Daniel Overbey

Although much has been said and written regarding the IRA and what it does and does not accomplish, the implications for the building design and construction industry may remain unclear. 

According to the latest determinations issued by the U.S. Department of Energy, ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2019 would achieve greater energy efficiency in commercial buildings compared to the previous edition (2016) of the standard.

CO2 concentrations are frequently a point of concern in the context of indoor air quality. It is relatively easy to measure and is commonly included in indoor air quality monitoring procedures.

We learned about it in middle school science class: the earth is comprised of carbon-based lifeforms. However, there is a name for the carbon that all living things embody: biogenic carbon.

We have a carbon equivalent of an EUI. Now, we need to be more aware, explicit, and consistent regarding the units we are using for operational and embodied carbon.

Designing a building such that its interiors may allow for passive survivability and the ability for occupants to shelter in place during an extreme temperature event can be assessed using the standard effective temperature (SET) metric.

Over 1,100 firms have joined the AIA 2030 Commitment to date. According to AIA's latest annual report AIA, 417 firms submitted data on 20,652 projects, accounting for a 50 percent decrease in predicted energy use intensity.

Project teams are considering additional dimensions of carbon emissions resulting from a building project, including carbon emissions from water consumption, waste generation, occupant transportation, and the embodied carbon of materials used to build the project. 

With increasing evidence of a shifting climate, many building project teams are confronting the compounded threat of increasingly severe heat waves and the vulnerability of our country's electrical grid.

Despite evidence of changing climate, in the United States it is still common for building project teams to reference U.S. Climate Normals derived from three consecutive decades of historic data for broad-based climate analyses and to utilize Typical Meteorological Year datasets for building energy modeling exercises.