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Nominations are now open for the 2010 BetterBricks Awards! The BetterBricks Awards salute the individuals leading the way for high performance commercial buildings with an emphasis on energy efficiency. From the building owners who pay for them, to the designers and engineers who design them, to the...

Recent dramatic changes in the marketplace have resulted in new and growing concerns for building owners: Soaring energy costs are causing operational costs to climb. Growing awareness of environmental concerns is putting pressure on building owners. Attracting good tenants (and talent) is becoming more...

Download a PDF of the page Introduction Creating a best-practice operation-and-maintenance (O&M) program increases the efficiency of facility staff, improves building operational practices, and reduces utility costs. The O&M process helps sustain a building's profitability by reducing costly...

Introduction Activities that improve a building’s energy performance fall into four general categories: enhanced O&M building tune-up commissioning capital projects Best-Practice O&M Program discusses elements of enhanced operation and maintenance (O&M). This document describes the...

High performance schools don't have to cost more. The key is to bring your school's administrators and occupants (students and staff) and your design and construction team together early and create a plan for your high performance school. Please note, the links in this article take you to case...

Download a PDF of this interview Note: The tools and resources discussed in this interview can be found under the Hospital & Healthcare section of the BetterBricks website. Mike Hatten is an internationally known engineer, recognized for his expertise in building energy efficiency and is a principal...

Mechanical equipment in buildings, such as boilers, air-handling units, and motors varies greatly in age, size, type, model, fuel used, and condition. Operating and maintaining that equipment properly ensures that it uses energy as efficiently as possible. Our objective is to present the following types...

When it comes to energy use, grocery stores have traditionally been the hungriest of energy hogs. How else can you chill the ice cream, bake the bread and light the shopping aisles, you ask? Actually, a growing number of newly constructed supermarkets are emerging leaner and more efficient than ever...

By Brad Weaver, Northwest Energy Consulting Occupants in one part of the buildings complain that they are too cold. In another part of the building they are too hot. You, the building engineer get blamed for it all. You know there's a problem, a symptom, but you don't have a clue as to its cause...

By Kelly M. Kirkland, CSBA, O'Brien & Company The fourth grade classrooms are too warm. A motor is broken. The vice principal's office is stuffy. A louver is stuck. What happens when problems like this crop up in most school districts? How do they impact the building's energy use? How...

You may notice possible symptoms of poor energy performance in your building. For example, a chilled-water pump might operate significantly more hours than the chiller. You then face the task of finding and resolving the underlying cause of the symptom. The cause of the symptom may in fact be a problem...

By John Jennings , BetterBricks Market Manager, New Construction The recent press release by NAIOP (now known as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association) attempts to throw cold water on the growing momentum for sustainable energy efficient buildings. They assert that increases of energy efficiency...

Performance indicators help you evaluate the energy efficiency of your building. For example, you can see if your building uses more energy per square foot than similar buildings, or you can spot suspicious seasonal or daily spikes in energy use. Please note that the links below take you to specific...

Written by Jeff Cole, Konstrukt, Inc. for BetterBricks Using Integrated Design for Achieving Highly Energy Efficient Buildings Integrated Design is a process that can be widely applied across many elements important to building development. It is this wide applicability which makes it attractive to designers...