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The Dates have Changed; the Conference Remains the Same
Building Innovation 2015 Rescheduled for One Week Earlier –
Update Your Calendar 
Through negotiations with the Washington Marriott Wardman Park, the first full week of January has been reclaimed for Building Innovation 2015 — the National Institute of Building Sciences Third Annual Conference and Expo. This date change puts the Conference back on schedule with the previous years and allows us to start the new year off right as we explore solutions for Creating High-Performing Resilient Communities. Plan to be there on the new dates: Tuesday - Friday, January 6 - 9, 2015, in Washington, D.C.
Be a part of four activity-filled days of informative sessions, quality educational programs, award presentations and networking opportunities while interacting with other building industry professionals seeking up-to-date information on building science, technology and ways to collaborate to improve the built environment. To find out more about sponsorship, exhibitor and advertising opportunities, download the event prospectus. Visit the Conference website for more information on the event. Registration opens September 1.
Energy Efficiency Standardization Roadmap Establishes
Framework for Action
With the June release of the Standardization Roadmap: Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment, U.S. industry, government, standards developing organizations (SDOs) and other energy efficiency stakeholders now have a national framework for action and coordination on future energy efficiency standardization. Developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Energy Efficiency Standardization Coordination Collaborative (EESCC) — a cross-sector group chaired by representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Schneider Electric, and including National Institute of Building Sciences President Henry L. Green, serving as chair of the Systems Integration and Systems Communication Working Group — the roadmap charts 125 recommendations to advance energy efficiency within the built environment.
More than 50 member organizations and 4 federal agencies, involving over 160 experts from industry, standards and code developing organizations, energy efficiency-focused organizations, educational institutions and other groups took part in the roadmap’s development. View ANSI’s release. Download the document.
House Approves Bill Based on Consultative Council Recommendations
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill based on specific recommendations from the Consultative Council. On June 23, the House passed H.R. 4801, the Thermal Insulation Efficiency Improvement Act. The bi-partisan legislation introduced by Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Jerry McNerney (D-CA) calls for the U.S. Department of Energy to examine potential energy and water savings from expanded use of thermal insulation.
Each year, the Council develops the report, Moving Forward: Findings and Recommendations from the Consultative Council, which is included in the Institute’s Annual Report to the President of the United States. The bill is based on 2011, 2012 and 2013 recommendations. Find out more.
Tell Me More about Your Job…on Mars
  Dr. Kerry Joels (left), president of the Total Learning Research Institute (TLRI), interviews Dunstan Macauley, senior associate at WSP Group, as part of the Mars City Facility Operations (Ops) Challenge. The science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education program under development by the National Institute of Building Sciences, TLRI and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) serves to engage high school students in building science-related careers. Macauley’s video interview was one of more than a dozen collected last week to be stored in the Facility Ops Challenge’s online career center. The career center will feature interviews from representatives of numerous disciplines as a means for attracting and engaging high school and community college students in buildings-related careers.
Still Time to Attend the Second Webinar in MMC’s Series
Series Addresses Pressing Aspects of Hazards Mitigation
We’re only days away from the second webinar in the new National Institute of Building Sciences Multihazard Mitigation Council (MMC) webinar series on mitigation. “Better Building Codes: Demanding Minimum Construction Practices—It’s the Least We Can Do!” presented by Leslie Chapman-Henderson, President and CEO of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH), will be held Thursday, July 24, 2014, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm EDT. Register today!
NIST Requests Industry Input to Identify Current Disaster
Resilience Methods
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working to develop a community-scale approach to disaster resilience. The NIST Disaster Resilience Framework will identify expected levels of performance for buildings and infrastructure lifelines and ways to measure them; and identify existing standards and codes and best practices for building and infrastructure lifelines, such as water and power supplies that can be implemented to enhance resilience. In addition, NIST is attempting to identify what gaps exist and what additional standardization activities are necessary to advance community resilience in the United States.
NIST will not develop standards nor will it assign responsibility for their development. Rather, the agency’s intention is to organize, augment and raise awareness of the plethora of public and private standardization activities that are being developed and advanced to enhance resiliency in the built environment. Where appropriate, NIST may perform research to provide the technical basis for new standards or code provisions. The NIST resilience framework will connect with other programs and activities that affect public safety and have similar missions. Please help NIST to understand what codes and standards currently exist and in what forms by identifying standards that relate to resiliency. Comments are due September 1, 2014. Submit a comment to nancy.mcnabb@nist.gov or resilience@nist.gov.
