Commercial Buildings Initiative
About Us
In this page:
Overview
A public/private consortium, working with DOE to develop and deliver technology, policies, and practices to achieve a market transition to Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings by 2030
Need and Opportunity
There is a growing consensus on the need for aggressive public and private action to deal with increasing energy costs and global climate change. In the U.S., buildings account for approximately 40% of total energy consumption and 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. About half of this is attributable to the commercial sector, and commercial building energy use is growing more rapidly than residential sector energy. Dramatic improvements in the energy performance of commercial buildings can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions more quickly and more cost-effectively than many other options – while helping reduce the impact of rising and increasingly volatile energy prices.
Many stakeholders, including industry and professional associations; voluntary high-performance building organizations; codes and standards organizations; and many leading utilities, state and local agencies, and private building designers, developers, owners and operators, and equipment manufacturers have all recognized the need for more aggressive and effective action.
Transforming the energy performance of commercial buildings requires a comprehensive and concerted industry effort, sufficient in scale to influence the more than $500B per year that the sector spends on new construction, renovation and energy. Achieving sector-wide transformation will require a focused, multi-year public/private initiative, including coordinated technology development, demonstration and deployment supported by major innovations in policy, financing, project design and delivery, and building energy management.
Congress and DOE Respond
In 2007, Congress created the Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative (CBI) as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act (§421, 422 et seq.). Officially launched by the Department of Energy (DOE) on August 5, 2008, the goal of the initiative is to “develop and disseminate technologies, practices, and policies for establishment of zero net energy commercial buildings.” Major milestones are achieving zero net energy buildings in:
- New commercial buildings by 2030;
- Fifty percent of all commercial building stock by 2040; and
- All commercial buildings by 2050.
Since 2007, with strong support from several advocacy organizations, the DOE FY09 budget for commercial buildings has grown to $33 million, with additional resources from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act demonstrating continued commitment to CBI goals at the federal level.
On October 1, 2009, DOE awarded a contract to the Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium to coordinate private and public sector involvement with DOE in technology and market assessments and other activities to help DOE accomplish the goals of CBI.
Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium
Led by a Steering Committee representing prominent national industry, NGO, and public organizations, the Consortium was formally launched in 2009 as the outgrowth of a multi-year organizing effort. The Consortium brings together a broad range of commercial building stakeholders to collaborate with DOE to accelerate technology innovation, process change, and market transformation to advance zero energy performance in new and existing commercial buildings. As a broad-based public/private partnership, the Consortium builds on the membership of the High-Performance Commercial Green Buildings Partnership, convened by ASHRAE in early 2009 in response to an earlier DOE invitation to form an industry advisory group. Consortium members will work with DOE to plan, coordinate, and assist in implementing a comprehensive strategy to transform energy performance in the commercial sector through:
- Innovation – Helping to identify and characterize promising new technologies, innovative market mechanisms, and effective public policies – and recommending priorities for technology R&D, demonstrations, and pilot programs.
- Demonstration – Proving that technologies, market mechanisms, and policies work and are well-documented prior to promoting their widespread deployment.
- Deployment – Helping to design, initiate, and evaluate deployment programs for proven energy- saving technologies that are promising but underutilized.
How You Can Get Involved
Membership in the Consortium is open to all organizations interested in advancing energy-efficient commercial building technologies, practices and policies. At present, there are over 100 public and private Consortium members, including building designers, owners and operators, financiers, manufacturers, state and regional policy makers and program planners, researchers, funding agencies and other stakeholders. We invite all interested parties to join us in planning strategic directions and future initiatives.
To join the Consortium, please contact:
Diana Lin
Alliance to Save Energy
dlin@ase.org
For all other inquiries, please contact:
Kate Marks
National Association of State Energy Offices
kmarks@naseo.org
Approach & Scope
Consortium Activities
The Consortium's initial task - subject to DOE approval of a proposal submitted in July 2009 - will be to compile and review data on current and emerging technologies, systems, and practices needed for zero-energy commercial buildings, and to work with DOE to identify and address the strategies to address cost reductions and non-cost barriers to widespread market adoption of these technologies.
But DOE's Commercial Buildings Initiative (CBI) is much more than just a research and development program. The goal is to transform the commercial buildings sector into one that routinely builds zero-energy buildings for every type of use - office towers (both client-owned and leased), industrial facilities, shopping malls, hospitals, schools, government facilities and the like.
The technology to build zero-energy commercial buildings exists today, but is expensive, and requires expertise that only a few players have. To make these buildings as common as conventional buildings are today will require a profound transformation in how everyone works - clients, architects and engineers, construction firms, financing institutions, the facilities managers and operational staffs who operate and maintain the completed buildings, and the teachers who train those who work in all of these vocations.
We envision, over the long term, the Consortium and its members working in five cross-cutting areas to assist DOE with the CBI initiative:
- Financing
- Technology
- Design and construction
- Operation
- Policy
Key to this process is the participation through the Consortium of a broad group of industry and stakeholder organizations , organized into thirteen topical working groups.
Who We Are
Chair
- Kate Marks, Managing Director
National Association of State Energy Officials
Steering Committee
- Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA)
- International Code Council (ICC)
- Association of State Energy Research and Technology Transfer Institutions (ASERTTI)
- American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- Alliance to Save Energy (Alliance)
- National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO)
- Illuminating Engineering Society (IES)
- North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA)
- Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI)
- U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
- New Buildings Institute (NBI)
- American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE)
- National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)
Ex-Officio Member
- U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy
Consortium Members
- A full list of members is available on the "Membership" page.