Commercial Buildings
Big Pipes, Small Pumps: Interface, Inc. Factor Ten Engineering Case Study
This story of Interface Inc.’s Shanghai plant illustrates the pitfalls of the conventional design process—and the remarkable gains that are possible by rethinking basic assumptions. This paper describes how the lead designer Jan Schilham created a radical new layout with shorter, fatter pipes and smaller pumps to save nearly 90…
Collaborate and Capitalize: Post-Report from the BEM Innovation Summit
In 2011, RMI convened an invited group of key stakeholders within the building energy modeling (BEM) community to increase collaboration and develop implementation plans to address key barriers. This report describes the motivation for convening the BEM Innovation Summit; provides a recap of the group events and discussions; provides a…
Deep Energy Retrofit of Commercial Buildings: A Key Pathway Toward Low-Carbon Cities
Energy efficiency of commercial buildings is a fundamental part of the solution for developing low carbon cities worldwide. Existing commercial buildings consume significant energy, as well as presenting great requirements and opportunities for energy-efficient retrofits. This article introduces an approach tocommercial building retrofits that achieve large energy savings with attractive…
Green Footstep: Calculations and Data Sources
Green Footstep is an online assessment tool for reducing carbon emissions from building construction projects and is publicly available at greenfootstep.org. The Green Footstep tool guides the user through the process of life cycle carbon assessment, and then reveals how users can theoretically reduce the net carbon emissions. Some description…
Whole-Building Retrofits: A Gateway to Climate Stabilization
This paper discusses creative elements of deep whole-building retrofits. It discusses process and technique, how to select suitable buildings, the key players that must be involved, project development tasks the design team must complete, and tools and skills that engineers will need to acquire to comprehensively and cost-effectively retrofit the…