NIST to Host Disaster Resilience Workshop
Registration Closes July 23
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will host a workshop on Disaster Resilience July 30, at the Stevens Institute in Hoboken, N.J. NIST invites experts and leaders from a broad array of resilience areas, including emergency management, business continuity, urban planning, engineering, economics, local and regional governance, transportation, water and wastewater, communications, social sciences, electrical power, and disaster planning and recovery. This workshop will be a working meeting for sector-based resilience experts and leaders to directly contribute to the Disaster Resilience Framework document. Registration closes July 23. Register now.
Workshops Help Professionals Understand Cybersecurity for
Building Control Systems
Institute to Hold Second Workshops August 27-28
Those building professionals who weren’t able to make it to the May Workshops on Cybersecurity of Building Control Systems have another chance: the National Institute of Building Sciences will sponsor a second round of the Cybersecurity Workshop series August 27-28 in Washington, D.C.
“The course was a great way for security industry manufacturers and manufacturers of critical infrastructure components to gain a better understanding of both the certification landscape as well as the common threats facing their systems/devices today,” said Peter Boriskin, director of product management – electronic access control at ASSA ABLOY Americas. “We plan to utilize the information gained at the workshop to raise awareness internally of common threats and exploits, as well as leverage some of the tools to recommend more effective, robust network designs as 'good practice' for our integrators.”
The Introduction to Cybersecuring Building Control Systems Workshop and the Advanced Cybersecuring Building Control Systems Workshop, taught by Michael Chipley, The PMC Group LLC, and Michael Morris, root9b, address an issue of increasing concern to organizations. Find out more.
Architects to Help Promote NIBS Performance-Based Guide
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has agreed to support a new performance-based guide developed by the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS).
The National Performance-Based Design Guide (NPBDG) is the first broad-reaching performance-based tool for use by facility owners and building industry professionals. During the development stage of the Guide, the NIBS High Performance Building Council, which oversees the project, distributed the pre-release version to a number of industry associations. The AIA will support the Guide by promoting it to its members as a resource to be used in the design phase of a building, as well as by bringing the designer community perspective to the NPBDG review and update process. Read the release.
BEST4 Conference Brings Building Enclosure Can-Do to Kansas City
 Make plans now to be at the BEST Conference ever, April 13-15, 2015, as the National Institute of Building Sciences, the Building Enclosure Council-Kansas City and many of the world’s foremost experts on building enclosure design and construction meet for the Building Enclosure Science & Technology (BEST4) Conference in Kansas City, Mo. This triennial event, focusing on Performance Driven Architectural Design, will present the latest research pertinent to all industry professionals: building systems that deliver high energy efficiency, good indoor climate and long-term performance. Preview the Conference program and find out more at www.thebestconference.org.
BEST4 is also the BEST place to show your support and show off your company’s products and services for the building enclosures industry. Become a sponsor/exhibitor before spaces run out. Download the event prospectus for rates and details.
Reserve your spot today.
Take a Trip to the Future:
Vision Task Force Foretells How Projects Will be Built in 2021
 Here’s your chance to get a glimpse of what the building industry will be like in the future. The 2021 Vision Task Force, formed by the National Institute of Building Sciences buildingSMART Alliance™ in 2013, offers you the opportunity to download a futuristic tale of triumph in two formats: a newspaper reporter’s eyewitness account or a short novel. Though lighthearted, both presentations present the serious research findings and best thinking from the multidisciplinary task force in six broad categories: sustainability; facility management and operations; data, interoperability and integration; building codes, specifications and standards; technology; and processes, efficiency and collaboration. All of the categories are expanded upon on in the summary within the publications.
As the developer of the National BIM Standard – United States® (NBIMS-US), the Alliance formed the 2021 Vision Task Force to focus on defining, forecasting and, in some cases, guessing at the future of the building industry to gain insight into what the NBIMS-US™ itself will need to be to support that future. Visit the 2021 Vision Task Force website to get a glimpse now. | 
