Many organizations and government agencies have developed long term goals and used them as a form of motivational tool towards achieving a sustainable future without showing how to achieve their objectives. ASHRAE has established some very bold and aggressive energy use goals for the built environment and has followed-up with the development of advanced tools in the areas of energy conservation, building performance metrics, carbon emissions/footprint calculational tools. This presentation will highlight what has been done by ASHRAE and in some cases in collaboration with other professional organizations in developing the necessary technical guidance, educational tools and advanced engineering design tools that provide the basis for the Seven Stabilization Wedges that can be used now to reduce our CO2 emissions by 65%.

Many buildings that are claimed to be sustainable actually use more energy and natural resources than conventional, building-code constructed facilities. The ASHRAE Technology Awards winners are prime examples of what works and ten different applications that range from a few thousand square feet to over 50 million square feet are presented. The unique applications of conventional equipment in innovative and cost effective manners will provide information for future consideration for building owners, operation and maintenance personnel, technicians and design team members.

Energy efficient buildings that do not provide proper IAQ and comfort for its occupants are really failures. This presentation goes through guidance in the AEDG series coupled with advanced guidance from Standards 90.1, 62.1 and 55 in order to provide the design team with tactics that must be integrated into sustainable buildings as we march forward to Net-Zero Energy facilities. The presentation will provide specific guidance for building types and climatic regions that attendees will be familiar with.

The proliferation of building rating systems (LEED, Green Globes, BREEAM, etc…) by owners wanting sustainable buildings has produced both effective and ineffective performance around the world. ASHRAE’s Building Performance Steering Committee is overseeing state-of the-art building performance working groups that include representation from organizations around the world. The tools, products and educational series that will be developed will be presented along with insight into the development of ASHRAE’s first performance-based energy conservation guide that will eventually become either a standard of guideline. Also, the development of an IEQ Research-oriented Baseline that can be used to quantify how sustainable buildings - improve occupant performance, reduce recovery periods for medical procedures, improve retail sales, reduce number of “sick days” in offices, etc…will become the basis that propels sustainable buildings ahead of conventional buildings because of the global acceptance of the information within the database. Examples of information contained within the database will be presented to demonstrate the impact that a sustainable built-environment will have upon our future.

ASHRAE’s Vision 2020 Producing Net Zero Energy Buildings establishes a time-line to develop the necessary guidance to achieve Net-Zero Energy Buildings by 2020. The basis for this guidance will be the Advanced Energy Design Guides (AEDGs) series as well as publications pertaining to advanced Indoor Environmental Quality and Comfort. Today there are numerous examples of Net-Zero Energy Buildings as demonstrated during ASHRAE’s Net-Zero and Beyond Conference in 2009. This presentation will cover the guidance contained in the existing AEDG documents for different building types and climatic zones, IEQ design guidance for high performing buildings, along with examples of buildings that have successfully demonstrated 30%, 50% and greater savings over the requirements of 90.1 including various Net-Zero Energy facilities. Various levels of “Prescriptive Guidelines” will be provided for all building systems and components along with “Lessons Learned” by the participants who have achieved Net-Zero Energy Buildings.

The Existing Buildings comprise 98% of the building stock globally and are the primary reason that the CBECS Energy Utilization Indices (EUIs) have been steadily increasing since 1999. This presentation will present a comprehensive step-wise sequence for achieving various levels of increased energy efficiency from an existing building’s current EUI situation to a 15% or 30% improvement, to bringing the building to the level of energy efficiency up to the current 90.1 Standard requirements to an ultimate energy savings target of achieving a 30% increased energy efficiency over 90.1. Economic scenarios and business-case based examples will be presented for these various energy savings levels as well as detailed explanation of how the technical retro-commissioning process should be used to develop both short-term and long-term strategies in achieving the sought energy savings levels.

The realm of energy conservation, energy targets and high performance, sustainable buildings is presented in a succinct sequence for both architects and engineers. The basis for the presentation is how to implement an integrated design approach that achieves the energy and performance goals of an owner. Materials presented includes ASHRAE’s Energy Targets for Building Codes, ASHRAE’s Building Energy Quotient program, Building Systems’ Commissioning, successful applications of the design guidance provided in ASHRAE’s Advanced Energy Design Guides (AEDGs) for 30% and 50% savings over Building Code requirements, and how an integrated design approach is the vehicle by which “Net-Zero” energy facilities will be achieved. True “Net-Zero” applications, both nationally and internationally, will be presented along with the required ‘Technology Pathways’ for achieving Zero Energy and Beyond Buildings.

Even though the U.S. Building Codes are becoming more energy stringent, our country’s Energy Utilization Index (EUI) is rapidly increasing every year because only 5% of our commercial building stock is being built or renovated each year. This means that the remaining 95% of our commercial buildings are experiencing reduced energy performance each year. This trend in existing buildings can be changed by the implementation of a Technical (testing based) Retro-commissioning (RCx) program that incorporates technical energy audit procedures, measurements of building performance metrics, savings calculational procedures and corresponding financial analysis methodologies that building owners can understand and interpret for developing both short term and long term programs for building systems’ upgrades. Case studies are presented for various RCx projects that demonstrate the advantage of conducting a Technical RCx program and the merit of implementing an Ongoing Commissioning (OCx) program for a building owner to be able to maintain a sought level of building performance for an ongoing basis.

This presentation integrates the requirements of “The 2030 Challenge” with the methodologies of achieving a Sustainable Future that ASHRAE has developed along with the procedures of the various phases of an effective High Performance Integrated Design program that utilizes a technical commissioning approach to ensure the level of performance that the owner expects. To illustrate the presented design, construction and performance verification phases for high performance buildings’ projects, examples of applications that have proven performance levels (3+ years of recorded performance data) will be presented during the program. The materials that will be discussed will be based in part upon ASHRAE’S Advanced Energy Design Guides for 30% and 50% steps toward Net-Zero Energy Buildings. The culmination of the program will be the presentation of various pathways in a prescriptive format of achieving Net-Zero Energy Buildings.

This presentation provides an overview of an integrated Energy Audit and Retro-Commissioning approaches to identifying systems’ operational problems, the analysis of various options that include “quick fixes”, no-cost/low-cost measures and capital improvement recommendations that are presented in a priority ranking. The phases of activities presented will have special emphasis being placed on how to conduct, properly complete the documentation and financial analyses for Level 1 and Level 2 energy audits. The resolution of IEQ problems will incorporate guidance provided by the ASHRAE Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices that includes performance verification techniques through the implementation of the retro-commissioning process.