Author: Energy Cost

The institutionalization of high-performing materials, resilient design and verified green buildings stems from the market transformation driven by USGBC and the LEED rating system. Twenty years ago, this was a distant dream requiring a seemingly impossible paradigm shift. We are currently in a similar shift in workforce development.

Most companies in our emerging industry have traditionally trained new staff almost completely internally. Additionally, the competitive nature of new business models in an emerging industry has reduced collaboration on workforce strategies and career alignments. Fortunately, many are drawn to careers that help combat climate change, and this passion has sustained us for some time. However, as our industry becomes more established, we need a new collective strategy.

Building a seamless pipeline

Cooperatively, we must develop an equitable, seamless pipeline of clean economy career education and skill development. This pipeline will ensure diverse students and adults gain quality, family-sustaining jobs; employers access a qualified, diverse workforce; and public and private partners streamline offerings and leverage funding together to reduce our collective impact on climate change and human health.

A contiguous green jobs pipeline begins with exposing K–12 students and job seekers to our industry’s opportunities through career exploration curricula, industry speakers, project tours, career fairs or media. Interested individuals are then connected to training pathways in higher education, trade schools or intermediary credential training programs, connecting or overlapping with apprenticeships, internships or fellowships. Ongoing career progression includes mentorship, career coaching, professional development, reskilling and entrepreneurship. Collaborations among various organizations are critical to ensuring fluid movement through these stages.

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/green-workforce-empowering-people-our-shared-future

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a new floodplain rule in July, requiring construction projects that receive agency funding to be elevated above current and anticipated future flood levels. The rule came as catastrophic flooding hit communities in Texas, Iowa and Vermont, in the latest round of extreme weather events that are posing increasing risks to people and property across the country while also driving up insurance costs.

With this new rule, FEMA will account for the impacts of climate change on increased flood risk and require enhanced resilience for FEMA-funded buildings and other construction projects in at-risk areas. FEMA joins the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which adopted a similar rule in April expanding its floodplain definition and increasing elevation requirements for HUD-assisted new housing.

These new flood rules are a critically important step to improve the preparedness of our nation’s infrastructure in the face of growing climate risks and to use taxpayer dollars more prudently in building and rebuilding projects.

The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard

The FEMA and HUD rules both implement the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS). FFRMS is a flexible framework designed to address current and future flood risks and increase the resilience of federally funded infrastructure. Federal agencies are required to select one of three approaches to identify the FFRMS floodplain used for project siting, design and construction:

• Climate Informed Science Approach (CISA): The flood elevation and hazard area that result from using the best-available data and methods integrating current and future changes based on climate science.
• Freeboard Value Approach (FVA): The area that results from adding 2 feet to the base flood elevation (flood event with 1% annual probability) for noncritical facilities and adding 3 feet for critical facilities such as hospitals, power plants and water treatment facilities.
• 500-year floodplain: The area subject to flooding by a 500-year flood (an event with 0.2% annual probability).

FEMA and HUD have prioritized the use of CISA, where data is available and actionable, in their FFRMS implementation. Where data is not available, both agencies will generally defer to the higher result of the FVA or 500-year floodplain approach.

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/federal-agencies-address-increasing-flood-risks-new-rules

The requirement for a commissioning agent to “Verify operator and occupant training delivery and effectiveness” as part of enhanced commissioning is a bit ambiguous. Are we supposed to witness the training? Document it? Lead it? The sessions are usually bad anyway. Is there a way to improve the training process so that, as a new building becomes an existing building, the chances of success are improved?

As with many aspects of commissioning, trying to figure out your role in the construction process can be difficult at times. Buildings were going up long before commissioning began as a specialty, and many construction teams are certain they can succeed without the involvement of a Certified Commissioning Authority (CxA). However, as buildings become more complex, and their control systems ever more sophisticated, it becomes increasingly crucial that each building be staffed by people who understand how the building is intended to operate and can identify when the operation falls short.

The training process as envisioned by LEED’s Enhanced Commissioning credit is intended not only to train the initial staff, but also to leave a record to help educate those who come after. Here are some tips to get everyone on board and assist the transition from “new” to “existing.”

Get a good start

Just as any house needs a good foundation, the training process needs to be rooted in the building design. This is emphasized by the text of the LEED rating system, which states that the CxA must “verify inclusion of operator and occupant training requirements in construction documents.” The ideal place for these requirements to live is in Division 01 of the spec book. CSI Master Format sets aside number 01 79 00 for Demonstration and Training. Placing the language instead in the individual subcontractor sections (22, 23 or 26) does have the virtue of increasing chances that the requirements might actually be read; however, duplication of language in a spec book should be avoided whenever possible. A better strategy is to provide a reference to section 01 79 00 in the subcontractor specs and leave it at that.

