Measure 6: DESIGN FOR ENERGY
Sustainable design conserves energy and resources and reduces the carbon footprint while improving building performance and comfort. Sustainable design anticipates future energy sources and needs.
Narrative: How does the design seek to decrease the total energy use and carbon footprint of the building? Emphasize strategies to reduce heating and cooling loads, reduce electricity demand, reduce plug loads, and generate on-site carbon free energy.. Describe your approach towards achieving carbon neutrality.
May include:
- How the design reduces energy loads for heating, cooling, lighting, and water heating
- How the design and integration of building systems contributes to energy conservation and reduced use or elimination of fossil fuels, reduces green house gas emissions and other pollution, and improves building performance and comfort.
- Use of on-site renewable and alternative energy systems.
- Strategies to reduce peak electrical demand.
- How the design remains functional during power outages or interruptions in fuel supply
Graphic: Open
Metric: Total energy use intensity (EUI) in kBtu/sf/yr: (build a simple energy model to calculate EUI using DesignBuilder, ArchSim, HoneyBee, eQuest, Sefaira, Autodesk® Insight 360, or another energy modeling program); Energy generation (if any) in kWh/yr: (use PVWatts® Calculator or solar-estimate.org for solar or wind); Net EUI (with renewables if applicable).
Measure 7: DESIGN FOR WELLNESS
Sustainable design creates comfort, health, and wellness for people who inhabit or visit buildings.
Narrative: Discuss design strategies for optimizing daylight, indoor air quality, connections to the outdoors, and thermal, visual, and acoustical comfort.
May include:
- How does design promote the health of the occupants?
- How does design promote activity or exercise, access to healthy food choices, etc.
- Outline of material health strategies, including selection strategies
- Design strategies for daylighting, task lighting, and views
- Design strategies for ventilation, indoor air quality, and personal control systems
- How the project’s design enhances users’ connectedness to nature
- Design team approach to integration of natural systems and appropriate technology
Suggested Graphic: Model photos, drawings or diagrams of daylight and ventilation strategies; test models.
Metric: Percent of the building that can be daylit (only) during occupied hours; Percent of floor area with views to the outdoors; Percent of floor area within 15 ft. of an operable window. Daylight performance using the following concepts: Daylight Availability, or Annual Sunlight Exposure along with Spatial Daylight Autonomy: % of regularly occupied area achieving at least 300 lux at least 50% of the annual occupied hours.
Measure 8: DESIGN FOR RESOURCES
Sustainable design includes the informed selection of materials and products to reduce product life-cycle embodied energy and carbon, and environmental impacts while enhancing building performance and optimizing occupant health and comfort. Adaptive reuse and renovation/preservation dramatically reduces a buildings material consumption and carbon footprint.
Narrative: Describe the project’s construction, material selection criteria, considerations and constraints. What efforts were made to reduce the amount of material used and waste and the environmental impact of materials over their lifetime? Discuss specific materials used.
May include:
- Efforts to reduce the amount of material used on the project
- Materials selection criteria, considerations, and constraints for: optimizing health, durability, maintenance, and energy use reducing the impacts of extraction, manufacturing, and transportation
- Enclosure performance in relation to air, moisture, water and thermal characteristics
- Consideration of life cycle embodied energy and carbon impacts and results of life-cycle assessment if available
- Construction waste reduction plans; strategies to promote recycling during occupancy
Suggested Graphic: Wall section of the building envelope design and either a hygro-thermal analysis or life cycle assessment.
Metric: Estimated carbon emissions associated with building construction (lbs CO2/sf, using The Construction Carbon Calculator, Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings, Tally®, or other)
Measure 9: DESIGN FOR CHANGE
Sustainable design anticipates adapting to new uses, climate change, and resilient recovery from disasters.
Narrative: Describe how the design promotes long-term flexibility, re-use, adaptability, and resilience.
May include:
- How the project was designed to promote long-term functionality and adaptability
- Anticipated project service life; description of components designed for disassembly
- Materials, systems, and design solutions developed to enhance versatility, durability, and adaptive reuse potential
- How does the design anticipate restoring or adapting function in the face of stress or shock, such as natural disasters, blackouts, etc.?
- How does the project address passive survivability (providing habitable conditions in case of loss of utility power or water)?
- How the project anticipates and celebrates weathering over time
- How does design for address adaptive climate: conditions in 2030 and in fifty years
Suggested Graphic: Specific hazard and climate analysis for project.
Measure 10: DESIGN FOR DISCOVERY
Sustainable design strategies and best practices evolve over time through documented performance and shared knowledge of lessons learned.
Narrative: What steps would you take to ensure that the building performs the way that it is designed? What lessons have you learned from this project that you will apply to the next project? What lessons have you learned from past projects that were applied to this project?
May include:
- Modeling and evaluation of the design during the programming and design phases
- Collaborative efforts between design team, consultants, client, and community
- Lessons learned during the design of the building
- How these lessons would change your approach to this project or future projects
- A question that would be investigated in a post-occupancy evaluation of this project
Graphic: Open