By Steve Rizer
ConstructionPro Week (CPW) has profiled 33 books, reports, and other publications relating to green buildings that a wide variety of organizations made available sometime after CPW’s last update on this front in June (CPW, June 7, 2013, “ConstructionPro Week Profiles 22 New Green Building Publications”).
Among the publications are the following:
Benefits and Costs of Energy Standard Adoption in New Commercial Buildings: State-by-State Summaries -- “Energy-efficiency requirements in current commercial building energy codes vary across states,” the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) stated in its summary of this publication. “Energy standards that are currently adopted by states range from ASHRAE 90.1 1999 to ASHRAE 90.1 2007. Some states do not have a code requirement for energy efficiency, leaving it up to the locality or jurisdiction to set their own requirements. NIST Special Publications (1147, 1148-1, 1148-2, 1148-3, and 1148-4) use the Building Industry Reporting and Design for Sustainability (BIRDS) database to analyze the impacts that the adoption of newer, more efficient commercial building energy codes would have on building energy use, operational energy costs, building life-cycle costs, and energy-related carbon emissions for each state by Census region. This study summarizes the results from the series of documents for each of the 50 states.” For additional information, visit http://www.nist.gov/manuscript-publication-search.cfm?pub_id=914711.
Market Opportunities for LEED v4 Materials Ingredients Credit -- For this publication, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) explained that “in order to map the current landscape of products available that can be used to earn LEED v4 MR [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Version 4 Materials and Resources] Credit Building Products Disclosure and Optimization - Material Ingredients, [we] engaged McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) to create a market analysis earlier this year, ‘Market Opportunities for the Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Program.’ MBDC used CSI MasterFormat divisions as an organization scheme. They first selected 12 product divisions for prioritization. Next, they selected five product categories (or subdivisions) from each of the 12 product divisions. For each of these product categories, currently available Cradle to Cradle Certified products were identified by MBDC. USGBC and MBDC gave priority to divisions with the following attributes: lack of available Cradle to Cradle certified products in the division; products with simple material compositions that use materials with little to no toxicity; [and] high potential for quickly increasing number of certified products. The report lists the top 50 product categories and approximate costs to certify a typical product. Tier I products have the highest priority because they are subdivisions with no certified products. The next tier includes products with one or two certified products. The lowest tier includes the categories that already have three or more certified products available.” For additional information, visit http://www.usgbc.org/resources/market-opportunities-leed-v4-materials-ingredients-credit.
ASHRAE GreenGuide: Design, Construction and Operation of Sustainable Buildings, 4th Edition -- “This fourth edition of ASHRAE GreenGuide is an easy-to-use reference with information on almost any subject that should be considered in green-building design,” according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. “The GreenTips found throughout this edition highlight techniques, processes, measures, or special systems in a concise, often-bulleted format. Also, information is provided in dual units -- Inch-Pound and International System -- so that the content is easily applicable worldwide. References and resources mentioned are listed at the end of each chapter for easy access.” For additional information, visit http://www.techstreet.com/ashrae/products/1866881.
Miscellaneous Energy Loads in Buildings -- “In this report, we attempt to define and characterize the energy use of electric and gas miscellaneous loads associated with commercial and residential buildings, identify the biggest among them, and suggest initial strategies for improving the efficiency of energy use,” the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy stated. For additional information, visit http://aceee.org/research-report/a133.
Profiles of all 33 publications are included in the ConstructionPro Network member version of this article.