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/pro-tip-meeting-enhanced-commissioning-requirements

Walking along Richmond Avenue and heading toward Rogerdale Road in Houston, Texas, you will find a nondescript four-story building, emblematic of the fabric within the city of Houston in the 1980s. In a partnership between the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores of the United Mexican States and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the Consulado General de Mexico en Houston’s existing location was on a delicate tract of land that TxDOT needed in order to bury and widen U.S. Highway 69. TxDOT purchased the existing, vacant building at 10555 Richmond Avenue to house the new consulate’s offices.

The 50,000-square-foot government building had been built in 1982, was outdated and had been vacant for several years. One site visit told the team at Method Architecture that this was a sustainable gem ready to be polished and reset.

The Consulado General of Mexico in Houston serves a vast stretch of southeast Texas and parts of western Louisiana, as well as all Mexican nationals traveling or residing in the United States. Consulate services range from providing replacement documents such as passports, IDs and visas to immigration support and family services. The consulate is also a cultural hub in which the interests of the Mexican government and citizens interact with local businesses, schools, outreach programs and professional resources.

The benefits of existing buildings are immeasurable and unique. Infrastructure is in place, embodied carbon is sequestered and surrounding neighborhoods are established, providing bus transportation, biking and walking. Seeking Silver-level certification under LEED v4 for Interior Design and Construction, we were reminded of the Carl Elefante quote, “The greenest building… is the one that is already built.” Our task was to show our clients that the building could be their ultimate headquarters, while highlighting Mexican culture in a sustainable way.

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/working-clients-share-benefits-existing-buildings

Money talks—and today, when it comes to the building industry, that money conversation frequently involves the worlds of green finance and ESG. What is green finance? How does it work? Why is it becoming so important to building industry leaders? Those are some of the questions we address in USGBC’s two-part podcast series, featuring GRESB experts Chris Pyke and Sarah Welton.

In Part 1, the definitions and applicability of green finance are discussed. The conversation also features some tips on where to learn more about this rapidly growing source of funding for today’s green building industry. Welton believes that at the rate our world is looking to sustainable solutions, even the term “green finance” will be old-fashioned before we know it.

“When we talk about green finance,” says Welton, “I think in a few years we’re going to drop the ‘green.’ It’s just going to be the way we do business.” Before we reach that point, though, Welton and Pyke share how you can explore and leverage green finance options.

Part 2 explores how ESG and green finance complement each other and the action of green building, and why their relationship is so important to a financial community looking to lock in returns on its investments.

“ESG is not an end in itself. It is a tool…a critical context to how a company is governed, how it addresses social issues and how it performs on environmental issues,” explains Pyke. “What’s going on at the company and fund enables and requires action [in] buildings and spaces. In turn, buildings and spaces must deliver the performance so that companies and funds can achieve their commitments to their investors.”

Breaking down abstract topics into concrete examples, Pyke and Welton describe how relevant ESG and green finance aspects are to all who participate in green building. Both podcasts also share thoughts as to how holistic rating systems such as LEED play an important role in the transformation of our built environment.

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimates that by 2050, 68% of the world’s population will live in urban environments. As the song goes, “we are living in a material world,” and much of this urban fabric is shaped by those of us in the built environment sector.

A large part of my professional role is to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment in both operational and embodied carbon. Architecture 2030 research shows that the built environment is responsible for about 42% of annual global CO2 emissions. There are exciting opportunities and synergies for our industry to innovate and create healthier jobs and spaces as we all race toward our collective net zero, or even net positive, carbon goals.

Operational and embodied carbon

Operational carbon strategies are focused on lowering energy use intensity (EUI) and carbon intensity through efficient building systems, high-performance facades, behavioral changes and renewable energy generation. Decarbonization of our utility grid will also play a critical role in reducing the CO2 emissions of the built environment. Creating all-electric buildings will further reduce our dependence on fossil fuels (used for space and water heating, as well as commercial cooking needs) and is an additional key step toward the decarbonization of our building stock.

Achieving LEED for Cities and Communities certification is a major accomplishment, one marked by plaque presentations with mayors and council, community receptions and more. This certification recognizes a community’s leadership in sustainability and provides evidence of the impact of policies, programs and investments. More than 130 jurisdictions have reached this milestone, and now recertification has become a top priority for many, with 19 already recertified.

If the initial certification provides a baseline assessment for a city, town or county, recertification offers the benefit of tracking progress over time, to ensure the actions that have been implemented are moving the needle on community conditions. Two recently recertified local governments shared why recertification is important and how they are institutionalizing LEED for Cities and Communities.