Incorporating energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable design features into all building designs has become a top priority for building owners, facilities managers, architects, designers, and others in new buildings. With states and municipalities moving toward more stringent energy codes, the question becomes: how can you ensure your project truly delivers a high-performance building design? Is it the energy model prepared during design? Is it the costly building management system (BMS) installed at turnover? Or is it something more?
The high-performance building design process begins long before systems are selected or materials specified. It starts with a clear understanding of occupant needs and project budget. From there, building siting and space programming decisions play a crucial role in reducing loads for heating, cooling, and lighting.
Key strategies include:
- Optimized building envelope – Roof, windows, and walls designed to control, collect, and store solar energy.
- Right-sized systems – Mechanical and electrical systems matched to the program, occupancy, and environmental conditions.
- Integrated design – A holistic process where every element supports the others, rather than a patchwork of “green” technologies.
High-performance design is not achieved through a single technology. It is the result of integrated, whole-building thinking carried through planning, design, construction, and operation, which requires guidance, recommendations, and action on the part of the design team throughout the entire project development process, utilizing good design practices for planning and developing design approaches that encourage the achievement of complex building challenges. There is no official, legally recognized definition of good design practices, but its application involves a design process that is dynamic, and repeatable, with involvement of the project’s end users and invested parties.
As Steve Jobs explained in a 1996 Wired interview: “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it is really how it works.”
How do we predict how a building design will work? Energy modeling is an important tool, but it is only as good as the assumptions behind it. In practice, three major hurdles often cause design-phase energy models to diverge from actual building performance:
- The Weather – Always unpredictable, always variable.
- Building Operations – A building is only as efficient as the people running it.
- Maintenance – Even the best system falters without consistent care.
The weather is, well, the weather, but the building is only as efficient as how its facilities personnel operate it and how it will be maintained over the building’s life cycle. To be effective, energy modeling must be tied to post-occupancy outcomes and aligned with operational practices. Otherwise, the tool becomes a predictive exercise with little connection to day-to-day performance.
And what about that expensive BMS “black box”? Today’s advanced building designs and their sequence of operation can be complex and, therefore, confusing to operate. Ensuring your construction partner understand the building design and how you want to operate your building are the first steps towards operating your building efficiently and lowering your building operational energy use. Facilities staff must be trained to use the BMS effectively, not just monitor alarms. Continuous commissioning is required to ensure settings don’t drift and systems stay optimized. Without this knowledge transfer and ongoing management, the “smart” building quickly becomes just another energy drain.
When designed, installed, and commissioned properly, the building systems can adapt to real operating conditions, maintain healthy ventilations levels, reduce energy consumption and deliver a comfortable, productive environment for occupants. But to sustain those benefits, buildings need post-occupancy reviews and standard operating procedures for continuous commissioning. With the right facilities team in place, high-performance buildings not only maintain their efficiency, they generate growing savings year after year.
