ConstructionAdvisorToday

Formal Launch of France GBC Progresses

The World Green Building Council (World GBC) earlier this month reported that a GBC representing France "is being constituted gradually."

Among the organizations putting the France GBC together are Effinergie Association, HQE Association, Qualitel Association, Resobat Association, CSTB, Afnor Group, and the French Insitute for Energy Performance in Buildings. France Green Building Council is also supported by "Plan Batîment Grenelle," the national French state task force for greening the building industry.

Advances Reported in Various Green Building Computer Programs, BIM

Several entities recently announced developments involving green building programs and building information modeling (BIM) technology. Such entities include Integrated Environmental Solutions Ltd. (IES), GreenWizard Inc., InPro Corp., and the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA).

IES, a provider of integrated performance analysis software and consulting services for sustainable building design, June 22 released version 6.1 of its software suite, called "V6.1 of the IES Virtual Environment (VE) suite."

GreenGuard Environmental Institute Opens Asia-Pacific Headquarters in China

GreenGuard Environmental Institute (GEI) has debuted overseas operations in Beijing, China, serving the Asia-Pacific market with opportunities to certify products for their indoor environmental qualities. GEI considers this a "major move toward global expansion."

Michigan Community-Based Organization Receives $250,000 to Build 30 Green Housing Units

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced that Washtenaw County, Mich., will receive a $250,000 grant to produce 30 new affordable green rental units in Ann Arbor.

The county will use Avalon Housing Inc., a community-based affordable housing developer, to create these new apartments, which will feature a sustainable site design, water-conserving fixtures, energy-efficient appliances/lighting, and environmentally friendly building materials.

Funding will come from HUD's HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which is believed to be the nation's largest block grant program to support the production of affordable housing.

Collaborative for High Performance Schools Unveils Operations Report Card

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) recently introduced the Operations Report Card (ORC), an online tool that benchmarks current performance, analyzes existing conditions, and recommends environmentally preferable improvements for existing school buildings.

The new program allows both high- and low-performance schools to benchmark their current performance and receive suggestions for improvement in energy efficiency, thermal comfort, visual comfort, acoustics, and indoor air quality. ORC development was funded by a grant from the California Energy Commission. ORC combines facilities data, system and classroom measurements, and occupant surveys to generate report card scores and recommended improvements.

New Report Analyzes the Cost of LEED-New Construction

BuildingGreen LLC last month announced the release of a report examining the costs of meeting the standards of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction (LEED-NC) rating system.

For the first time, cost information on hundreds of specific technologies and approaches that teams are using to earn points in the current LEED-NC rating system is available in a credit-by-credit format, BuildingGreen stated. The report is entitled "The Cost of LEED: A Report on Cost Expectations to Meet LEED-NC v2009."

Cleantech Releases Comprehensive Analysis of Energy-Efficiency Innovations in Office Buildings

Steve Rizer, Editor
Green Building Insider

The research and advisory firm Cleantech Group has released a comprehensive analysis of energy efficiency innovations in commercial office buildings. The report, "As Energy Efficiency Booms, Buildings Get a Brain," was produced through research and interviews with corporations, investors, early stage ventures, and industry influencers.

"Our analysis shows that energy efficiency is poised to overtake solar as a top investment category in 2010, and commercial buildings represent a prime target," Cleantech President Sheeraz Haji said. "Lower investment costs, financial incentives, and faster payback periods are fueling product competition as data-driven technologies battle over the building's brain."

Concrete Sustainability Group Reveals Goals, Initiatives

The Concrete Joint Sustainability Initiative (Concrete JSI) recently unveiled its 2010 goals and initiatives to align sustainable development activities within the concrete industry.

Formed last year, Concrete JSI is a group of 26 concrete associations dedicated to promoting the sustainable attributes of concrete as a building material. Initially chartered by the American Concrete Institute, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, and the Portland Cement Association (PCA), the group was formed to align advocacy, technology, and educational resources related to concrete sustainability. 

CSI GreenFormat Links Added to BSD SpecLink

The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and Building Systems Design Inc. (BSD) recently announced that the latest update to the BSD SpecLink automated specification writing software includes hundreds of hyperlinks connecting individual specification sections with relevant "green" product information in CSI's GreenFormat web-based database.

Sustainable Forestry Initiative Blasts USGBC's Forest Certification Policy

Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) has urged the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to "end a forest certification policy that discriminates against North American forests and against most of the independent forest certification standards used in the U.S. and Canada." SFI made its request after USGBC released for public comment a third round of draft benchmarks to evaluate forest certification programs.