklong event scheduled for January 6-10, 2014, in Washington, D.C., will include the popular buildingSMART alliance™
Symposium and FEDCon®, along with activities and information presented by other Institute councils and committees. To stay informed while plans are underway, sign up to receive Conference updates.
Joint HPBCCC-Institute Committees Form to Implement
Institute Recommendations
Members of the High-Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition (HBPCCC) and the Institute’s Consultative Council and High Performance Building Council recently came together to discuss opportunities to link the high-performance recommendations coming out of the Institute with the building community’s messages to policymakers. To implement this new linkage, two committees have been formed. The Policy Committee will focus on identifying the relevant recommendations and developing a roadmap toward their implementation. The Education and Outreach Committee will identify the potential pathways to disseminating the recommendations to policymakers, the public and the building community. Introductory conference calls are scheduled for early April. Andrew Goldberg of the American Institute of Architects is leading the overall effort. Committee chairs will be named shortly. Get involved.
2014 NEHRP Provisions Member Organization Ballots Due May 13
On March 1, 2013, following a two-day meeting, the Provisions Update Committee (PUC) presented its recommended first group of ballot proposals for the 2014 National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) update cycle to the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) Board of Direction (BOD). The BOD unanimously approved those ballots to be sent to the membership. On March 19, BSSC sent the first 2014 proposals to member organizations. Member organizations have until Friday, May 13, 2013, to vote on the ballots, which, if approved, will become part of the 2014 NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions For New Buildings and Other Structures. Learn more about the 2014 NEHRP Provisions update.
Hear from More than 30 Leading Experts:
Presentation Speakers Selected for AIVC Airtightness Workshop
Planners of the AIVC Airtightness Workshop/Third TightVent Workshop on Building and Ductwork Airtightness have received the submitted papers and selected 33 expert professionals to give presentations at the event, which will be held April 18-19, 2013, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Speakers will address the following topics: Policy and Requirements; Product Characterization – Innovative Sealing Technologies; Design and Quality Control – Energy Impacts; and Measurement Methods, Field Campaigns and Data Analysis. The long presentations will last 15 minutes. The short presentations will be broken into three-minute time slots. Read the full story. See the list of sessions. Register now.
Calling all Energy Stakeholders:
EESCC Inventory Submissions Welcome
As part of its ongoing efforts to assess the energy efficiency standardization landscape and carry out the development of a standardization roadmap for energy efficiency within the built environment, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Energy Efficiency Standardization Coordination Collaborative (EESCC) is soliciting input regarding relevant standards, codes, guidelines and conformance programs that are available or under development, and what perceived gaps in energy efficiency standardization and conformance activities currently exist.
This cross-sector initiative is dedicated to increasing awareness, adoption and implementation of standards, codes and conformance activities among policy makers and the market through the creation of the roadmap. More than 50 member organizations are currently involved in the effort. (Institute President Henry L. Green, Hon. AIA, chairs one of the EESCC working groups.) The EESCC invites all stakeholders to provide relevant input via the online entry forms. Feedback is due Monday, April 1.
Early-Bird Deadline Approaching to
Firm up Knowledge of Sustainable Concrete
Don’t miss the chance to get the early-bird rate to attend the 2013 International Concrete Sustainability Conference, scheduled for May 6-8 in San Francisco. Hosted by the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA), a member of the National Institute of Building Sciences, this 8th annual conference will give attendees a firm hold on the topic of concrete and provide learning and networking opportunities on the latest advances, technical knowledge, continuing research, tools and solutions for sustainable concrete manufacturing and construction. The Institute is a co-sponsor of the event, which will be held at the Hotel Sofitel San Francisco Bay, located in Redwood City, Calif. The early-bird rate of $395 ends April 14. Register today!
Save the Date: High-Performance Building Week Will Be Here Soon
Mark those calendars! The fifth annual celebration of High-Performance Building Week will be held May 12-18, 2013. The High-Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition (HPBCCC), the sponsor of High-Performance Building Week, and its member organizations, including the National Institute of Building Sciences, have numerous activities planned for the week in Washington, D.C. A May 14 HPBCCC briefing on Capitol Hill will serve as the formal release date of the Institute’s 2012 Consultative Council Report. Other planned activities include receptions and industry dialogues. High-Performance Building Week is the perfect opportunity to highlight the importance of high-performance buildings to federal, state and local policymakers and the general public. View the schedule.
New Agreement Ensures Plumbing Engineers are
Represented in NBIMS-US™
Plumbing engineering and design professionals are increasingly using building information modeling (BIM) in their work. To ensure the National BIM Standard-United States™ (NBIMS-US™) accurately references their needs, the American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) recently signed a memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Institute’s buildingSMART alliance™.
The buildingSMART alliance works with numerous organizations in the building industry to ensure that all stakeholders are represented in the BIM process. In the MOA, ASPE agreed to work together with the Alliance to develop and implement open BIM standards. The Society plans to establish a BIM committee that will work on developing ballots related specifically to their plumbing engineering and design expertise for submission to the NBIMS-US™ standards development process. Read the release.
Case Study for Award-Winning Synergy Rewards Program
Posted on WBDG
The first case study from the winners of the 2012 Beyond Green™
High-Performance Building Awards is now available for reference on the WBDG Whole Building Design Guide®. The Fort Drum Mountain Community Homes Synergy Rewards Program won the 2012 Award of Merit for Distinction in Category B, High-Performance Initiatives. Fort Drum’s Synergy Rewards Program engages more than 4,000 community residents in active pursuit of energy saving opportunities through feedback and incentives. The program features fun and interactive opportunities for residents to learn and receive credits towards rewards. So far, the program has resulted in energy savings of 9%, with benefits accruing to both the residents and Mountain Community Homes. View the case study.
Institute STEM Program Featured at FFC, NFMT, Webinar
As the Institute’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program continues its progress, it is receiving greater interest from the building industry. The Institute is working to develop facilities-related features for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Total Learning Research Institute (TLRI) Mars City project. In early March, the National Research Council’s Federal Facility Council Emerging Technologies Committee hosted Ryan Colker, the Institute’s Presidential Advisor, and TLRI’s Kerry Joels to discuss the progress to date on the Facilities Operations Challenge for Mars City. Last week, Colker, Joels, and Kimon Onuma of Onuma Systems addressed the Facility Maintenance and Operations Committee during its meeting at the NFMT Conference. Most recently, a March 20 webinar hosted by the Institute, with speakers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), TLRI and the Institute, highlighted the genesis of the project and the exciting details of its implementation. Learn more about the STEM Program.
WBDG FEMP Courses Now Approved for GBCI Credits
The WBDG Whole Building Design Guide® recently added a number of Federal Energy Management (FEMP) Continuing Education (CE) Courses to the website. The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) has approved six of those courses for GBCI CE hours, which LEED professionals can take to maintain their accreditation. All of the WBDG-hosted FEMP courses also are approved for American Institute of Architects (AIA) learning units (LUs) and FEMP continuing education units (CEUs). See what courses are offered.
WBDG Sets Another New Record for Downloads
 In February 2013, the WBDG Whole Building Design Guide® set a new record for downloads, exceeding 7.1 million. One of the largest, most comprehensive online resources in the building construction industry, WBDG typically averages 5 million downloads per month. This is the first time ever that WBDG surpassed 7 million downloads in one month. See what’s new on WBDG.
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