Energy plays more of a role in building and design than ever before, and it has just as much to do with health and the environment as it does with operations and the bottom line. We have entered an era in which a building’s energy productivity looms ever larger as a factor in business and global competition.

The global industrial sector accounts for 27 percent of the total projected increase (57 percent) in the world’s liquid energy demand between 2004 and 2030, as IMT noted last week based on the recently released Energy Information Administration (EIA) “International Energy Outlook 2007” report. Only the transportation sector surpasses industry’s projected demand.

The rapid rise of energy costs over the past few years “support the widespread conclusion that we’re entering an era in which energy productivity … will loom ever larger as a factor in the bottom line and global competition,” as Plant Services Editor-in-Chief Paul Studebaker recently pointed out, summing up the business aspect of the energy dilemma.

In fact, energy is playing more of a role in operations, building and design than it has ever before.

Now that the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system has become widely known and accepted, increasingly more builders’ clients do not need much prodding to undertake the basic testing, or commissioning, of building systems to ensure that equipment has been installed properly and is therefore functioning optimally, Nancy B. Solomon of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently pointed out in GreenSource magazine.

In Plant Services’ May 2007 issue, Studebaker cited three major energy villains in the plant — electrical (aka, “The Zapper”), boiler (“The Steamer”) and compressor/pump/fan systems (“The Leakster”) — and offered ways to “be the hero at your plant and rid your world” of these energy wasters.

Of course, energy has just as much to do with the environment and health as it does operations and the bottom line.

Unknowingly, the architecture and building community is responsible for almost half (48 percent) of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to data from the EIA. Globally the percentage is even greater.

As such, the green building movement is gaining strength and, without doubt, will increasingly play a larger role in design and building.

“The recent strength and growth of green building is due in large part to its voluntary nature, which provides builders and developers the flexibility that is essential for incorporating the principles of sustainable design,” Ray Tonjes, a custom builder from Austin, Texas, and National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Green Building Subcommittee chair, recently testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council:

• Buildings consume 70 percent of the electricity load in the U.S.;

• The average LEED-certified building uses 32 percent less electricity and saves 350 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually;

• Buildings account for 38 percent of CO2 emissions in the U.S. alone;

• As populations and economies grow significantly over the coming decades, approximately 15 million new buildings are projected to be constructed by 2015 to meet demand;

• Buildings have a lifespan of 50-100 years during which they continually consume energy and produce CO2 emissions; and

• Over the next 25 years, CO2 emissions from buildings are projected to grow faster than any other sector, with emissions from commercial buildings projected to grow fastest — 1.8 percent a year through 2030.

source:http://news.thomasnet.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Architecture Design, Home Design, Art Design, Building, Home Maintenance, Home Improvement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.