As climate change heats classrooms across the nation, school districts are facing millions in added costs to install, operate and maintain HVAC systems.
The AEC sectors face a pivotal opportunity: retrofitting existing buildings to reduce carbon emissions.
Recent advancements in technology have made daylighting as a dominant interior daytime light source a priority in commercial building design, especially in retrofits.
Glenn Piotrowski Architect opted to use insulated metal panels (IMPs) on both buildings due to their design flexibility and thermal efficiency benefits. 31,000 square-feet of IMPs Installed by Frost Building Systems, Inc. gave the building a sleek, modern aesthetic.
Indoor air quality and energy efficiency are critical considerations in building design as more people become aware of their impact on health and productivity. They’re also intricately linked — a well-sealed structure with effective ventilation maintains fresh air and minimizes electricity waste.
Through public resources such at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Portfolio manager, property owners have the ability to benchmark the performance of their building assets against other buildings of the same property type and region.
The development’s fossil-fuel-free design is expected to use 46 percent less energy and emit 33 percent fewer greenhouse gases than a typical gas-fired multifamily structure. The energy efficient design, including heat pumps and energy recovery systems, will save 177 metric tons of avoided greenhouse gas emissions each year.
As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $90 million in competitive awards to help states, cities, Tribal Nations, and their partners implement updated energy codes for residential and commercial buildings.
Commercial buildings consumed 18 percent of all energy used in the U.S. in 2022. Architects are fully aware that savings can be made using a variety of different retrofit measures. Too often, however, they cannot financially justify those projects because they can’t reliably forecast the potential savings.