Building Energy Modeling –3 Essential Resources for the Public Sector

Energy modeling is a hot topic in new construction projects as well as building retrofit, renovation and facility management.  Federal, state and local governments are not only holding private firm construction to higher green standards, but the public sector overall is getting increased pressure to obtain higher LEED ratings and to produce high-rating energy proficiency analysis. (Read more in our earlier article: GSA Moves to LEED Gold for All New Federal Buildings and Major Renovations) If you’re a stranger to energy modeling, green building, or sustainable design, here are three resources that can help bring you quickly up to speed on mandates, implementation tips, and future of sustainable buildings. 1)      U.S. Green Building Council – The U.S. Green Building Council is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation.  Plenty of information is made available through their site such as the upcoming April, 2011 revamp of Roadmap to Green Government Buildings. This resource will be a guide for government professionals implementing green building programs and initiatives. 2)      Rocky Mountain Institute – Another valuable partner in the green agenda for public sector is the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).  Their website, found here, has a wide variety of information.  Most recently, the blog “Building an Energy Modeling Master Plan” in GreenerBuildlings brought them back on my radar as a place to get valuable information for green design.  You’ll read in the blog from Kelly Vaugn about the Building Energy Modeling Innovation Summit which just occurred in Boulder, CO this March.  The Summit gathered multiple stakeholders in the building energy modeling community to discuss the future of the sustainable building industry. 3)      Improving Federal Energy Performance Webcast – Finally, for more information on energy modeling and how to do conceptual energy analysis, download this on-demand webcast Improving Federal Energy Performance.  The webcast shows how to visualize and evaluate energy solutions using Building Information Modeling (BIM.) Related Articles