Performance vs Promise in Green Movement

It's one thing to follow prevailing rules for constructing a LEED-approved commercial building, but it's quite another if that same building doesn't live up to its environmental and energy-saving pledge. HVAC and electrical systems powered in part by solar or geothermal energy must perform at optimum levels to reduce their carbon output, or there's no point in using them in the first place.

In Building + Design Network, author and engineer Jerry Yudelson challenges the world's building teams to "think big" when it comes to designing commercial structures that are truly green. He cites as an example Switzerland's 92,000-sq-ft Forum Chriesback apartment complex, which was not only engineered as a sustainable building but consumes only as much energy as two single-family homes.

"The great hope," Yudelson writes, "is that ever-greener buildings can help lead us out of the current problem of excessive and growing carbon levels in the atmosphere, provided they in fact dramatically reduce energy use."

While engineers have made drastic improvements in the quality and effectiveness of the carbon-reducing energy systems in our commercial structures, perhaps not enough progress is being made to avoid what Yudelson calls "catastrophic climate change." He points out that even some LEED-award-winning structures are only reducing carbon emission output by 25%.

As an engineer or contractor, what are some of your ideas for improving the real performance — versus the promise — of green buildings?

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