Blog - Page 2 of 41 - Smart Buildings Center

Join Us Next Week for Virtual Smart Buildings Week!

September 8, 2020 By Britton Rife

If you haven’t already, register to join us for Virtual Smart Buildings Week September 14^th-18^th, 2020! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday during the lunch hour (12-1 pm PT) a virtual session will feature an engaging panel discussion covering smart buildings topics including Using Data and Analytics to Improve Performance, Grid Enabled Efficient Buildings, Achieving Persistent Operational Performance, and Creating Intelligent Spaces. These one-hour sessions each qualify for 1 Building Operator Certification (BOC) credential maintenance point and 0.10 IACET CEUs towards the renewal of industry certifications, certificates and licenses including but not limited to AIA, PE, LEED, IFMA, ASHRAE, and AEE.

Register Now!

Watch the Smart Buildings Week Welcome Address from Rimes Mortimer, General Manager of Industry Innovation at Microsoft Corporation.

Building Tune-Up Accelerator Program – Final Technical Report Published

September 3, 2020 By Britton Rife

In 2016, as part of its Climate Action Plan, the City of Seattle passed a mandatory Building Tune-Ups requirement (SBTU) for commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet gross floor area, with a focus on optimizing energy and water performance by identifying low or no cost solutions related to building operations and maintenance.

The Tune-Up Accelerator (TUA) Program was an opportunity for building owners to meet the requirements early and receive incentives from the utilities for the corrective actions implemented to optimize building performance. 102 buildings completed the TUA program representing 6.9 million SF total and about 18% of the target market buildings with 50,000-100,000 SF. The final technical report for TUA program is published on the City of Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) website.

The Smart Buildings Center (SBC) was a program partner and served as a primary provider of training & curricula, Tool Lending Library (TLL) support, project tracking and help desk support for the Tune-Up Accelerator (TUA) Program.

SBC along with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and OSE led the development of the curriculum, which was centered around a customization of PNNL’s Building Re-tuning training for SBTU requirements. To track deliverables required by each participant and evaluate savings resulting from corrective actions taken by buildings, a robust custom database was created by SBC.

SBC also conducted Measurement & Verification (M&V) services on 10% of the participating building population which included onsite verification and data analysis. The aim of M&V was to evaluate the energy and cost savings resulting from energy measure implemented by the buildings.

Read more about the findings of the Building Tune-Up Accelerator Program in the final technical report here!

To Learn more about our Tool Lending Library, click here!

Proposed King County 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan Announced

September 3, 2020 By Britton Rife

The executive-proposed 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP) was transmitted by King County Executive Dow Constantine to the King County Council on August 27, 2020. The County Council will review and schedule public hearings to consider adoption of the SCAP this fall and winter. Read the full news release of the 2020 SCAP.

The SCAP is a five-year blueprint for County climate action, integrating climate change into all areas of County operations and work with King County cities, partners, communities, and residents. The SCAP outlines King County’s priorities and commitments for climate action for decision-makers, employees, partners, and the public.

The full proposed 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan is available to download. The three main sections are described here and each is available for individual download below.

Download the 2020 SCAP

Smart Buildings: Recommended Reading

August 26, 2020 By Britton Rife

The following excerpts are from recent building technology and facility management articles that capture some of the topics and questions that will be addressed during SBC’s Virtual Smart Buildings Week September 14-18. Learn more about the session topics and speakers here: https://www.smartbuildingscenter.org/smart-buildings-week/ and register for the virtual series here: https://virtualsmartbuildingsweek.eventbrite.com.

Memoori Article: Dumb Buildings are the Real Losers in a post-COVID World
COVID-19 is one of the most disruptive events human society has experienced in the last 75 years. Beyond the struggles of 2020, this harsh reminder of the biological threats we face will go on to reshape the way we live for years to come. At the center of this debate is commercial real estate (CRE) — the indoor environments where people of different households gather — where 50% to 100% drops in occupancy levels have been common for months. CRE must now adapt to a post-COVID world that will create new winners and losers to reshape the buildings industry forever. Continue reading

BUILDINGS.com Article: Data-Driven Building Design That Gives More Than It Takes
HDR’s Regenerative Design Framework moves beyond basic high-performance design toward renewal-focused impacts and metric-driven targets for carbon, water, nutrients, air, biodiversity, societal and health categories. This holistic approach is intended to flex to accommodate design projects of all sizes, typologies and performance levels.

