Buildings
Achieving Passivhaus Standard in North America: Lessons Learned
To help mitigate climate change, the incremental approach to making homes and buildings less bad or 30% better than code is not going to work. We need aggressive, actionable solutions now. The Passive House standard (Passivhaus in German) is one of the world’s most aggressive, proven, voluntary approaches to radical…
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…
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…
GSA Net Zero Renovation Challenge Charrette
The General Services Administration (GSA), Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings (OFHPGB) and the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) have launched an effort to enhance and increase the usage of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) on GSA buildings. Rocky Mountain Institute and GSA convened a workshop in 2011 in…
Green Footstep: Calculations and Data Sources
Green Footstep accounts for the carbon emissions from three aspects: site development, construction, and operation.