Background
NEED
Buildings in the U.S. account for about 40 percent of both energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (DOE EIA 2010). With commercial building accounting for half of that energy, a public-private partnership was needed to “reshape the overall ‘invest – design – build – operate’ playing field for commercial buildings so that zero energy buildings become the expected norm in less than 25 years”.
RESPONSE
The Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC) was created in 2009 to address the need for a coordinated, broad-based industry/ government effort to move the entire commercial sector over time, both new buildings and existing stock, to “net-zero” levels of energy performance. The effort must be sufficient in scale to influence the more than $600 billion that commercial building owners spend each year on new construction, renovation, and energy.
Recognizing that transforming the energy performance of commercial buildings is one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to slow greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while also reducing the impact of rising and increasingly volatile energy prices, several leading organizations(1) prepared the first draft of the Commercial Buildings Initiative Action Plan and convened a series of meetings, starting in October 2006 and culminating in a one-day public workshop in December 2007 with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.
TIMELINE
2007: Congress creates the Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative (CBI) as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act (§421, 422 et seq.)
2008: U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) officially launches the CBI with the goal to “develop and disseminate technologies, practices, and policies for establishment of zero net energy commercial buildings.”
2009: Led by a Steering Committee representing prominent national industry, NGO, and public organizations, the Consortium was formally launched as the outgrowth of a multi-year organizing effort.
2010: Within a year of its launch, the CBC has attracted over 400 member organizations, two thirds of which are active Working Group members.
Working Group members contribute by identifying key barriers and recommendations in their topical area for the CBC’s reports to DOE.
2011: The CBC rang its second year with the release of the two CBC reports on technologies and market/policy. Throughout it’s second year the CBC continued to grow to over 500 member organizations.
2012: In the third year, the CBC will be developing a commercial building emerging technology agenda and plan and continue to support DOE with input on DOE’s High-Performance Green Buildings Clearinghouse.
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(1) Alliance to Save Energy (Alliance); American Institute of Architects (AIA); American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE); US Green Building Council (USGBC); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).