Understanding that even today’s high-performance buildings have a negative impact on the environment and their occupants, HDR believes it’s time for a collective leap toward a regenerative future, where design has a “net-positive” impact on the environment. Continue reading

SBC Announces 2020 BOC Operator of the Year!

August 17, 2020 By Britton Rife

The Smart Buildings Center (SBC) and Building Operator Certification (BOC) program are proud to announce the 2020 BOC Operator of the Year: Ethan Godfrey, Building Coordinator for Hendricks Commercial Properties in Beloit, WI!

“The BOC program is well worth the time and opened my eyes to what I could provide for my company. If a company is truly serious about making an impact on their utility costs, they should find the right person in their organization and get them into the BOC program.” – Ethan Godfrey

Earlier this year, BOC requested nominations for people working to improve the energy efficiency of their work environment using skills they learned in the BOC program. We received many impressive nominations detailing how methods learned in BOC classes are helping people make improvements in their work environments, but Ethan’s story stood out among the rest.

In his role as Building Coordinator, Ethan is responsible for HVAC operations and energy saving projects within the Ironworks Campus in Beloit. BOC training equipped him with the necessary skills to identify energy saving measures and present a more proactive approach on energy saving projects. His other duties include BAS control adjustments, searching for available energy rebates and tax incentives, PM contract fulfillment for these systems and most importantly, utility monitoring and tracking of the energy use on campus.

Some of Ethan’s recent accomplishments include:

Implementing a more structured and strategic approach to energy management for Hendricks Commercial Properties.
Reducing overall utility costs by $50k or 13% in year one with zero or low-cost implementations; on pace to reach a 20% reduction in year two. These reductions were accomplished by:
- Making improvements to the campus’ building automation system (BAS) to realize the full energy-saving benefits it can provide (i.e. HVAC scheduling setbacks, temperature setpoint adjustments, etc.).
  - As a result of these improvements, the heating season’s work order\complaints for HVAC dropped by 60%.
- Implementing a more strategic boiler use adjustment which is already on pace to beat the energy savings from 2019. YTD is $29,200 in additional savings vs 2019 or 8.6%.
- Conducting lighting surveys for locations in the building that hadn’t been converted to LEDs.
  - Information about and costs to replace lighting were presented to management, rebates were utilized, and lighting was converted to LEDs which reduced wattage usage by 70% for that floor.

Ethan says these zero or low-cost improvements improve Hendricks Commercial Properties’ bottom line and allow the savings to be passed on to happy tenants in the form of lower bills.

The SBC and BOC program applaud Ethan on his efforts to improve the energy efficiency of Hendricks Commercial Properties’ operations and congratulate him on being named as 2020 BOC Operator of the Year!

Know someone who deserves recognition for their work in the industry? Nominations will open for the 2021 BOC Operator of the Year award in May, so stay tuned!

Register Now for Virtual Seattle Energy Benchmarking 101 Training on 9/1

August 17, 2020 By Britton Rife

The City of Seattle is offering a free online Energy Benchmarking 101 training for participants that are new to the benchmarking process, need a refresher, or need assistance with bringing their building into compliance.

When: September 1, 1:00 PM- 2:30 PM

The training is an opportunity for owners and mangers to learn the basics of how to accurately benchmark a building from start to finish and meet City of Seattle compliance requirements. This training is beneficial for those who have not yet submitted an annual benchmark report for this year, and those less familiar with benchmarking in Portfolio Manager, as it will give participants grounding in the benchmarking and reporting process, i.e. the multiple steps, the common pitfalls, as well as ways to confirm compliance and access technical help and resources.