By Darren Bruce

This post highlights the important role that building commissioning must play in any Net Zero Energy strategy. A Net Zero Energy project is a building or group of buildings with significantly reduced energy loads, such that 100% or more of…

By Darren Bruce

Between the Omnibus Act and the Net Zero effort, Washington DC is taking a leadership role in energy performance and regulation. A few of the changes in energy performance for existing buildings requirements that are causing building owners, operators, and…

By Darren Bruce

When the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last August that it was going to update its ENERGY STAR rating system, the reaction was positive overall. After all, the 26-year-old rating system, which generates scores of one to 100 to…

By Darren Bruce

There’s a debate within the multifamily building community as to the best way to ventilate residential buildings. There are three competing design options that can be implemented in residential design: natural ventilation, mechanical ventilation, and a hybrid approach. What’s the…

By Darren Bruce

While performing a retro-commissioning process for an 870,000 ft2 outpatient hospital in the southeastern United States, dozens of Energy Conservation Measures were identified and presented to the facility managers. The facility manager had a modest budget to address these ECMs,…

By Darren Bruce

Anyone who owns or operates an existing building should be scheduling energy audits and/or retro-commissioning. Here’s why: Improving building energy performance reduces costs, lowers strain on shared community resources, and demonstrates a commitment to environmental stewardship. Local jurisdictions nationwide are…