Ideas to Advance Building Industry Shared During Capitol Hill Briefing

May 21, 2013
The recommendations were from the National Institute of Building Sciences’ 2012 Consultative Council Report.

Recommendations implementable in the near term that can serve as the basis of a national buildings policy were shared during a briefing on Capitol Hill hosted by the High-Performance Buildings Caucus of the U.S. Congress to kick off High Performance Building Week May 13.

The recommendations, from the National Institute of Building Sciences2012 Consultative Council Report, “Moving Forward: Findings and Recommendations from the Consultative Council,” included:

• The building industry and policymakers identifying baseline metrics for measuring performance and coordinating ongoing efforts in this area.

• The building community working with scientists to identify and implement practices, standards, codes, and guidelines needed to adapt the built environment to climate change.

• Stakeholders working to identify ways to streamline the regulatory process and eliminate overlap, duplication, inconsistency, and inefficiency in the application of regulations, processes, and procedures.

• The building industry and regulatory community identifying ways to improve the code-compliance process and looking for alternative processes.

• Building owners recognizing the value of retrocommissioning and the importance of well-qualified retrocommissioning authorities.

• Policymakers quantifying the impact of retroactive application of requirements on existing buildings.

• Policymakers, foundations, and research institutions providing financial, political, and technical support for multidisciplinary research supporting the achievement of high-performance buildings.

• Utilities, policymakers, code developers, and the industry at large developing an approach to time-dependent valuation of energy, conducting research on pipe sizing, and determining how thermal insulation on potable- and other hot-water delivery systems impacts energy and water use.